aldabarros: November 2006

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

site for online dictionaries

online Dictionary:
http://dict.leo.org/
http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh
http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/
http://world.altavista.com (translation machine, but be careful it is only a machine, human translation is much better)

very good sites to learn English

conditional sentences (type 1 and 2)

Complete each sentence below by giving the correct form of the verb in brackets.

1. If the city ________ (expand) the parking lot space downtown, we would not have to park so far away from the movie theatre.

2. Whenever my roommate ________ (snore) loudly, I cannot sleep.

3. Children may be disappointed if they ________ (not receive) good grades.

4.I f it ________ (be) winter, all these trees would be covered in snow.

5. I ________ (try) to find more opportunities to write in English if I were you.

Game consoles and their effect on youth

Game Consoles and Their Effect on Youth

Video games as we known them first appeared in the early 70's, with the infamous Pong. Though nothing more than a ball bouncing back and forth across the screen, it would eventually lead to entire worlds within worlds, epic battles between good and evil, and scenery that looks like it came off a postcard. (Herman, Horwitz, Kent, and Miller, 1995-2003)
In recent years, video games have become a staple for many young children. Statistics report that kids that play these games spend an average of 90 minutes a day on them. (Farrales, 2002) The videogame market is a popular, profitable one. (Herman, Horwitz, Kent, and Miller, 1995-2003)
Violence in Video Games
In the beginning days of video games,. Violence was nothing resembling realistic. Villains would puff off in a cloud of smoke, or just blink off inexplicably. There was little that could connect this with real life violence. (Hatcher, 1998)
However, as videogames and their technology matured, so did the realism. Now, instead of disappearing in a cartoonish fashion, characters would be gunned down with authentic looking machinery, then lay in a rather Gothic fashion while the player continued their mission. The base goal of the game would remain: shoot until the bad guy is dead. (Farrales, 2002)
Effects on Fans
But in the youngest fans, if their minds start to connect violence to problem solving, then where does that leave the accepted methods of getting your point across? Their mentality may begin to operate on a "you did that, I didn't like that, so now you pay" basis. Videogames do, admittedly, promote a skewed vision of society, where if someone gets in your way, you simply exterminate them. In other words, violence is not a bad thing. Rather, it's a solution. (Farrales, 2002)
Worse still, violent games can lead to desensitization to brutality. (Farrales, 2002)The scenes onscreen look real, but they aren't realistic; meaning, of course, that the situation would be unacceptable in the real world. But if they blur the lines against fact and fiction, then clarity is gone. It can cause aggression in children, unresolved anger that has no outlet. (Hatcher, 1998)
Lt. Col. David Grossman stated, "Children don't naturally kill; they learn it…from violence as entertainment in television, movies, and interactive video games. We are teaching children to associate pleasure with human death and suffering. We are rewarding them for killing people. And we are teaching them to like it." (Farrales, 2002) Certainly, all violent video games have a common thread; among them is the encouragement of killing (in fact, it often is an objective in the game) and the lack of punishment for said killing.
You would think that the older fans of these games would be relatively immune to the effects. But while a child can take this newfound aggression out on other kids, through bully-like behavior and rough play, an older person can through increased hostility on a test or heart rate. (Farrales, 2002)
A study at Stanford University investigated the connection between videogames, violent behavior, and children:
The study found that when third and fourth graders television and video game consumption were reduced to under seven hours per week for 20 weeks, their verbal aggression decreased by 50% and their physical aggression decreased by 40%. There are many cases that show how players of violent video games exhibit increases in aggression, especially in younger audiences. In spite of this, there are very few cases showing how playing violent video games leads or was the cause of violent behavior.
It's a complex issue: there are some children whose aggression is provoked by these games, while others still show no particularly violent tendencies. (Hatcher, 1998) Certainly, children were violent before the advent of videogames, so it would be unrealistic to say that they're the modern cause of aggression in our children.
Not Just Psychological Aside from the psychological effects, there are numerous health issues that are being investigated. Most controllers that come with the console, for example, that repeated and constant use could cause carpal tunnel syndrome. The most common cause of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is inflammation of the tendons in the tunnel which can normally be attributed to repetitive use of the hand and/or wrist. (Biomax, '98-'02)
Repetitive Strain Injuries (the cause of carpal tunnel syndrome) can happen to anyone whose work calls for long periods of steady hand movement, such as the operation of a game controller. RSIs tend to come with work that demands repeated grasping, turning and twisting. Also, it is not limited to any age group. Young people can contract as easily as an older person. (Biomax, '98-'02)
Frequent game use can also lead to high adrenaline rates, which can translate into hyper-aggressiveness as well as symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). (Farrales, 2000) ADD is diagnosed by the following symptoms: distractibility (poor sustained attention to tasks); impulsivity (impaired impulse control and delay of gratification); hyperactivity (excessive activity and physical restlessness). While this doesn't mean the child will develop ADD, since it's is most likely caused by biological factors, it means he/she could acquire the symptoms. (ADDA, '96-'03)
There is even a chance of stimulus addiction, a typical response to a child immersed in violent yet realistic games. This could lead them to seek more powerful stimulus as the addiction grows, in an attempt to revive that emotional high. (Farrales, 2000)
Passionate Opposition
Organizations advocating the abolishment of such entertainment have grown in numbers. One such organization, MAVAV has a website, which posts articles pertained to the so-called "addiction" that gamers suffer. Extremist anti-video violence groups would have you believe that all these games corrupt our children. One such excerpt reflects this attitude:
"…Videogames have been proven to prevent the development of the proper social skills and interaction needed for a long happy and enjoyable life. Young gamers are prone to being burdened with depression and sadness all throughout their life."
However overblown these views seem, is there merit to their fears? Do videopgames promote anti-social behavior? No concrete evidence, aside from sketchy testimonials, have been released to back this up. The most vocal of videogame supporters are those who play them, naturally. Usually dismissed as "feral young children and pre-teenage gamers", many find it frustrating to be written off despite having a valid point. It's a case of stalemate for both sides.
Conclusion
While it's doubtful these two groups will ever see eye to eye, there remains a looming question mark over the danger of videogames to developing minds. Does it really teach violence? Or simply bring existing aggression to the forefront? The media has often been used as a scapegoat for whatever was wrong with society. It's a tradition that dates back to Elizabethan days, when theaters were blamed for spreading the plague. But despite numerous scientific studies for each side, public opinion remains firmly divided.
ReferencesAttention Deficient Disorder Association, 1996-2003
Violence and Electronic Games: Colin Gabriel Hatcher, 1998
The History of Video Games: Leonard Herman, Jer Horwitz, Steve Kent, and Skyler Miller, 1995-2003
Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence
Violence in Video Games: Bernard Farrales, 2002
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Biomax Health Products, Inc., 1998-2002

