Sample response & feedback

Advertising Power vs Consumer Indifference

Question

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.

Annotated response

11 correction notes

Showing 11 correction notes.

There could be a debate surrounding whether advertising is effective, with opponents arguing that it is now too ubiquitous to actually have any impact. In my opinion, advertising is a large waste of money, since most advertisements are not paid attention to.

On the one hand, there are those who argue that the , since advertising can help us differentiate . If advertising is not effective, for instance, it is questionable as to why companies still continue to do it. Thus, one might suggest that the billions of dollars poured into marketing is a testament to the ongoing effectiveness of advertising.

On the other hand, it could be said that the large amounts of money invested into advertising does not show its efficacy, but actually proves that it is rather cost-ineffective. With the constant bombardment of ads today, it could be said that many people are increasingly becoming averse to them, and as such, more and more money has to be invested in order to grab the consumer’s attention. Recent studies, for instance, show that millennials and Gen Z respond much less to ads, preferring to use things such as Adblock on their browsers instead.

Overall, I thus argue that the huge cost of advertising today, far from showing its usefulness as an industry, actually showcases how its ubiquity has become the source of its falling popularity.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The response presents a clear personal position and covers both views in a logical, well-linked structure, which is its strongest aspect. Its main limitations are the slightly under-length response, somewhat generalized support such as the vague reference to studies, and recurring grammar slips.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

TR Task Response

6.5

Both views are addressed and a clear, consistent opinion is presented with relevant reasoning, but support is partly generalized and the response falls 9 words short of the minimum length.

CC Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas progress logically across clear paragraphs with effective linking devices, though repetition of phrases like 'for instance' shows slightly mechanical cohesion.

LR Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is reasonably flexible and precise, with items such as 'ubiquitous', 'bombardment', and 'averse', alongside occasional awkward or imprecise choices like 'cost-ineffective' and 'showcases'.

GRA Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A good range of complex structures is used with generally firm control, but recurring subject-verb agreement errors, such as 'returns... is' and 'amounts... does', persist.