Беликова Е.К., Саратовская Л.Б. - The United Kingdom and United States of America in Past and Present (1268141), страница 42
Текст из файла (страница 42)
Marketing researchers dissectand analyze the buying habits, educational and income levels of every memberof the family. They even know what we do with our leisure time, our. life-styledata- activities, interests, and opinions. All these serves to get inside women’sheads in order to get inside their pocketbooks. You are probably quite sure thatcommercials have absolutely no effect on you. Maybe they don’t. But a shakenagency copywriter told me the first word his child spoke was “McDonald’s”.From “Literary Portraits”2.
On Advertisements. I am ready to bet that in your naivety you believe thatadvertising is the art of keeping certain brands permanently in due public eye.This is a misconception. Advertising - as I read somewhere - is the art ofconvincing people that they want certain things they do not want at all, ofmaking them dissatisfied with everything they have; of making them thoroughlyunhappy. Advertisements in America are ubiquitous. They fill the newspapersand cover the walls; they are on picture- cards and in your daily post, onpamphlets and on match boxes. They are shouted through loud speakers And164shown in the cinemas.
They are flashed electrically and written on the sky byairplanes and whispered in front of your window while you sleep so that youshould dream of toothpaste, shoe polishes and soap flakes. What are the specialways of making people particularly unhappy?Repetition. If you hear these 5 letters: L.S.M.F.T. for the first time in your life,you remain cool and unimpressed L.S.M.F.T(Lucky Strike Means FineTobacco). “And what then?” you say.
It is not funny, it is not witty, and in fact itis simple, silly and flat. Then you try to find the President’s latest speech in thenewspaper but you cannot find it. You find these 5 letters instead, L.S.M.F.T.You travel on the subway and try to think of a reply to an important andannoying letter you have received but you cannot think of anything, becausewherever 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 neonadvertisement flashes into your eyes: L.S.M.F.T. You want to write a poem onthe uselessness and vanity of worldly pleasures but you only write down 50times: 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 stage the advertisement has achieved its purpose.
You will then andthere take a solemn oath that whatever should happen in the future, however longyou may live, you would do without smoking altogether than put one singleLucky Strike into your mouth.Logical Conclusions Advertisements have a special logic of their own. They tellyou by implication that if you use a certain orange squeezer in your kitchen, youremain young, lovely and beautiful; if you wash with a certain soap, you becomerich; if you wear a certain type of underwear you inherit a large sum from awealthy uncle and if use only a special kind of tomato ketchup you learn foreignlanguages more easily3. The Empire of Soap Operas.
Every country has the radio and TV. service itdeserves…American radio and television is the reverse of the Shakespeareanstage. In Shakespeare’s time the world’s greatest dramas were acted with themost primitive technical arrangements; on the American air the world’s mostprimitive writing is performed under perfect technical conditions.Public opinion, taste and culture are led and directed by laxative, cigarette, andsoap and cheese companies, which buy the time on the radio and television,during which they try to convince you that their laxative is tastier, more efficient,cheaper and more beautiful to look at than any other laxative in the world.
To fillup time between two commercials, they hire some comedians who crack anumber of stale jokes and laugh at them themselves, loudly and heartily. Ofcourse, 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 statecontrol, they boasted, no censorship. Some keen observers, however, noticed thereal aim of laxative firms was not to raise the cultural standard of the nation but165to sell more laxatives to people whether they needed them or not.
In this theysucceeded; and the result is American broadcasting.Everybody and everything is ‘Hooperated’. All radio performers and writersdepend on Mr. C.E. Hooper’s Hooper Ratings. Hooper speaks on behalf ofthirty-five million American families, and has nearly thousand employees whoring up people, trying to find out what they listen to. America is a scientificcountry. Mr. Hooper’s assistants ring up people day and night, collect answers torelevant and irrelevant questions put in a skilful or clumsy way, issue statisticsby the score and state extremely scientifically that a song called Open the DoorRichard is 137 times more popular than Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and chatson ‘How I like my cheese and why’ are 217.08 times better liked than AMidsummer Night’s Dream by W.