The impact of technology

Teens, Technology and Socialization

When first thinking about this topic, I was compelled to write about computers: internet, chat rooms, email, message boards, instant messaging and other forms of communication using computers. And then I realized that computers are not the only form of technology that allows us to socialize and communicate with others. Using the telephone, television and even high-end gadgets enables us to socialize with our friends and family. With the aid of all these forms of technology, we have become a world reliant on different and interesting ways of socialization and communication.
There are many forms of communication and socialization available to us with the use of a computer and an Internet connection. Let's take email for example. Email is used everywhere and by anyone who either has a job or a computer. You email your friends about a party coming up on the weekend, you email your boss to tell him that your proposal is ready for reviewing, and you email you coworkers to gossip about your boss (I'm sure). But not only is email used for business details, it is also used to talk to your dad who maybe lives in Russia or to your mom who is on vacation in Florida. It is used to communicate overseas or even next-door. And unlike the telephone, it won't cost you a fortune to email your dad in Russia or your mom in Florida.
Another way to talk to your friends using a computer is by using a chat room service (see appendix A). It is unsafe to give out any personal information such as you address, telephone number, or sometimes even your full name, but it is an easy way to meet new people and chat with your friends. "Chat rooms are best reserved for communication between people who already know each other."
(site: http://www.family.org/cforum/research/papers/a0002553.html)
Some people even find the person they will one day marry through the use of a chat room. And although this may seem weird and even creepy to us now, it is becoming more and more common each day.
The most widely used way of socializing with the use of technology among teens these days is quickly becoming instant messaging using services such as ICQ or MSN. These services are free to use and are a good and efficient way to talk to all of your friends at the same time. Lets discuss the ICQ instant messaging service for a moment (see appendix b). This service offers a multitude of settings and options you can use to make your screen look pretty and functional. Another handy feature of this program is the memory feature. It allows you to go back and look at any previous conversations you have had with a friend. This way you will not forget important details such as dates, times and names. A negative side to this memory feature however is that anyone could read your conversations if left unattended. A convenient way that will help to prevent this from happening is to use the password feature provided for you to rule out any such possibilities. You simply choose a password of your choice and then you, and only you, will be able to access your program. The MSN instant messaging system (see appendix c) is much the same as the ICQ system, but it lacks one of the main features that ICQ is known for…the memory. When using MSN, once you exit a conversation, it's gone. There is no option to go back into the history of your conversations and review what's been said. As I previously mentioned, this can bee a good feature or a revealing feature. If you don't want there to be any chance of anyone ever viewing your conversations, this is the service for you! Another negative side to services such as ICQ and MSN is that you are not actually speaking with the person you are writing to. "If you use it too much it's going to affect your social skills in one way or another"
(site: http://www.bishops.ntc.nf.ca/ct3200/students01/jonm/term2paper.html)
While instant messaging is on the uprise, and has been for quite some time now, there is one technology that has not ceased to be overused and abused by those who can gab. This is of course the telephone. It will never cease to amaze me how some individuals can stay on the phone chatting with the same person for four and five hours in one sitting. I mean is there really that much to talk about. The telephone is an invention that will never fade away, people will always find uses for the telephone, whether it be to gossip, trade recipes, or receive vital information. The telephone is by far the most convenient way of communication to others. A book is provided will all the numbers you would ever need to use and to use the telephone takes no intelligence or skill what so ever. While it is not the most private way of communication if you don't have a sound proof telephone room in your home, as most of us I'm sure do not, it is a simple and efficient way to communicate and socialize that will never go out of style.
On this same topic of telephones, you will find today that almost all adolescents have access to, or own their very own, you guessed it…Cell phone (see appendix e). Teens today spend more time now talking to their friends via cell phone than most do using their home phone. I'm not sure if it's because the feeling of a mini phone next to your face feels cool, or if your mom is on a call, and you're just too impatient to wait until she's finished. Either way, cell phones and becoming more and more common in households everyday. They're a convenient, high-tech and compact way to chat with your friends on a daily basis.
Another form of technology that never fails to bring people together is none other than the television. No matter who you are or where you come from there's nothing like gathering around the T.V. to watch your favorite show with a group of friends. Not only does this spark quite a few interesting conversation topics, it's also a well-needed rest period for you and your hyperactive buddies! Although taking part in this activity for too many hours on end may cause problems for you visually (or so my mom tells me) as well as socially, anything taken in moderation is fine and often times recommended. The television allows your imagination to explore new and enticing worlds of mystery and romance, among other things. Now I know that there are many positive and high sides of taking time to watch T.V., but believe it or not, there are some negative sides as well. To name a few, (and I can tell you these from personal experience) your schoolwork may start to fall behind and your mid-section may begin to show signs of enlargement. But most importantly, too much time spent in a fantasy world tends to make you forget what it takes to survive in the real world. So, though there are many good aspects of socialization through the watching of T.V. with your friends, you must be able to know when to call it quits and find a new hobby.
Another form of watching T.V. is going to the movie. This is a different take on watching T.V. than just lazing around on a couch for a few hours with a blanket and the remote handy. This gets you up and out of your house and into the world. Nothing beats going to a movie with a bunch of friends, loading up on popcorn and drinks and having a ball. This does in fact cost a bit of money, but I'm sure it's nothing we can't all handle once in a while. Like T.V., movies are great conversation starters. "Did you see when…" or "Wasn't it hilarious how…". Many people who are just starting out in a relationship will often go to a movie on a first date. It avoids those awkward silences and will also give you something to talk about when the movie has finished. Though this is indeed at times a costly form of socialization, I believe it successfully accomplishes the task.
Moving on in our technology-advanced world, there are always those high-end gadgets to keep you busy. Some will gather just to show off the new digital camera (see appendix h) they just received for their birthday, or the new PDA (see appendix I) their dad bought them for Christmas. With an endless number of features and tools, these gadgets could quite possibly tie you and your friends up for a good afternoon or two.
No one knows what the future will hold for the ways we can communicate and socialize with our friends through technology, but as you can see, there are quite a few different ways as of now to keep us interested for a little while longer. While some may be better than others considering privacy, efficiency, and convenience, they all will allow teens today to have fun and communicate with each other on a regular basis.
References 1. Teens, Technology and socialization

http://www.bishops.ntc.nf.ca/ct3200/students01/jonm/term2paper.html 2. Teen Socialization Author: Terrie Bittner Published on: January 2, 2001 http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/3111/54028 3. Tech-savvy teens teach computers to older adults Author: Karima A. Haynes Published on: December 31, 2002 http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/technology/story/696375p-5156735c.html 4. Protection and socialization Author: Steve Watters http://www.family.org/cforum/research/papers/a0002553.html
Apendix

verb tenses -simple past or present perfect?

Verb Tense
PART A
All of the following sentences should be completed using the Simple Past or the Present Perfect. You must use the words in the parentheses to fill in the blanks. Hint: remember Non-continuous Verbs cannot be used in any continuous form. If you are confused, go to the Simple Past Page or the Present Perfect Page.
EXAMPLE A) I (visit) visited my grandmother yesterday. B) Sandra (travel) has traveled abroad several times.

