SEX AND ADVERTISING: RETAIL THERAPY

“How Ernest Dichter, an acolyte of Sigmund Freud, revolutionized marketing”

Published: The Economist, December 17, 2011; www.economist.com

Level of difficulty: ****

BEFORE YOU READ

1. What makes a good advertisement or commercial?
2. Can you think of some really good ads or commercials? What made them so successful?
3. What kind of background do you think those in the advertising business need to have?
4. What kind of skills do you think they need to have?
5. Read the title of the text and explain what it brings to mind.

QUESTIONS

1. What conclusion can we draw regarding man from the observations made concerning him  in paragraph 1?
2. What is the advantage for retail companies of the above characteristic of man?
3. At the end of paragraph 5, the writer states that Dichter “enjoyed a reputation as the Freud of the market place”. What view did Dichter share with Freud? Use the text.
4. It is implied that Dichter’s “motivational research” is an example of .......................................
5. In paragraph 7, find two synonyms for the word “suss out”.
6. What marketing tactic implemented in the early 20th century did Dichter disagree with? What did he advocate instead?
7. Read down to the end of paragraph 12. What  change that took place in the post war years made effective marketting tactics absoloutly necessary?
8. What does the word “wedded to” in paragraph 14 mean?
9. Read the complete story of Ivory Soap. What important discovery did Dichter make concerning washing?
10. What does the phrase “This was a big idea” at the beginning of the third paragraph in this section refer to? Be brief.
11. How exactly did Dichter advise advertisers to market the soap? Be brief.
12. Read the story of Crysler. Why did Crysler’s initial advertising campaign backfire?
13. What two pieces of practical advise did Dichter give Crysler?
14. State three examples of products currently on the market whose sales were initially boosted by Dichter’s ingenuity.
15. Which of the following marketting slogans would not fit in with Dichter’s teachings:

“You’ve done enough work for three; reward yourself with Cream Wash”

“You will never feel so clean: Cream Wash”

“All the best people use Cream Wash. You are the best: use Cream Wash”

“Massage it in gently and feel your stress melt away: Cream Wash”

16. According to Dichter, how exactly could America “motivate materialistic desires and thus invest in the country’s future”?
17. What solution did Dichter offer to counter the negative attitude of Americans to banks?
18. What development dramatically altered attitudes towards Dichter?
19. Read the story of the quantitative methods of researching consumer attitudes to the end. What is ironical about the conclusions they reached?
20. In the last line of the text, the writer says “Dichter knew that too”. What does “that” refer to in this phrase?

WRITING TASK

Would you like a challenge? If the answer is yes, here is what you do: design a writing task for this reading as a group or individually. Have fun.

SEX AND ADVERTISING

RETAIL THERAPY / KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES

This fascinating text about the father of modern advertising presents a lexical as well as a cognitive challenge and is, therefore, suited to intermediate classes in April all thing being equal. If you have a good class and have been implementing a rigorous reading program, you can attempt it earlier; you are the best judge of your level or your students’ level.Preintermediate classes should try it by the end of April and the advanced classes can attempt it whenever they like. There will be a writing task as well but I have organized a competition for that: I would like individuals or whole classes to design a writing activity for this reading which requires the students to look back at the text and use information. I would then like them to submit them.  Teaching tip: prepare a powerpoint presentation with a few good adds as a warm up.

KEY

1. Humans, it turns out, are impressionable, emotional and irrational. / OR: This research has rendered homoeconomicus a straw man.
2. It is an opportunity for smart selling.
3. They both argue that people are governed by irrational unconscious urges.
4. Manipulation
5. Decipher, discern
6. Quantitative studies: getting people to talk at length about their everyday habits.
7. Supply outstripped demand; OR: countless indistinguishable goods were competing for buyers.
8. Atached, connected to
9. He observed an erotic element to bathing; one of the few...
10. Customers picked a particular brand for the gestalt or personality of the soap.
11. Open ended
12. Because it triggered an unconscious fear of the unknown.
13. Beef up its convertible advertising and begin marketting cars in women’s magazines.
14. Lipstick, prunes, mixes.
15. B
16. By encouraging Americans to embrace change without anxiety, spend money without remorse. OR:  By encouraging Americans to enjoy progress.
17. Checking accounts with overdraft facilities.
18. The fall from favour of Freudian analysis.
19. The quantitative trends that have tossed Dichter asside have ultimately led back to his ideas. OR: They came back full circle: emotion is back in; the unconscious is back in.
20. Human behaviour remains mysterious and there is still no...