Shakespeare.One of the popular programs is Quiz. A few T.V. viewers make fool ofthemselves in one way or another and in return they receive prizes. And whatprizes! Whenever you see a person carrying a refrigerator or a piano on his backor leading a camel through the streets of New York, you may rest assured that hehas just won a quiz prizeA special feature in American broadcasting is the soap opera. One of the mostpopular examples is the Romance of Helen Trent.
Miss Trent is just an averageAmerican girl. She has been thirty-two for the last two decades. She isintelligent, beautiful and employed as a designer by one of the Hollywood filmcompanies. In spite of the fact that she is begged every week to become a filmstar she has never been. She solves life’s problems for anyone who happens tocome near her or pass down the street in front of her window. These are usuallygrave and momentous problems. There is for example a young man who hascharming manners and an admirable character.
He is a graduate of PrincetonUniversity, has an income of four million dollars per year, loves Helen Trent’scolleague madly. She loves him too, and their 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 theUSA? 2. Which American newspapers and magazines do you know? 3. Do youthink that now people get more news from the Internet than from traditionalsources 4.How much of TV and radio air time is given to commercials in theUSA and in Russia? 5. What is the main function of commercials? 6. Why isadvertising 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 Russianexpressions:1661. Освещать какое-либо событие в прессе.
2. Представлять новостиобъективно и в ясном изложении. 3.Малоформатная газета со сжатымтекстом и многими иллюстрациями. 4. Аудитория, имеющая одинаковыевозрастные и социальные характеристики. 5. Место (в газете), отводимоерекламе. 6. Занимать позицию по какому-либо вопросу. 7. Обеспечиватьобъективное освещение событий 8. Предоставлять одинаковое время (нарадио и телевидении).3. Discussion problems: 1. Television and radio are one of the mostpowerful forces for good or evil in modern life.2.
“Detailed information abouttelevision content can help us make informed choices”.3.The televiewers have aright to control television content if the content is harmful tosociety.4.Television, internet and young generation.CHAPTER VIII.LIFESTYLESRead the following words and word combination:To make generalization - делать обобщенияA forbear - предокwitness to свидетельThe melting pot - «плавильный котел» self-reliance - уверенность в себеNewlywed-молодоженыBatter – наносить ударыWilly-nilly-волей-неволейHectic life- беспокойная жизньChores- домашние делаLocomotion - передвижениеwind up- нервное возбуждениеRenowned - прославленныйgentility -мягкостьUnderstated невысказаннаяa pun (on)- каламбурAmple proof-пространныйtwo-tiered- двухъярусныйIt is very difficult to make generalizations about American charactersor lifestyles, as the diversity of patterns of American life is really great.Very many things account for this: ethnic and social background,immigration date of their forbears, religion and other factors.77% of theUSA population lives in urban areas, 23% - in rural areas.
The populationof the USA represents cultures from around the world. The largestminority group consists of Afro-Americans who make up about 12% ofthe population. Spanish-speaking people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cubaand other Hispanic countries form another group, which equals 6% of thepopulation. Native Americans are less than one half of I% of the total.Minorities of Asian descent include Chinese, Japanese, Indochinese andothers. It is now estimated that by the year 2050 half of Americans willbe Hispanic, Black, or Asian by ethnic background.
For many immigrantsAmerica seemed to be the only place to fulfill their dreams. Before the167late 1960s, immigrants were expected to become part of the mainstreamof American culture – the idea of “the melting pot”.Trying to make some general observations on the American character oneshould again remember the history of the USA.What is the American Frontier? The frontier experience began whenthe first colonists settled on the east coast of the continent in the 1600sand ended about 1890 when the last western lands were settled.Americans have always tended to view the frontier as the purest examplesof hard work of the people, who turned the wilderness into towns, andtowns into cities. The need for self- reliance on the frontier encouraged aspirit of inventiveness. Frontier men and women not only had to providemost of their daily essentials of living, but they were constantly facingnew problems and situations, which demanded new solutions.
![](https://s.studizba.com/z.php?f=/templates/si/i/noavatar.png&w=100&h=100&t=1"){kind=avatar}