1. A: Did you like the movie "Star Wars"? B: I don't know. I (see, never)_____________________ that movie.
2. Sam (arrive)___________________ in San Diego a week ago.
3. My best friend and I (know)_______________________ each other for over fifteen years.
4. Stinson is a fantastic writer. He (write)______________________ ten very creative short stories in the last year. One day, he'll be as famous as Hemingway.
5. I (have, not)_____________________ this much fun since I (be)_______________ a kid.
6. Things (change)______________________ a great deal at Coltech, Inc. When we first (start)___________________ working here three years ago, the company (have, only)____________________ six employees. Since then, we (expand)____________________ to include more than 2000 full-time workers.
7. I (tell)_____________________ him to stay on the path while he was hiking, but he (wander)____________________ off into the forest and (bite)______________________ by a snake.
8. Listen Donna, I don't care if you (miss)____________________ the bus this morning. You (be)_____________________ late to work too many times. You are fired!
9. Sam is from Colorado, which is hundreds of miles from the coast, so he (see, never)__________________ the ocean. He should come with us to Miami.
10. How sad! George (dream)______________ of going to California before died, but he didn't make it. He (see, never)______________________ the ocean.
11. In the last hundred years, traveling (become)_______________________ much easier and very comfortable. In the 19th century, it (take) _________________________ two or three months to cross North America by covered wagon. The trip (be)________________________ very rough and often dangerous. Things (change)_________________________ a great deal in the last hundred and fifty years. Now you can fly from New York to Los Angeles in a matter of hours.
12. Jonny, I can't believe how much you (change)_______________________ since the last time I (see)___________________ you. You (grow)_______________________ at least a foot!
13. This tree (plant)___________________________ by the settlers who (found)_________________________ our city over four hundred years ago.
14. This mountain (climb, never)______________________________ by anyone. Several mountaineers (try)______________________ to reach the top, but nobody (succeed, ever)__________________________. The climb is extremely difficult and many people (die)__________________________ trying to reach the summit.
15. I (visit, never)___________________________ Africa, but I (travel)________________________ to South America several times. The last time I (go)____________________________ to South America, I (visit)______________________ Brazil and Peru. I (spend)___________________________ two weeks in the Amazon, (hike)___________________ for a week near Machu Picchu and (fly)___________________________ over the Nazca Lines.

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Sunday, November 19, 2006

Verb Tenses-exercises

Verb Tense Test

Part A
1. When Carol (call) ______________________ last night, I (watch) ________________________ my favorite show on television.
2. I (work) ___________________________ for that company for more than thirty years.
3. Sharon (love) ______________________ to travel. She (go) ______________________ abroad almost every summer.
4. Thomas is an author. He (write) _______________________ mystery novels and travel memoirs. He (write) _______________________ since he was twenty-eight. Altogether, he (write) ________________________ seven novels, three collections of short stories and a book of poetry.
5. We were late because we (have) ________________________ car problems. By the time we (get) _________________________ to the train station, Susan (wait) __________________________ for us for more than two hours.
6. Sam (try) ______________________ to change a light bulb when he (slip) _______________________ and (fell) _______________________.
7. Everyday I (wake) _______________________ up at 6 o'clock, (eat) _______________________ breakfast at 7 o'clock and (leave) _________________________ for work at 8 o'clock. However, this morning I (get) ____________________ up at 6:30, (skip) ______________________ breakfast and (leave) ______________________ for work late because I (forget) ______________________________ to set my alarm.
8. Right now, Jim (read) _________________________ the newspaper and Kathy (make) _________________________ dinner. Last night at this time, they (do) _________________________ the same thing. She (cook) _________________________ and he (read) ___________________________ the newspaper. Tomorrow at this time, they (do, also) _________________________ the same thing. She (prepare) _________________________ dinner and he (read) _________________________. They are very predictable people!
9. By this time next summer, you (complete) __________________________ your studies and (find) ________________________ a job. I, on the other hand, (accomplish, not) _______________________ anything. I (study, still) ______________________ and you (work) ___________________________ in some new high paying job.
10. The students (teach, usually) ______________________ by Mrs. Monty. However, this week they (teach) __________________________ by Mr. Tanzer.

Part B
Read the sentences and answer the comprehension questions.
1. Jane talks on the phone. Bob has been talking on the phone for an hour. Mary is talking on the phone.
Who is not necessarily on the phone now? ______________________________
2. Jane paid when Bob answered her question.
Did Jane pay first or did Bob answer the question first? ______________________________
3. Jane left when Tim arrived. Bob left when Tim had arrived. Tim arrived when Mary was leaving. John had left when Tim arrived. After Tim arrived, Frank left.
Who did not run into Tim? ______________________________
4. Jane is talking in class. Bob always talks in class. Mary is always talking in class.
Who's action bothers you? ______________________________
5. Jane never left Jamestown. Bob has never left Jamestown.
Who is still alive? ______________________________
Part C
The sentences below contain common verb form mistakes. Find the errors and correct them.
EXAMPLE: went A) She would always go on vacation last summer.

1. When I was a kid, I dreamt that I would always be an actor when I grew up.
2. I would live in London when I was a child.
3. I used to going to the beach every day when I lived in Los Angeles.
4. When he asked for help with his homework, I told him I was going to help him. I can never refuse a request for help.
5. She would constantly be tall when she was in elementary school.

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Saturday, November 18, 2006

Defining and non defining relative clauses exercises

Identify the mistakes and correct them

1. Ann, who party we went to last month, has just got a job.
___________________________________________
2. I like the course I've chosen it.
__________________________________________
3. That's the man who's company was awarded a prize.
__________________________________________
4. The job that you want it requires many skills.
__________________________________________
5. The chairs who you brought to the office are very comfortable.
_________________________________________

Join the following pairs of sentences by means of a relative pronoun.
1. She's the woman. She lives next door.
_________________________________________
2. She's the woman. Her husband works at that bookshop just around the corner.
__________________________________________
3. I know a big bookshop. It sells all kinds of books.
__________________________________________
4. This is the car. We bought it from Ted Elliot.
__________________________________________
5. These are the people. I invited them for my party.
____________________________________________

Join these sentences by means of a relative pronoun. Don't forget the necessary commas.
1. Mrs Elliot went to hospital.. Mrs Elliot had a terrible pain on her back.
______________________________________________
2. Ted Elliot is telling David about his problems. Ted's wife left home some days ago.
_____________________________________________
3. The new disco in Main Street has just opened. Everyone is talking about the disco.
_______________________________________________
4. Wordsworth was a famous English poet. His house was by Windermere lake
_______________________________________________
5. My cousin Ted won a tennis tournament. This makes our family very proud of him.
________________________________________________
6. That high yellow building on the corner was recently built. There's a solar panel on its roof.
________________________________________________

Join these sentences by means of a relative pronoun. Don't forget the necessary commas.

1. Thousands of people have been killed in the terrorist attack. They were innocent.
_________________________________________________

2. The last match was very good. The match was played between two national top teams.
_________________________________________________

3. The coalition soldiers occupied the capital city. They came to protect the population.
___________________________________________________

4. One of my best friends has got many cousins. I can’t remember their names.
____________________________________________________
5. My friend John runs the best pet shop in town. He is very fond of animals.
____________________________________________________
6. My neighbour Sheila complained at the police station. Her house was robbed last night.
______________________________________________________
7. Many other neighbours were there too. Their cars were also robbed.
______________________________________________________
8. . A police officer is taking note of all the cars. They were robbed last night.
_______________________________________________________
9. Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon. He was an American astronaut.
_______________________________________________________
10. Mr Taylor had been driving all day. He was tired and wanted to stop.
_______________________________________________________
11. The keys are on the table. They are mine.
_______________________________________________________
12. She was dancing with a boy. He is my brother.
_______________________________________________________
13. That is the Spanish girl. I told you about her last evening.
______________________________________________________
14. The book is very good. I have just read it.
______________________________________________________
15. The Johnson's’ boy can speak French very well. I met him in Paris last Summer.
______________________________________________________

Join the sentences by means of a relative pronoun. Omit it when possible.

1. We often visit our company headquarters. They are only 15 kms away.
______________________________________________________
2. Ann is one of my closest friends. I have known her for years.
______________________________________________________
3. They didn't thank us for the help we gave them at work. This was very rude of them.
______________________________________________________
4. Our History teacher was late this morning. He comes always on time.
______________________________________________________
5. The boy is paying no attention at all. The teacher is looking at him.
______________________________________________________
6. The girl is very pretty. You have talked to her just now.
______________________________________________________
7. The strike at the shipyard is now over. It lasted 4 days.
______________________________________________________
8. Our Secretary speaks both English and German fluently. Her mother is German
_______________________________________________________
9. The course gave us a lot of information on time management. I thought it would be useless.
______________________________________________________

Join the sentences by means of a relative pronoun
1. What's the name of the man. You borrowed his car.
_____________________________________________________
2. I met a nice girl. Her mother is an English teacher.
_____________________________________________________
3. The woman is a doctor. She lives next door.
____________________________________________________
4. Where is the cheese. It was in the fridge.
____________________________________________________
5. A bus goes to the airport. It runs every half hour.
____________________________________________________
6. Jane went to see the doctor. Jane hasn’t been feeling well lately.
____________________________________________________
7. Mark is telling David about his problems. Mark’s wife has left him.
____________________________________________________
8. These are the people. I invited them for my party.
____________________________________________________
9. She’s the woman. She lives in Birmingham.
___________________________________________________
10. The new disco in High Street is very popular with young people. Everyone is talking about it.
____________________________________________________
11. Budy is planning to go to university. This makes his parents very proud of him.
____________________________________________________

Join the sentences by means of a relative pronoun. Omit it when possible.

1. The girl is Ann's sister. She worked as a volunteer in Africa .
________________________________________________________
2. Ann's father works for an international company. It does business with African countries.
______________________________________________________
3. My car was quite old. It was destroyed in a crash.
______________________________________________________
4. Some of the girls are coming to Portugal next year. You met them in Rome.
______________________________________________________
5. Cultural differences prevented the deal from concluding. The deal was very profitable for both countries.
_______________________________________________________
6. Tolerance is very important nowadays. Most people don't show it towards anything or anyone.
_______________________________________________________
7. Harmony Day is celebrated in Australia. It should become a world celebration.
_______________________________________________________
8. The UNESCO already operates worldwide. It should have more economic power in order to solve situations more efficiently.
_________________________________________________________
9. The UNESCO agents are often attacked. They must be protected in their their humanitarian actions.
________________________________________________________
10. The friend is studying in Paris. I'm writing this letter to him.
________________________________________________________
11. Two students are absent today. Their names haven't been called.
_______________________________________________________
12. Have you seen the article? I told you about it yesterday.
_______________________________________________________
13. James Larson is in a difficult situation. His father has just died.
_______________________________________________________
14. My dressmaker went to Paris last year. Her models are highly paid.
_______________________________________________________

Can TV remote-control our kids?

Can TV remote-control our kids?
Some claim the media make children fat and violent; others argue the media can help to make children more socially responsible. Both sides should get a grip.
Wendy Earle

The media make children fat and violent – or so some would have us believe. Others argue that we should be harnessing the positive power of the media to promote healthy eating and to discourage anti-social behaviour. But how powerful are the media? Are they able to create or solve social problems?

It is widely accepted today that the media have contributed to the increase in childhood obesity. Google ‘children’ and ‘obesity’, and you would think that the media’s role in giving rise to obesity is a foregone conclusion. Much of the blame is pinned on television in particular: that medium is said to make children, who watch too much of it, sedentary and inactive compared to earlier generations, and it is also accused of showing too many tempting ads for crisps, sweets and fast food.

As a result, the government quango Ofcom – the Office of Communications – is proposing to regulate TV advertising to children of foods high in sugar, salt and other additives considered fattening or bad for children. Since March this year Ofcom has been running a consultation about options for implementing regulation on the basis that:

‘There is now a growing body of evidence of the links between television advertising exposure and children’s food preferences. It is also clear that while television advertising of food to children is declining each year, it remains significant; television is still the key medium for communicating messages about food and drink products to the widest audiences.’

Similarly, if you Google ‘children’, ‘violence’ and ‘media’, you will discover that there is something of a global consensus that violence in the media contributes to violent crime. Events such as the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, when two boys opened fire on their classmates, or the murder of Jamie Bulger in 1993, when two 10-year-old boys lured a toddler away from his mother and kicked him to death, generate panics that watching violent films or playing violent videogames creates murderous children.

Children’s relationships to the media have been subject to a considerable amount of research, yet surveys of the literature on the media’s role in causing obesity or violence in children consistently reveal a lack of hard evidence of a link.

Fat and fiction

Starting with obesity. The Role of the Media in Childhood Obesity (2004), a report published by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) , a major organisation in the US that sponsors and centralises research on children, summarised research findings both on the time children spent watching TV and the impact of TV advertising on childhood obesity.

To the question ‘Do major studies find a relationship between childhood obesity and the time children spend using media?’, the answer was ‘yes’, ‘maybe’ and ‘no’, depending on the study. The report suggests that the causal relationship may be less to do with the amount of TV children watch, and more to do with the kind of television programmes they watch. It therefore asks, ‘Do the food ads children are exposed to on TV influence them to make unhealthy food choices?’ Again, the answer is inconclusive, but overall there is a lack of hard evidence that advertising plays any role in causing obesity.

In another recent review of the evidence, Harm and Offence in Media Content, British researchers Andrea Millwood Hargrave and Sonia Livingstone (2006) failed to find any solid evidence for the link between advertising and obesit . They concluded that:

‘Research tends to show modest evidence for harmful effects of advertising, particularly on children, although this remains contested. Since the influence of advertising is not large, according to the evidence, research is needed to determine what other factors also influence these harmful outcomes.’

As this statement demonstrates, the conviction that the media have harmful effects often outweighs the failure to find evidence of such effects. Such evidence as there is suggests that advertising has a relatively minor role in influencing children, and even this is challenged by other research. As Livingstone and Hargrave point out, the exact impact of TV advertising on children is far from understood. There is little substantial research (in the public sphere at least) on how children use advertising or how it influences them in the context of other influences.

