Some people say that the main aim of advertising is to improve sales of products that people do not really need. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
How to go about writing this essay
First read the question carefully.
Decide whether you agree or disagree with the given statement. If you agree, the whole of your essay should explain why you believe that the goal of advertising is to encourage consumers to buy things they do not need. If you disagree, explain why you believe that advertising has other objectives.
In the introduction, paraphrase the given statement in your own words. Then say whether you agree or disagree. Two sentences are enough. You do not have to fully agree or disagree. You can also partially agree.
In the body paragraphs, mention as many points as you can to support your opinion.
Restate the main points in the conclusion. Write at least 250 words.
Band 9 essay sample
Some people are of the opinion that the main objective of advertising is to increase the sale of products that are not exactly useful or essential to consumers. I do not fully agree with this view. While I do admit that advertising certainly encourages us to buy things we do not need, sometimes, even genuine products need marketing to become visible in a market inundated by imitations.
We are living in the age of consumerism. A lot of things that we buy today are not exactly necessary or useful to us. In fact, we buy many things and then forget about them. The reason why we still buy is that we are lured by adverts. Manufacturers use clever marketing techniques to convince us that if we do not use their product we will miss out on many things. It is this fear that prompts us to buy. Take, for instance, the case of smartphones. Companies bring out new versions almost every year. