Comment on the following statement.

Some people say that advertising encourages us to buy things that we really do not need. Others say that advertisements tell us about new products that may improve our lives.

Write 200 – 250 words.

Use the following plan:

make an introduction (state the problem)

express your personal opinion and give reasons for it

give arguments for the other point of view and explain why you don't agree with it

draw a conclusion

You have 40 minutes to do this task.

Some people regard advertising as a good source of information about products that can improve our lives. Others are utterly opposed to advertising campaigns that as they say make us buy what we do not need.

In my opinion, advertising is necessary for a better quality of life. If there is a new product on the market we have dreamt about for a long time, how can we learn about it? There is only one way – through advertising. Moreover, advertisements let us know details about new products – thanks to this we can choose something that will certainly contribute to making our lives better.

However, some people think that advertising negatively affects the choice of goods we buy. They believe that advertisements are made with the use of such psychological techniques that we subconsciously buy what we do not want to buy. Besides, they say that what we see in an advertisement is not worth buying, as it may be a bad quality and will not introduce any improvements to our lives. I think a self-sufficient person will never get affected by any 'psychological techniques'. Secondly, advertising is not a cheap thing, so a company that can afford presence in the mass media can afford to produce high quality items, which may well make us happy.

The issue of whether the described tool encourages us to do things we do not want to do or tells us about what will change our lives to the better is far from being simple. So let each person have his or her own view of this problem.

Источник: http://www.oz-perspectives.ru/node/94