Presumably, as advertisers continue to target children, TV ads must have some impact. The question that remains unanswered is: exactly what impact does it have, and is it necessarily harmful? As much of the research into the impact of advertising on children has been done by market research companies for the advertisers, the results have not been made public – so we don’t really know if they have any answers to these questions. The growth of agencies that specialise in marketing for children reflects the sense of potential that this market represents to consumer industries. The KFF report quotes a newsletter of marketing agency Harris Interactive:

‘This generation has become a huge consumer group that is worthy of attention from many businesses seeking to maximize their potential.’

Pestering parents

However, advertisers’ strategies suggest that they rely heavily on the relationship between parents and children. The KFF survey points to a number of studies that demonstrate children’s influence on their parents in supermarkets and elsewhere. Parents are more susceptible than they used to be to their children’s expressed wants and desires, and more eager to include children in family decision-making processes. Parents now tend to want their children to express an opinion on what food to buy in the supermarket or which restaurant to go to. There is also increasing evidence to suggest that parents involve their children in decisions about which car to buy – a fact recognised by car advertisements that use children or children’s toys as their central characters. According to one study, in 2000 children 12 years and under, directly and indirectly, influenced the household spending of over $600 billion.

Ads make children aware of products and try to persuade them to want the products, but parents have the power to say ‘no’. That parents can and do make the decisions is demonstrated in a study (quoted in the KFF report) which notes the effectiveness of a campaign to popularise dried fruit snacks, because of the coincidence of children’s influence on their parents and their parents’ belief that dried fruits were better for them than sweets.

There is no foundation to the idea that there is something harmful about the fact that ads influence children’s and their parents’ choices. In a survey of the literature, Jeffrey Goldstein points out that ‘there is no convincing evidence that advertising affects children’s values and materialism, eating habits, the use of tobacco and alcohol, gender and ethnic stereotypes, violence, socialisation, or has any long-term effects’.

Goldstein makes the point that advertising only has as much power as we allow it to have, because we make choices primarily based on our needs and wants, which are determined by a range of factors that have little to do with what advertisers tell us. He also suggests that most of the evidence indicates that children are more influenced by their peers and parents than by the mass media. Often the popularity of a particular product is developed through word-of-mouth fads, not advertising on TV – a fact reflected in marketing agencies’ desperate attempts to capture the word-of-mouth effect through viral marketing. The success of a restaurant chain like Pizza Express is an example. The restaurant strikes a clever balance: providing food that seems healthy, and catering to the tastes of both adults and children. However, it doesn’t do big advertising campaigns and toy promotions, so these have little role in its business success.

The ‘pester power’ of children can only be as strong as parents let it be. The fact that parents increasingly include their children in decision-making processes is what creates pester power – not the advertising per se. However, pester power can also be seen as part of the negotiation process. Goldstein argues that children’s early exposure to advertising, far from making them more susceptible, makes them more sceptical of what advertisers offer. This makes sense. Children may find out about the existence of a product through seeing a TV ad, but whether they end up consuming the product depends on a range of factors, including whether their friends have it and whether their parents can afford it and are prepared to buy it. My young nieces and nephews, for example, now spurn McDonald’s because their parents are hostile to the restaurant chain.

This process of negotiation itself educates children. Through talking about their choices, children learn about the persuasive tactics of advertisers, among other things. As a result, most children are surprisingly savvy about the claims of advertisers. As David Buckingham points out: ‘While younger children may be uncertain about the persuasive intentions of advertising, most children become aware of this by around the age of seven or eight; and they quickly develop a set of “cognitive defences” which enable them to resist and challenge the claims of advertisers.’

Finally, the KFF report on the media’s impact on obesity points out an interesting contradiction: if advertising is blamed for encouraging children to eat too much of the wrong food, other media messages promote the opposite of obesity – television shows, magazines and movies promote unrealistically thin body types as the ideal. The report notes that ‘after years of an imbalance towards depictions of thin characters, the true weight-related health emergency among young people is, paradoxically, obesity. This paradox has yet to be explained.’ Indeed. Perhaps this should alert commentators to the fact that the media give contradictory messages, and the claim that the role of advertising in obesity justifies its regulation would not hold up in court.

Unfortunately, lack of hard evidence makes little difference to those who advocate regulation. The KFF in the US and Ofcom and its advisers in Britain claim that even the possibility, however unproven, that food advertising on children’s TV might contribute to obesity is sufficient cause for concern to make regulation a necessity.

Violent images, violent children?

A similar blindness exists in relation to children and violence in the media. The preoccupation with the effect of TV and film violence has a long history. The arrival of mass television in North America in the 1950s was soon followed by a dramatic increase in violent crime between 1960 and 1990. Many people – academics, politicians, journalists and social commentators – made a connection and much research has been done since to try to pin down the relationship between violence in the media and real violent crime.

In their recent review of the evidence, Hargrave and Livingstone indicate that most research does not stand up to criticism. At best, some research demonstrates short-term effects on attitudes and behaviours among a particular sample, but generalising these findings, or making assumptions about long-term effects based on them, is untenable. Of videogames they point to ‘a growing body of research…which suggests harmful effects, especially for games with violent content and especially on boys or men who play them.’ But, they add, the significance of this research for aggressive situations in everyday life remains contested.

Jonathan L Freedman is more trenchant in his criticism of the evidence of the effect of media violence on aggression. Examining around 200 studies – ‘virtually all the original research on the topic’ – he concludes that far from proving the hypothesis, the evidence tends to contradict the presumption that there is a causal link between media violence and aggressive behaviour.

He dissects the evidence provided by a variety of different studies using a range of methodologies, including surveys, laboratory experiments, field experiments, longitudinal studies, comparison studies (with and without television) and other methodologies. He finds the evidence that the media causes violent behaviour to be ‘weak and inconsistent, with more non-supportive results than supportive results’. In fact, evidence from the US Justice Department shows violent crime has actually decreased over the past 30 years, despite the growing popularity of violent videogames, such as Grand Theft Auto.

Freedman rightly criticises organisations that continue to claim a causal link between media violence and individual behaviour for using ‘junk science’. As he points out, many highly respected organisations, such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Paediatrics and the American Psychological Association, ‘are guilty of the worst kind of irresponsible behaviour’ because they make claims of a causal connection without conducting a thorough review of the research; in court they ‘could be convicted of perjury’.

Bad media, good media

While some campaigners invoke the alleged negative power of the media in order to call for further regulation and controls, others seek to use the media to get across ‘positive’ messages about acceptable behaviour and healthy eating habits.

In the UK and in the USA, the media are increasingly deployed to encourage healthy eating and exercise. In 2004 the Food Standards Agency announced plans to encourage broadcasters to use celebrities, characters and cartoons to encourage children to eat healthier foods. On the basis that ‘the media have a role to play in encouraging improvements in children’s diet and exercise’, the British Medical Association has recommended that ‘celebrities and children’s television characters should only endorse healthy products that meet nutritional criteria laid down by the Food Standards Agency (FSA)’.

