IELTS Writing Task 2/ Essay Topics with sample answer.
IELTS Writing Task 2 Sample 724 - Methods used in advertising are unethical and unacceptable in today’s society
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IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay:
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement:
Some of the methods used in advertising are unethical and unacceptable in today’s society.
Give reasons for your answer using your own ideas and experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Model Answer 1:
In this digital age, we are barraged with an endless amount of advertisements on a daily basis, ranging from adverts on our cell phones to personal soliciting. Nonetheless, many of the methods used to advertise can be considered unacceptable and immoral.
To begin, a common agenda of many advertisers is to first make their audience feel deprived and then to instil a belief in their viewers that only through buying the advertised product or service, they can attain satisfaction. Most people would agree that this strategy is at the very least unacceptable and at worst sinister. Another unacceptable tactic used by advertisers is the deliberate misrepresentation of their products as being scarce and only available for a limited amount of time, by doing this they exploit the human psychology, which places a higher value on things that are apparently not abundant.
In addition, the fact that we can’t escape from advertising is in my opinion, an invasion of personal privacy. In this era of democracy, human beings should have the free will to decide what information they wish to receive but through internet and telemarketing, advertisers have the choice to shove their products down our throats. To illustrate, when browsing the internet, ads can pop up anytime, one after another and after a certain number of times, these intrusive ads can become excruciatingly frustrating.
In brief, I agree with the notion that many of the tactics used for adverting in today’s world are both unacceptable and unethical because they are manipulative and violate a person’s privacy.
[ Written by - Sameed Qureshi ]
Model Answer 2:
Today's significant development of information technology facilitates industries to advertise their products and services widely and in a more variety of platforms which leads advertising activity to be uncontrollable. Furthermore, this brings the companies to make advertisements intensively by eliminating code of conduct causing the existence of unethical and unacceptable advertisements in today's society.
A large number of uneducated commercials nowadays force parents to be more aware of their children because it can affect their children's development. For instance, cigarette ads in TV channels purposed for over-17-year-old citizens can be consumed by underage people (children and teenagers). We do not realise that this circumstance can stimulate children's curiosity to smoke, consequently, we often find underage smokers. Apart from targeting teenagers, advertisers often give fabricated information and mislead adults. This has a huge negative impact on our society- while the product manufacturers amass a large fortune, which costs huge hard-earned money of public.
On the other hand, it has been common in today's advertising when enterprises advertise their product, they make an advert containing pornographic content. For example, the “Segar dingin susu soda” advertisement, a drinking advertisement gives an unethical impression by showing a sensual style of the artist played by Julia Perez wearing super-sexy clothes. This condition is not acceptable and unreasonable because it can trigger the watcher’s desire and is not in line with the product advertised.
Advertisements are meant to describe the advantages and outstanding features of a product or service while most of the advertisements shown on TV and the internet are highly deceptive and contain sexually explicit materials. These should be controlled by any means or the society would get affected the slow poisoning of negative and unsuitable advertisement virus.
To sum up, it is obvious that most of today's advertisements are not acceptable for the society referring to a large number of unethical adverts which are often found these days. Hence, it should be government's responsibility to prevent this condition by giving a strict rule of this kind of activities.
[ Written by - Cipto Troena ]
Model Answer 3:
Different methods of advertisement are used in common media and among them few are considered morally controversial and misleading. I agree with the criticism because the promotions made by companies, like tobacco and fashion industries, try to disguise social aspects, give partial information and try to trigger emotions of people to misguide their judgments.
First, misusing the freedom of the media and advertisement industry, many companies and brands have started using inappropriate ways to convince the society in buying products. For instance, tobacco companies invest millions of dollars in promotion campaigns, which often include famous celebrities, to increase the number of smokers in our community in order to maintain the flow of their sale. Thus, add-making houses are paid heavily to make the catchy scenario for the people. Therefore, most of the advertisement makers try to introduce a concept that smoking is essential to be manly and someone special. Furthermore, to make the presentation even more realistic they might end up hiring a film or sports stars. As a result, people, especially youths, get distracted.
Another feature of immorality could be seen in advertisements made by fashion and cosmetic industries. Fashion industries try to induce a specific pale zero size model image as criteria of an ideal body, which is why, in order to attain that many women, especially girls, end up in a psychological condition like anorexia nervosa or body dysmorphic syndrome. Nevertheless, academic excellence is also markedly affected by those deceptive advertisements. Though there is no scientific evidence that a cream can make our complexion fair, this is a common scenario in an advertisement made by a beauty cream producers.
Finally, hiding real ingredients used in a product and side effects of using it is a common practice in advertisement industries. How ambiguous and confusing it is when every brand claim to be the best! Creativity and unique concept in advertisements should be used positively- in fact, to let the consumers make informed judgments, not to deceive them.
In conclusion, I strongly agree that many advertisements we see or hear break the ethics and morality of our society. Also, the government ought to restrict certain features of freedom given to media, in particular to tobacco and fashion industries. Viewers should be presented with advertisements that are not unethical or inappropriate.
[ Written by - Sana Arooj ]
To what extent do you agree with this view?
Advertising and marketing of different products and services play a huge role in our purchasing decisions, and they even shape our expectations from life. It is often argued that the ways in which the advertising industry works these days are sometimes immoral and difficult to accept. I disagree with the given argument.
To begin with, claiming to have a superior product or service is good for competition. Nowadays, most companies claim to have better products and services than what other firms offer. To prove their point, they often compare the product with similar products in the market, which as a result does negative marketing for competition. Any marketing is good marketing for it makes customers aware of other products available in the market as well. For example, in 2019, 'Tide' claimed to be better than 'Wheel' and during the same period, the sales for 'Wheel' also raised by 22%.
Additionally, the methods of advertising today does the basic job of making people more aware. All the brands and companies that advertise on televisions or any other platforms try to make it the most impactful on the audience. To achieve this, they try to include not only the facts about the product and the industry but also incorporate positive social messages. Which, as a result, makes the viewers more aware of other things in society as well. For instance, "Hindustan Unilever" made a TV commercial about how much plastic they recycle to make shampoo bottles. As a consequence, people became mindful of using plastic products.
However, there are those who agree with the given notion. One of the primary reasons for their belief may be the fact that nowadays companies have gotten more aggressive about spreading the words about their product that they provide fabricated facts to impress the customers. Excessive marketing may also be the reason for them to uphold this notion. Sometimes it makes customers confused instead of making them aware.
To conclude, a section of society agrees with the statement that the approaches used for promotion are not ethical, and easy to accept. I, however strongly disagree with it for it is not only good for competition but also makes the whole society more knowledgeable.
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