The Linguistic Culture-5 (USA-1) (1157932), страница 27
Текст из файла (страница 27)
An endless procession ofcommercials on the same theme, all showing women using household products in thehome, raises very strong implications that women have no other interests except laundry,dishes, waxing floors, and fighting dirt in any form. Seeing a great many suchadvertisements in succession reinforces the traditional stereotype that women’s place isonly in the home.Ask anybody in advertising why commercials still show a woman bumbling around in afearful daze, and you’ll find always the same answer: “Because our research tells us it isso”.
Agencies devote hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out who’s buying theirclient’s stuff and why. Marketing researchers dissect and analyze the buying habits,educational and income levels of every member of the family. They even know what we dowith our leisure time, our. life-style data- activities, interests, and opinions. All these servesto get inside women’s heads in order to get inside their pocketbooks.You are probably quite sure that commercials have absolutely no effect on you. Maybethey don’t. But a shaken agency copywriter told me the first word his child spoke was“McDonald’s”.From “Literary Portraits»On AdvertisementsI am ready to bet that in your naivety you believe that advertising is the art of keepingcertain brands permanently in due public eye.
This is a misconception. Advertising - as Iread somewhere - is the art of convincing people that they want certain things they do notwant at all, of making them dissatisfied with everything they have; of making themthoroughly unhappy.Advertisements in America are ubiquitous. They fill the newspapers and cover thewalls; they are on picture- cards and in your daily post, on pamphlets and on match boxes.They are shouted through loud speakers And shown in the cinemas. They are flashedelectrically and written on the sky by airplanes and whispered in front of your windowwhile you sleep so that you should dream of toothpaste, shoe polishes and soap flakes.What are the special ways of making people particularly unhappy?Repetition. If you hear these 5 letters: L.S.M.F.T.
for the first time in your life, youremain cool and unimpressed L.S.M.F.T(Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco). “And whatthen?” you say. It is not funny, it is not witty, and in fact it is simple, silly and flat. Thenyou try to find the President’s latest speech in the newspaper but you cannot find it. Youfind these 5 letters instead, L.S.M.F.T.
You travel on the subway and try to think of a replyto an important and annoying letter you have received but you cannot think of anything,because wherever you look you see only 5 letters: L.S.M.F.T. Then you take a walk incomparative solitude, thinking of your beloved, and suddenly a neon advertisement flashesinto your eyes: L.S.M.F.T. You want to write a poem on the uselessness and vanity ofworldly pleasures but you only write down 50 times: Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco.If you try to recite the alphabet you are sure to slip up: g, h, I, j, k, l, s, m, f, t…At this stagethe advertisement has achieved its purpose. You will then and there take a solemn oath thatwhatever should happen in the future, however long you may live, you would do withoutsmoking altogether than put one single Lucky Strike into your mouth.Logical Conclusions . Advertisements have a special logic of their own.
They tell you byUUimplication that if you use a certain orange squeezer in your kitchen, you remain young,lovely and beautiful; if you wash with a certain soap, you become rich; if you wear acertain type of underwear you inherit a large sum from a wealthy uncle and if use only aspecial kind of tomato ketchup you learn foreign languages more easily.The Empire of Soap OperasEvery country has the radio and t.v. service it deserves…American radio and televisionis the reverse of the Shakespearean stage.
In Shakespeare’s time the world’s greatest dramaswere acted with the most primitive technical arrangements; on the American air the world’smost primitive writing is performed under perfect technical conditions.. Public opinion, taste and culture are led and directed by laxative, cigarette, and soap andcheese companies, which buy the time on the radio and television, during which they try toconvince you that their laxative is tastier, more efficient, cheaper and more beautiful to look atthan any other laxative in the world. To fill up time between two commercials, they hire somecomedians who crack a number of stale jokes and laugh at them themselves, loudly andheartily.