Responding to this, BBC Worldwide has revised its policy on the use of CBBC characters, such as the Fimbles, to promote brand food products; it now ensures that the branded products are nutritionally sound. ‘By controlling the use of branded children’s characters, the BBC is taking a positive leadership role in influencing the diet of children and encouraging healthy eating’, the corporation claims.

In 2005, Nickelodeon and PBS started to incorporate messages in programmes like Sesame Street, such as ‘too many sweets can make kids feel sick’ and ‘it’s important to exercise and be active’, on the spurious basis that ‘we want to put the power back in the kids’ hands’. The Disney Channel did likewise, with ‘The Wiggles’, for example, advocating ‘Fruit salad, yummy, yummy’.

There is even less evidence that these tactics are effective in influencing positive behaviour than that violence or advertising on TV influence bad behaviour. The main likely outcome is that children become increasingly suspicious of being manipulated by the media as their favourite programmes become dominated by moralistic messages about their eating habits and behaviour. Historically, children have tended to vote with their feet, choosing programmes that thumb their noses at authority. The development of children’s television in the 1970s and 80s, for example, was driven by the popularity of such programmes as British school drama Grange Hill, which was initially condemned for being anti-authority and anarchic, and the Saturday morning show Tiswas, which was ‘very anti-adult and on the side of the audience’. We can only hope that programmes which start slipping in worthy messages about nutritious food plummet in their ratings as children switch to another channel.

Resist regulation

Why does the conviction persist that there is a causal link between the media and children’s behaviour? As both Goldstein and Freedman point out, a critical survey of the research indicates that there is virtually nothing to show that the media cause bad behaviour or obesity. But because the media are so prevalent in our lives – and increasingly so with the advent of digital media, the internet, mobile phones, etc – the fear is that they must be doing something to us, particularly to children and ‘vulnerable’ people. In a society where risk consciousness dominates, the risk of harm, however minute or uncertain, outweighs the evidence of non-harm. This sense of risk is imbued with the conception of the mass of human beings as victims of media messages, passive recipients who can’t be trusted to make rational choices.

In this context, children are seen as particularly vulnerable. Demands for further regulation are justified by the belief that, increasingly, parents are overwhelmed by the complexities of media technologies and cannot be trusted to manage their children’s media consumption, while many parents endorse the idea of regulation because they do not want advertisers to add to their difficulties by targeting their children with persuasive messages. It might suit parents not to have to argue with little Lucy about buying sweets and crisps, or an expensive brand of trainers, but this kind of negotiation is part of the rich tapestry of family life. And, as most parents are aware, advertising plays a minor role, if any, in these discussions; a far stronger influence on children is what their peers say.

But does it really matter if parents want a little help in limiting their children’s access to media content? If it makes parents and guardians of children’s welfare happier, is there anything wrong with restricting advertisers from promoting potentially harmful products between children’s television programmes? Apart from the argument made by commercial broadcasters – that such restrictions could reduce funding for children’s programmes – there is a wider problem with accepting such regulation. It reinforces ideas about the power of the media.

By accepting that children need protecting from the media, and that parents are incapable of managing how their children access and respond to the media, we allow increasing government regulation into our private spheres and personal relationships, and endorse the belief in government circles that we can’t control our own lives.

Wendy Earle is commissioning editor of educational publishing at the British Film Institute. She is chairing the debate Is TV good for children? at the Battle of Ideas in London in October 2006.

(1) Television advertising of food and drink products to children, Ofcom, paragraph 1.10
(2) The role of media in childhood obesity, Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation
(3) Harm and offence in media content, Andrea Millwood Hargrave and Sonia Livingstone, Intellect Books (summary version)
(4) Factsheet: Children and advertising, MediaWise
(5) Commercial Communications Newsletter, No. 13, European Commission, July 1998
(6) D Buckingham, 2003, Media Education: Literacy learning and contemporary culture, Routledge
(7) J Freedman, 2002, Media Violence and its Effect on Aggression, University of Toronto Press
(8) ibid: p200
(9) Caution: children at play, Game Revolution
(10) Freedman p9
(11) Food Standards Agency agrees action on promotion of foods to children, Food Standards Agency, 6 July 2004
(12) Childhood obesity, British Medical Association, March 2006
(13) BBC tackles obesity issue through programming and children’s food, International Business Leaders Forum
(14) PBS, Nickelodeon tuck health messages into popular kids shows, Arizona Republic, 22 July 2005
(15) Children’s television shows have a healthy new message for kids, Carey Bryson, About.com
(16) Anna Home, 1993, Into a Box of Delights: A History of Children’s Television, BBC Books

reprinted from: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/1287/

Friday, November 17, 2006

You might be a shopaholic...

You might be a shopaholic if ...

Is your closet overflowing with never-worn clothing, the price tags still waving in the breeze?
Is your attic bulging with boxes and boxes of shoes that have never touched pavement?
Do you buy new makeup weekly or compact discs by the fistful?
You might be a shopaholic.
Studies estimate that as many as 17 million Americans, better than one in 20 of us, can't control our urge to shop, even at the expense of our job, our marriage, our family and our finances.
Not that funny In the land of conspicuous consumption, compulsive shopping is the smiled-upon addiction, the butt of countless sitcoms and Sunday comics, one of the few disorders that it's still OK to laugh at. Shop till ou drop. The one who dies with the most toys wins. Heck, President Bush even called it patriotic to splurge. Where's the harm?
Manhattan psychologist April Benson, author of "I Shop Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self," has seen firsthand how destructive compulsive shopping can be.
"One patient of mine got fired because she was compulsively shopping on the Internet all day. There are other people who neglect their children and park them in the mall constantly because that is what they need to feed their habit. Lots of marriages break up over compulsive buying. In fact, we don't call it compulsive buying unless there is some significant impairment in some aspect of your life

