82. Can advertising tell you a lot about a country?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Advertising can tell you a lot about a country.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

『分析』

同意这个观点更容易写一些。陈述立场后，说明广告是怎样反映一个国家的历史、文化、以及其他情况的。

通过比较来说明更容易写一些，比如：

中国，与10年前相比，广告中的女性数量变多了，暴露的程度也提高了。说明人们的观念，以及社会

的观念发生了变化。

中国与欧美国家相比，中国广告中药物广告数量特别多。说明这方面的法制还有待改善。

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『范文』

Advertising does not mean to educate or illustrate. Primarily it is a vehicle for business and it aims to sell

products. As a result, the information we can gather from looking at advertisings is quite limited. However, the

cultural ideas used to sell commodities reveal a society's value system, and from the nature of the advertising and

the product it aims to sell we can draw conclusions as to which social demography might be the most affluent.

In order to be most effective an advertising campaign will make use of the cultural values of a country.

Obviously, companies will be able to sell more products if a great many people relate to the goods and the images

used to sell them. For example, in a country like the United States where a great percentage of the population is

religious, advertisers use expressions such as heavenly, divine, or revelation, because these have connotations that

prospective customers will likely identify with. Similarly, advertisers will try to employ fashion models who

embody a culture's ideals of personal beauty, because attractive men and women will sell more products than

unattractive ones.

Companies identify social demographics or parts of society that are most likely to buy their products and

design their advertisings accordingly. For example, teenage girls are more likely to buy mobile phones than

retired factory workers. Thus companies will make use of fashion trends in their ads and probably pay a famous

pop singer a big chunk of money to endorse their product. If the majority of all advertisings in a country are geared

towards a specific target market or audience, then this part of the population probably has the most financial

resources at their disposal.

Although we can learn some things about a country by looking at its advertising we have to remember that

this knowledge is limited. After all, advertising is only directed at people who have the means to buy consumer

goods. Thus advertising does not tell us anything about the overall prosperity or likes and dislikes of a country.

Also, advertising not only reflects but also tries to shape and change cultural values. Therefore, it does not

accurately reflect the exact state of a country's culture.