Advertising Power vs Consumer Indifference

Some people say that advertising is extremely successful at persuading us to buy things. Other people think that advertising is so common that we no longer pay attention to it. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

7 sample answers, estimated Band 7.0–8.0. Your turn?

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From essays on this question

Essay ideas: Advertising Power vs Consumer Indifference

WhyThis is aDiscussion essay — it asks you to discuss two opposing views and give your own.

SoWe split the ideas intoFirst view(supports the first view)andSecond view(supports the second view).

First view

8 ideas

Second view

7 ideas

Same question · Different responses

Sample responses and feedback

Response 01

Must fixSuggested

Essay · 363 words · 4 paragraphs · 10 comments

Score details

Response 01
Estimated band7.0/ 9

Overall assessment

The response presents a clear personal position and discusses both views with generally controlled language and relevant support, including the perfume example. Its main limitation is uneven development: the loss-of-attention argument repeats itself, while continued advertising expenditure shows business confidence more directly than actual persuasion. Explaining how glamorous imagery can affect a purchase would make the preferred view more convincing.

TR

Task Response

The response addresses all parts of the task, discusses both views and states a clear consistent opinion, though the supporting ideas remain somewhat general and under-extended in places.

7.0
CC

Coherence and Cohesion

The essay has clear paragraphing and a generally logical progression. Some development repeats the loss-of-attention claim, and the first body paragraph turns to advertising’s effectiveness before the next paragraph introduces that same side with “On the other hand”.

7.0
LR

Lexical Resource

There is a good range of vocabulary for the topic, including 'ubiquity', 'desensitized', 'disseminate', and 'aspirations', used naturally with only minor imprecision.

7.0
GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Complex structures, including subordinate clauses and conditionals, are generally controlled and easy to follow. A local noun-use error remains in “advertisement has become so commonplace”, where the uncountable activity noun “advertising” is needed.

7.0

What to work on next

Strengthen the argument by adding more varied and concrete evidence or examples rather than restating general claims about advertising's emotional appeal.

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Useful vocabulary: Advertising Power vs Consumer Indifference

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Sentence patterns: Advertising Power vs Consumer Indifference

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Part 2

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