5 myths about shopaholics
Not only is compulsive shopping tacitly condoned by our materialistic society, it is just as widely misunderstood.
For starters, according to Dr. Donald Black, a University of Iowa psychiatry professor who specializes in obsessive-compulsive disorder, compulsive shopping isn't a true compulsion at all, but instead an impulse control disorder.
"A compulsion is a behavior that is produced to counteract an upsetting thought; for example, I'm contaminated or dirty, therefore I will deal with that anxiety by washing my hands more," he says.
"There is no upsetting thought prompting compulsive shopping. It is a very pleasurable impulse and people act on those impulses."
Famous shopaholicsNor is compulsive shopping a modern-day "designer disease." According to Black, a German psychiatrist published the first clinical description of the disorder in 1915.
Famous shopaholics in history include Marie Antoinette, Mary Todd Lincoln, William Randolph Hearst, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Imelda Marcos and Princess Diana. Their addictions ranged from clothing (Jackie O, Diana) to art and antiques (Hearst) to shoes (the heralded Marcos collection) to gloves (Mrs. Lincoln owned 84 pairs of them).
"Now maybe it's more prevalent now because you clearly need available goods, a market economy and disposable income, and those elements haven't always been around," he notes.
Men are 'collectors,' women are 'shopaholics'While research suggests that nine in 10 shopaholics are women, Benson says it's a common misnomer to tag this as a female disorder.
"People who are part of their studies are psychiatric in- or outpatients, and women self-refer for these problems much more so than men. Recent studies coming out of Europe suggest that more men are beginning to have these problems. In addition to the fact that they don't self-refer for the types of studies on which these statistics are based is the fact that society often calls men who are compulsive buyers 'collectors.' It gives it a refined and slightly highbrow image."
The same is true of the misconception that compulsive shopping is a malady of the privileged class.
"We say that money is an equal opportunity mood changer," says Benson. "There have been a few studies linking socioeconomic class with compulsive buying and no significant results have been found. I had a colleague who had a guy on welfare who compulsively bought."
As long as we're exposing myths, Black suggests we discard the notion that shopaholics are unaware of their problem.
"They are perfectly aware of what they're doing. Intellectually, they know that their closets and maybe their attic is full, but then they will be in the store and think, well, maybe I do need this one blouse or this will come in handy or I don't have one in this particular shade so I'll buy it. They usually hide it from their husbands. They do have feelings of guilt."

Are you a shopaholic?

Take this Quiz:

Are you a compulsive shopper?

True or False?
Evaluate the following statements:

1. When I am feeling depressed, I usually go shopping.

2. I spend a lot of money that I do not have on things that I do not need.

3. I get a rush when I make a purchase, but I “crash” soon afterwards.

4. I have closets full of clothes that I have never worn, and countless gadgets that I have never used.

5. I often feel reckless and out of control when I shop.

6. I lie to my friends and family about how much money I spend.

7. Even though I feel very distraught about my debt, I still shop.

8. I feel emotionally upset and disturbed by my own shopping habits.

9. After a big shopping trip, I sometimes feel disoriented and depressed.

10. My shopping has caused problems in my personal relationships in one way or another.

Did you answer “True” for four or more of the above statements? If so, it is possible that you have a real problem with compulsive shopping.

What is compulsive shopping?

Compulsive shoppers, or shopaholics, have in recent years been spotlighted on television programs and women’s magazines. They have become topics of conversation in the realm of pop psychology. While the media sometimes uses the term loosely or in an off-handed manner, a true compulsive shopper suffers from a very real, and sometimes very frightening, lack of self-control.
Without a doubt, we live in a very “spend-happy” society. As a whole, we are living above our means and many of us are drowning in debt. Many people, no matter their level of income, view shopping as a hobby. They take weekend-long shopping excursions, spend money they do not have, and often regret their purchases the next day. Does this mean that they have a problem? Not necessarily.
A true shopaholic shops out of compulsion. They will make purchases long after they are over their heads in debt. They shop when they are feeling emotionally distressed, and use spending as a coping mechanism. They do not shop because they merely enjoy it, or because they are purchasing things that they have a need for. They buy things because they feel they HAVE to. A shopaholic is out of control.
Tips on Controlling Overspending and Treatment for Compulsive Shoppers
(1) Get rid of your credit cards, checkbooks, and ATM cards before you go shopping. Use only cash.
(2) If you spot something that you would like to purchase, never allow yourself to purchase it on the spot. Instead, walk away and give yourself a “mandatory waiting period” (or if you must-- ask the store to hold it for you. Most stores will hold items for their customers for at least a day). If you still want the item in a few days, then you can go back and make your thought-out purchase.
(3) Make a budget and put it on paper. Give yourself some “mad money” for each month, and do not allow yourself to purchase anything that is not in the budget.
(4) Write down everything you purchase for two weeks; groceries, gas for your car, the electric bill, and even that candy bar from the vending machine! This will make your more conscience of where your hard-earned dollars are going. Being more aware of your spending will also make your more in control.
(5) If you are overwhelmed with debt, contact a credit-counseling agency. There are several non-profit organizations (you can even find some online!) whose goal is to get your out of debt. They will help you consolidate your bills into a smaller monthly payment, and get your credit report in good standing once more. Most credit counseling agencies will also help you set up your monthly budget.
If you found that you answered many of the Quiz questions “True”, your may need more than a few frugal tips to help keep your spending under control. If your shopping behavior is interfering with your life, consider counseling. A counselor will be able to help you figure our why your spending habits are so out of control. A knowledgeable counselor can walk you through behavior modification techniques that have a proven track record. Compulsive shoppers sometimes suffer from depression or bi-polar disorder, which can be diagnosed and treated with counseling. Some shopaholics are diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which can also be treated with the aid of a psychologist or psychiatrist. With patience, persistence, and sometimes professional help, compulsive shoppers can get their lives back in control.

The impact of advertising

The Impact of Advertising

The advertising business has become such an important factor in the economy in many countries, especially in the United States, that it also changes the economy itself, society, culture, and the political system.
The stimulation for the demand of products and services helps the economy grow stronger and stronger. New inventions become known much faster and can establish their spot in the sales figures of the economy. If there are more people buying these products the overall costs will drop and the product will become cheaper for the customer which raises his willingness to buy even more. On the other hand advertisements are very expensive and some economists believe that these costs are put on top of the actual price paid by the customer
Critics argue that advertising can also have a huge influence on society. It tells the consumers that only purchasing products makes you happy and therefore people compare each other on their belongings. Women also compare themselves with the beautiful and very skinny models they see on commercials and ads. This sometimes results in eating disorders and a low self-esteem of women who don’t look like these models. Another bad effect is, that minority groups, especially in the United States are portrait in a subordinate position, which settles in the minds of people. Commercials are also an important part of the income of a TV station which leads to the suspicion that a news channel might not report on an incident about a company they depend on. A lot of TV shows are also based on these commercials, and if the ratings aren’t good enough the show will be stopped. Only those shows which attract a lot of viewers will be shown, which is not very differentiated and put minorities like older people at a disadvantage.
Advertising can also have an impact in politics. $ 467 million were spent on advertisements and TV commercials in the elections of 1998. It gives the opponents the chance to respond to charges very quickly reaching a few million viewers. But since this is very expensive only very rich people have to chance to run for a political position or at least depend on the donation of wealthier people who could have a huge impact on democracy this way. The political issues talked about in an election are also very much simplified because the spots are only about 30 seconds long, and you can’t really discuss a lot in such a short period of time.
There is finally the impact advertising can have on the culture of a country. The globalized economy uses the same commercials in a lot of different countries, which leads to a break down in the differences of these societies. Children will grow up not knowing how their culture has been before in their country. It can also lead to a lot of discussion about moral values if we just think about the very controversial ads of Benetton we have discussed.

grammar sites

Grammar sites

http://www.englishlearner.com/tests/report.html

http://www.fh-karlsruhe.de/ifs/html/eng/efs2_exercises/unit5_1_reported_speech.htm

http://members.chello.at/english4u/rep_speech_ex1.htm

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/words/activities/modal_verbs_ma01.html

http://webster.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/modal_quiz.htm

http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/durrus/153/gramtoc.html

http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/Inversion.htm
www.esec-braamcamp-freire.rcts.pt/paginas/whatsup/on-your-own/10-
http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Grammar_and_English_Usage/

