UNIT 5

Advertis i n g

I NTE R N ET ADVERTI S I N G
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Before you read
Do you look at advertising on the Internet or do you ignore it? Why?

Reading
Read this article from the Financial Times and answer the questions.

FT
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY e e 0

Advertisers try the soft sell as TV drifts online

by Joshua Chaffin
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I'TI
� Visitors to Hulu, the online to the web to consume video - be ss is watching with their hand on
to video site jointly owned by NBC it full-length television episodes the mouse, ready to click away
)> Universal and News Corp, can do Jo or short clips - media companies as soon as they lose i n terest,'
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" something that television viewers and advert ising agencies are says Matt Cutler, Vice-President
s would never have imagined just a rushing to develop new and of Visible Measures, a company
few years ago: choose their own more effective advertising 60 that tracks online behaviour. H e
advertising. When, for example, strategies in the hope of estimates that more than 3 0 per
an advertisement sponsored by a 35 creating a profitable business. cent of consumers abandon an
carmaker pops up, viewers might They are eager to harness online video within the first I 0
10 be asked to click on a sports car, the interactive possibilities that per cent of its stream.
a pick-up truck or a family sedan, d i fferentiate the T nternet from 65 Solving those problems is vital
depending on their preference, and the more passive experience for media companies. While
watch a corresponding message. 40 of traditional television. In a tl1ey were once content merely
(Skipping past, unfortunately, i s marketer's dream scenario , to collect clicks on their web
1s n o t an option.) ' I t's choose-your­ consumers who see a message pages, they are now desperate
own-adventure advertising,' says for a product that interests 10 to retain viewers for longer
Jean-Paul Colaco, Hulu's Senior them might pause a video, click periods. ' Advertisers are less
Vice-President of Advertising, 45 through to a website and even interested i n general impressions.
who is hoping to reduce the make a purchase. B u t that same They want engagement,' explains
20 friction between audiences and i nteractive power can also be Patrick Keane, Chief M arketing
marketers by making advertise­ a curse for marketers because 75 Officer at CBS I n teractive,
ments less intrusive for the former i t makes it easy for viewers to prom1stng more i n novative
and more efficient for the latter. so jump to other websites if they advert ising formats in the future.
The Ad Selector, as Hulu calls feel bombarded by irritating and
2s it, is just one example of a burst of irrelevant advertisements.
innovation in online advertising. ' Internet video is a lean­
As audiences increasingly move forward experience. The audience

130 © Pearson Education limited 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE

 TEXT BANK ... ... UNIT 5

1 Use the correct form of verbs from paragraphs Over to you 1

1 to 3 to complete these statements. Will Internet advertisers ever find a way of retaining the
If ... attention of users? Why? I Why not?
a) an advertisement appears suddenly on your
screen, it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Over to you 2
b) you 'jump' past an advertisement without Can you imagine clicking on an advertisement and
watching it, you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . it. making a purchase in one process? If so, what product
c) an advertiser pays for an advertisement on a or service might you buy in this way?
website, on TV, etc., they . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . it.
d) someone makes conflict, disagreement, etc. less
strong, they . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . it.
e) you watch video, you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . it.
f) you start something from nothing, you
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . it.
g) you exploit the power of something, you
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . it.
h) make something different from something else,
you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the two things.
i) you feel that you're watching too many
advertisements, you feel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by
them.

2 Look at paragraphs 1 to 3 and find:

a) a noun that describes the relationship between
advertisers and Internet users.
b) two adjectives that describe advertisements from
the point of view of many users.
c) one adjective that describes how users relate to
advertisements in a way that can be good or bad
for advertisers.
d) a noun that relates to the bad effect of the
adjective in c above.

3 How is the Internet experience described in

relation to traditional television?

4 How quickly do nearly a third of users stop

watching an Internet video on average?
What do they do when this happens?

5 What, in a word, do advertisers want from

users that they didn't have before?
How will this be achieved?

6 Which of these statements sums up the

article best?
Internet advertisers ...
a) are only interested in the number of people who
click on advertisements.
b) don't know how to avoid users 'clicking away'
from advertisements.
c) are looking at ways of engaging users so that
they do not click away from advertisements.

