Part 3

1. Do you think advertisements influence people greatly?

I think adverts must have a significant impact, otherwise they wouldn’t be such big business. I mean, companies spend millions and millions of pounds on their advertising campaigns, and as far as I can tell they do work – people are often persuaded to buy the product or apply for a service.

1. Why do you think advertisements influence people?

I think they influence people because of what they promise; they can for example offer a more exciting and luxurious lifestyle, and they show images of people living the dream. They make great claims about the products, like it’s twice as fast, twice as effective, twice as good. Also advertising has become a very sophisticated industry, which now involves a lot of psychological manipulation through the association of products with success or attractiveness, so it’s no surprise that it influences people.

1. What do you think is the best method of advertising?

I think TV commercials are probably the best method; they can combine sound and pictures to create the most powerful effect; certainly TV commercials tend to be the ones that people remember and keep talking about years later, rather than adverts they heard on the radio or billboards they saw.

1. Why does a company invest large amounts of money in advertising?

Businesses invest huge amounts of money in advertising because it’s essential. You can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it it’s worthless. So they have to a focus a great deal of effort on promoting the product, making sure people are aware of it and know why it’s better than its competitors. And there needs to be a certain buzz about the product, it needs to have a presence in the marketplace.