Lesson 25 Do Advertisements Play a Positive or Negative Role in Our Society？Text People Change Their Attitudes towards Ads One night, when television began broadcasting a boring TV show, I said to my wife, “The programme is even less interesting than the advertisements, or commercials. Let us have a change. My wife, who happened to have a remote control in her hand, consented immediately, switched to another channel and enjoyed an advertisement of riee flour with me. Just at the moment, I found that we were no longer as disgusted with the commercials as we had been before. The next day when I told my experience to my colleagues, they, to my surprise, all had the same feeling. A few even sang several of the commercials songs. A few years ago, when advertisements began to appear in the Chinese media, most people, including myself, were against the practice. Some sighed： ”The socialist TV, newspapers have started imitating the Western bourgeois media too！“What has changed the audience's mentality in only several years' time？First, Chinese advertisements have improved their advertising techniques. At the beginning, the language of advertisements was simple, the music insipid and the images coarse and crude. Later, some better foreign advertisements came to Chinese TV and newspapers.“Where there is a mountain, there is a road； where there is a road, there is a Toyota.” The words of the Japanese advertisement publicizing the Toyota car are very absurd but impressive and easy to memorize. “ Nestle coffee is tasty indeed.” The American advertisement promoting the sale of the Nestle brand coffee has become a new household phrase in China.Gradually, Chinese advertisements also have learned how to dress themselves up. They have strange and humorous associations, charming, deep male voices, colourful images and songs that are pleasing to the ear and easy to learn.s For these reasons, the commercials for Santana cars, Fud colour film and Orient beverages have successfully attracted a TV audience.Second, life needs advertisements. Everything in modern society is linked to information, while the main function of advertisements is to disseminate information on commodities, service, culture, employment, student enrollment and even marriage. Of course, one can obtain such information by listening to hearsay and making on- the-spot investigation, but the information provided by advertisements in doubtless the most direct, comprehensive and detailed.As society advances, people's demands have become more and mone diversified, and the commodities and service provided by society have also become more and more diversified. On the other hand, as living tempo quickens, people have less leisure time. If they want to spend time finding suitable commodities, service and employment opportunities, they have to rely on advertisements. So, unconsciously, people have changed their hatred for advertisements to an acceptance and utilization of them.But, due to certain conditions in China, the Chinese do not have a great need for advertisements for the time being. That is because Chinese economy is not highly developed,and the supply of many commodities falls short of consumers' demands. So the more consumers see the advertisements, the angrier they become. Second, people's living pace has not quickened to the extent that they have no time to go shopping leisurely. Many can even find time to walk the streets during their work hours. There is no need for them to read “the shopping directory”。There are even fewer people depending on advertisements to seek employment, for there is not much flow of the labour force.Earlier this year, I discovered that the annual business volume of a US advertising corporation was as high as $ 6 billion, more than 12 per cent of that of China's exports last year. I was really taken aback to find that an advertisement corporation-had developed to such an extent.It is said that advertising is indispensable to the lives of people in developed countries. Without exception, people read advertisements before going shopping or looking for jobs. It is against this social background that advertising has developed so much in these countries. An idea comes to me： As the economy develops, advertisements may finally penetrate every corner of our life. The day will come when all Chinese will realize that advertising is essential to all of us.II . Read Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading. 1. The Function of AdvertisementRobert：   We're having a debate on advertising tomorrow and I have to take part. Mr.Lee：   That's interesting. I should like to hear what young people think about advertising. Robert：   Well, we wouldn't know what there was to buy if we didn't have advertisements. Mr.Lee：   Yes, that's true-up to a point. Advertisements provide information that we need. If someone has produced a new article, naturally the seller wants to tell us about it. Robert：   Yes, and advertisements tell us which product is the best. Mr.Lee：   Do they？ I don't think so. Every manufacturer says that his product is the best, or at least tries to give that impression. Only one can be the best,so the others are misleading us, aren't they？Robert：   Well, in a way, I suppose, but we don't have to believe them, do we？Mr.Lee：   Are you saying that advertisements aren't effective？ I don't think that intelligent businessmen would spend millions of dollars on advertising if nobody believed the advertisements, do you？Robert：   Perhaps not, but after all, it' s their money that they're spending. Mr.Lee：   Is it？ I think not. The cost of advertising is added to the price of the article. You and I and all the other people who buy the article pay for the advertising！Robert：   Well, I suppose we get something for our money —— some information. Mr.Lee：   Yes, but don't forget it's often misleading information, and sometimes harmful.2. Advertisers Perform a Useful Service to the Community Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they' re always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much money to throw around. “It's iniquitous,” they say, “that this entirely unproductive industry （ if we can call it that ） should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don't they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods？ After all, it's the consumer who pays……The poor old consumerl He'd have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn't create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get the wrong idea if.we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform . A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing-machine, it is more than likely you would obtain details regarding performance, price, etc. from an advertisement.Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too！ Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway bye-laws while waiting for a train？ Would you like to read only closely- printed columns of news in your daily paper？ A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities.We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without this source of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full pricelAnother thing we mustn,t forget is the “small ads” which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service hey perform for the communityl Just about anything can be accomplished hrough these columns. For instance, you can find a job, or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the “hatch, match and dispatch” columns； but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or “agony” column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human ature. It,s the best advertisement for advertising there is！