​Advertising: Multiple Choice Vocabulary Test

Whether it (0)       A      in print or on television, radio, or billboards, advertising profoundly (1)________ our life. The ads we see, hear, and smell (in the case of open-and-sniff perfume inserts in magazines) (2)________ how we feel and what we think about a wide range of products. Companies pay a lot of money (up to $1 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot) to (3)________ us that their products are the best.

Advertising has a long history in North America. As early as the 1600s, ads were used to (4)________ English settlers to the Colonies. According to historian Daniel Boorstin, these brochures (5)________ "hopeful overstatements, half-truths, and downright lies...".

Nonetheless, the sales campaign was effective; people came. In the 1700s famous (6)________ were involved in the advertising business, (7)________ them Benjamin Franklin, who ran ads in his publications, and Paul Revere, who advertised his handmade false teeth. But it was not until the late 1800s, with the boom in mass-circulation magazines, that advertising became the powerful force it is today. Television arrived in the 1940s and (8)________ a new, action-packed advertising medium.

Creating a good ad isn't as (9)________ as it might seem. One key is to find the right spokesperson. An effective approach is to have the company president speak. In the 1980s Chrysler's Lee Iacocca (10)________ viewers, "If you can find a better car, buy it." Another is to hire an athlete.

Still another option is to create (11)________ characters, such as the dancing California raisins, the Speedy Alka-Seltzer fellow, or an animated parrot (Gillette).

A memorable slogan is helpful as well: "I can't (12)________ I ate the whole thing"; "Where is The beef?"; "You deserve a break today"...

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