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PHOTOCOPIABLE © Pearson Education Limited 2010 131

 UNIT 5
Advert i s i n g

S HOCK ADVERTISEMEN T��::::t.

Before you read
Where are pharmaceuticals (medicines) sold in your country, apart
from in pharmacies or chemists? Is their sale strictly controlled?

Reading
Read this article from the Financial Times and answer the questions.

FT
LEVEL O F DIFFICULTY e e 0

Pfizer uses big screen to fight counterfeit drugs

by Andrew Jack
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_, Pfizer, the world's largest The film contains no reference only about I per cent. with most
CJ pharmaceuticals company. has to Pfizer's medicines. but shows sold via the I nternet rather than
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launched a hard- hitting cinema the corporate logo alongside through normal supply chains.
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;::: advert ising campaign to warn that of the Medicines and A recent Pfizer poll suggested
5 consumers of the medical dangers .JO Healthcarc Products Regulatory 55 I0 per cent of men purchased
of counterfeits when i l legally Agency. the UK organisation prescription-only medicines via
purchasing prescription medicines that co-ordinates an increasing unregulated sources, including
on the Internet. The advert, to be number of investigations of the Internet. Pfizer is one of
shown m 600 cinemas around counterfeiters. It agreed to a the hardest h i t by I ntcrnet sales
10 the UK. is best seen before .15 pioneering partnersh i p with the ro of medicines, since it produces
fi lmgoers dig into their popcorn. company. a fifth of the top-se l l ing
lt shows a middle-aged man Pfizer has raised its public prescnpuon medicines in the
spitting u p a rat after swallowing image in its fight against UK by sales. The campaign.
a tablet delivered by post. counterfeits. warning of which includes a website. cost
15 The campaign renects growing .w health risks and calling for 65 nearly £500 ,000 ($73 1 .000) .
safety concerns - and commercial action against parallel traders. The cinematic rat was inspired
losses for the drug industry - These arc the intermediaries by the discovery of rat poison
caused by a rise i n unregulated that buy medicines abroad for in a counterfeit version of a
I nternet sales of medicines. resale at h igher prices in the Pfizer blood pressure drug.
20 It also marks an extension of 45 U K . Pfizer argues that parallel 10 Pfizer said the rats i t used in the
advertising by drug companies trading risks allowing fakes into advert were supplied by trained
to raise their public profi le. in pham1acics. specialists and not killed during
spite of tight restrictions on But the overall level of filming.
the marketing of prescription counterfeit medicines in the
25 medicines to consumers. 50 developed world is estimated at

132 © Pearson Education Limited 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE

 TEXT BANK ... ... UNIT 5

1 Look at the headline. Which of these words Over to you 1

means the same as counterfeit? Do you think that shock advertisements such as this
a) authentic b) fake c) substitute d) similar work? Give your reasons.

2 Read paragraph 1. What is the purpose of Over to you 2

Pfizer's campaign? Think of other examples of parallel trading. What steps,
a) To promote its products if any, do manufacturers and retailers take to prevent
b) To advertise popcorn them?
c) To dissuade people from buying drugs that may
harm them

3 The advert is best seen before filmgoers

•••

dig into their popcorn. (lines 8-11) Why?

4 Match the two parts to make expressions

from paragraphs 2 to 4.
1 safety a) sales
2 commercial b) restrictions
3 unregulated c) profile
4 public d) partnership
5 tight e) losses
6 corporate f) concerns
7 pioneering g) traders
8 parallel h) logo

5 Now match the expressions in Exercise 4

to their meanings.
i) when unauthorised products are sold
ii) when two organisations do something for
the first time
iii) worries about the dangers of something
iv) a symbol used by a company
v) when no profit is made in selling something
vi) strict rules
vii) unauthorised sellers
viii) the ideas that people have about an
organisation

6 Why does Pfizer object to unauthorised

distributors selling its products in the UK?
a) lost profit b) safety c) other reasons

7 What do these figures refer to?

a) 1 per cent (line 5 1)
b) 10 per cent (line 5 5)
c) a fifth (line 61)
d) 500,000 (line 65)
e) 731,000 (line 65)

8 Why were rats used in making the

advertisement?

PHOTOCOPIABLE © Pearson Education Limited 2010 133