Common advertising stratagies

Common Advertising Strategies

1. Ideal Kids
The kids in commercials are often a little older and a little more perfect than the target audience of the ad. They are, in other words, role models for what the advertiser wants children in the target audience to think they want to be like. A commercial that is targeting eight year-olds, for instance, will show 11 or 12 year-old models playing with an eight year old's toy.
2. Heart Strings
Commercials often create an emotional ambience that draws you into the advertisement and makes you feel good. The McDonald's commercials featuring father and daughter eating out together, or the AT&T Reach Out and Touch Someone ads are good examples. We are more attracted by products that make us feel good.
3. Amazing Toys
Many toy commercials show their toys in life-like fashion, doing incredible things. Airplanes do loop-the-loops and cars do wheelies, dolls cry and spring-loaded missiles hit gorillas dead in the chest. This would be fine if the toys really did these things.
4. Life-like Settings
Barbie struts her stuff on the beach with waves crashing in the background, space aliens fly through dark outer space and all-terrain vehicles leap over rivers and trenches. The rocks, dirt, sand and water don't come with the toys, however.
5. Sounds Good
Music and other sound effects add to the excitement of commercials. Sound can make toys seem more life-like or less life-like, as in a music video. Either way, they help set the mood advertisers want.
6. Cute Celebrities
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sell pizza. Spuds McKenzie sells beer. "Joe Cool" camel sells cigarettes. All of these are ways of helping children identify with products either now or for the future.
7. Selective Editing
Selective editing is used in all commercials, but especially in commercials for athletic toys like frisbees or footballs. Commercials show only brilliant catches and perfect throws. Unfortunately, that's not the way most children experience these toys.
8. Family Fun.
"This is something the whole family can do together!" or "This is something Mom will be glad to buy for you." Many commercials show parents enjoying their children's fun as if the toy will bring more family togetherness.
9. Excitement!
Watch the expressions on children's faces. Never a dull moment, never boring. "This toy is the most fun since fried bananas!" they seem to say. How can your child help thinking the toy's great?
10. Star Power.
Sports heroes, movie stars, and teenage heart throbs tell our children what to eat and what to wear. Children listen, not realizing that the star is paid handsomely for the endorsement.

Super advertising slogans

Super advertising slogans

Advertising slogans or taglines pushing sales are great for getting a customer’s attention as they often tangle and hold them hostage for a second or two.Some taglines catch the user’s attention, but most are simply confusing, causing them to “escape the trap” and run away.The combined yearly budgets of all the strangely composed slogans promoting various branding worldwide would easily add up to billions of dollars. Corporations make extraordinary efforts to capture these few words on a string and liberally fund the most lavish extravaganzas when it comes to pushing these cutesy and strange sentences.Not too long ago, a major credit card company collected some hundred plus executives from their national offices around the world to an exercise organized by a major ad agency with the sole purpose to find a new slogan.
That project was called “universal words” The first order of the day was to dress some of the executives in fictitious characters, like Superman, Spiderman, or Tarzan, and the others in various imaginary titles from a CEO to shipper or an engineer to garbage collector, and so on.Each participant had to make a mock costume from a large tear sheet from the flip chart. 48 hours of role playing later, they came up with a distilled series of universally accepted words: “life,” “without,” “the card” and “really boring”, hence the tagline, “life without the card is boring” This million-dollar cost was easily absorbed as a finder’s fee for these magical words, and many additional millions were spent to promote the new tagline for a little while.
Some taglines that are still easy to recall have only worked because of tens of millions of dollars in yearly expenditures, such as “a tiger in the tank” or “his master’s voice” “the real thing” and “just do it”. There are other stories, and it seems shorter the better. IBM’s “Think” and now HP’s “invent” Samsonite’s “worldproof” or “Relax. It’s FedEx” The long ones are, “What can Brown do for you?” for UPS or Cannon’s “Know how. Here’s the future, let’s go to work.”Here are some more examples. Match the following slogans with their respective companies. The difficulties of recognizing the companies are obvious:
Slogans:
1) “the life unscripted”
2) “software that can think”
3) “what’s on your mind?”
4) “better ideas driven by you”
5) “think big, move fast”
6) “what good thinking can do”
7) “moving ideas”
8) “TV for the chosen few”

Two critical factors: When corporate identity is weak: When names of corporations are obviously weak, like strange initials or unclear words, then they are no longer able to convey a clear marketing message, and a tagline becomes essential to identify the purpose of the advertising pitch. This short gist is supposed to be a small platform to park the ideology of the corporation. Sometimes capturing the idea, as a large paragraph is just too long, equally, a few shorts words are just too limited to paint the entire story.For that reason a vast majority of taglines convey very confusing messages. Upon, a newly invented tagline line, often, the entire corporation amazingly gets intoxicated with the slogan while repeating and singing every morning like a mantra as an hypnotic internal branding exercise.
While the poor customer at large has no idea of this deep secret, and what the real message is in such a riddle. “We bring what you desire” or “trust life, as it is valuable.” Really?Furthermore, the consumer is getting busier and busier by the second, and has no time to memorize or to be able to recognize a company upon coming across that strange riddle again. Slogans are like fireworks; they stay lit in the sky for a second or two and immediately die when the big budgets are cut.
When ideas cross over: Very often, same products can serve many different markets than it is recommended, to present such ideas with supportive explanations for those specific markets. In that case, a common-sense approach translated into a plain sentence is better than a twisted creative riddle. A simple sentence tells the customer a simple marketing message.
Branding concepts and positioning is best achieved by strong and original names and not by fluid and ever-changing slogans. Colors, stripes, logos and slogans come and go, they flow with the budgets and the trade winds, but a solid name identity stays forever. Solid names slowly grow at the grass root level without major budgets, and eventually become a well-known brand. This is a simple common sense approach.
Recommendations: Use slogans that are common, everyday sentences. Use them freely for different products and services, and describe their specific features and benefits. For example, for a line of alarm clocks; “enjoy seven different ways to set up your wake-up calls” rather than “rhythmic vibrations, better sexual fantasies”.Slogans are great when they can be easily developed internally and created like simple sentences within an organization. Later, they can be dropped freely without any loss or pain, in contrast to spending extraordinary monies in creating ridiculously twisted and ever-so-confusing slogans.
Just keep it sweet and simple. Naseem Javed, author of Naming for Power and Domain Wars, is recognized as a world authority on global name identities and domain issues. Javed founded ABC Namebank International, a consultancy he established a quarter century ago, and conducts executive workshops on image and name identity issues. For comments reach Naseem at njabc@njabc.com.The opinions expressed herein or statements made in the above column are solely those of the author, & do not necessarily reflect the views of Wisconsin Technology Network, LLC. (WTN). WTN, LLC accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed herein.

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