Of course, some of them are funny and amuse you most of the time, but these arevery rare exceptions.This system was hailed as the real freedom. No state control, they boasted, no censorship.Some keen observers, however, noticed the real aim of laxative firms was not to raise thecultural standard of the nation but to sell more laxatives to people whether they needed themor not. In this they succeeded; and the result is American broadcasting.Everybody and everything is ‘Hooperated’. All radio performers and writers depend on Mr.C.E.
Hooper’s Hooper Ratings. Hooper speaks on behalf of thirty-five million Americanfamilies, and has nearly thousand employees who ring up people, trying to find out what theylisten to. America is a scientific country. Mr. Hooper’s assistants ring up people day andnight, collect answers to relevant and irrelevant questions put in a skilful or clumsy way, issuestatistics by the score and state extremely scientifically that a song called Open the DoorRichard is 137 times more popular than Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and chats on ‘How Ilike my cheese and why’ are 217.08 times better liked than A Midsummer Night’s Dream byW. Shakespeare.One of the popular programs is Quiz.
A few t.v. viewers make fool of themselves in oneway or another and in return they receive prizes. And what prizes! Whenever you see a personcarrying a refrigerator or a piano on his back or leading a camel through the streets of NewYork, you may rest assured that he has just won a quiz prizeA special feature in American broadcasting is the soap opera. One of the most popularexample is the Romance of Helen Trent. Miss Trent is just an average American girl. She hasbeen thirty-two for the last two decades. She is intelligent, beautiful and employed as adesigner by one of the Hollywood film companies.
In spite of the fact that she is beggedevery week to become a film star she has never been. She solves life’s problems for anyonewho happens to come near her or pass down the street in front of her window. These areusually grave and momentous problems. There is for example a young man who has charmingmanners and an admirable character. He is a graduate of Princeton University, has an incomeof four million dollars per year, loves Helen Trent’s colleague madly.
She loves him too, andtheir parents agree to the marriage – what are they to do? Everybody is at a loss until Helen,with a few simple, calm, wise words arranges their lives and separates them forever.From George Mikes “ How to Scrape Skies”1. Answer the questions.:1.What are the major broadcasting networks in the USA?2.Which American newspapers and magazines do you know?3.Do you think that now people get more news from the Internet than from traditional sources?4.How much of TV and radio air time is given to commercials in the USA and in Russia?5.What is the main function of commercials?6.Why is advertising called a fine art sometimes?7.What effects do TV commercials use?8.What is the origin of “soap-operas”?9.Is there anything positive about soaps?10.What do you think of the T.V. and internet influence on young children?2. Find the English equivalents corresponding to the Russian ones:1.
Oсвещать какое-либо событие в прессе; 2. представлять новости объективно и вясномизложении; 3. малоформатная газета со сжатым текстом и многимииллюстрациями; 4. аудитория, имеющая одинаковые возрастные и социальныехарактеристики; 5. место (в газете), отводимое рекламе; 6. занимать позицию покакому-либовопросу;7.обеспечиватьобъективноеосвещениесобытий;8.предоставлять одинаковое время (на радио и телевидении).3. Discussion problems:1.Television and radio are one of the most powerful forces for good or evil in modern life.2.
“Detailed information about television content can help us make informed choices”.3.The televiewers have a right to control television content if the content is harmful to society.4.Television, internet and young generation.Chapter VIII.LIFESTYLESRead and translate the following words and word combination:to make generalization aboutto make observations ona forbearto bear witness tothe melting potto save facethe need for self-reliancenewlywedsdaily essentialsamenitieseconomically pressuredbatteredneed for self-reliancehome choresto meet challengeshectic lifea groundbreakerwilly-nillynew means of locomotionto wind up drivingto be renownedgentilityunderstated quipa pun (on)to give ample prooftwo-tiered highwayskindlyquipIt is very difficult to make generalizations about American characters or lifestyles, asthe diversity of patterns of American life is really great.
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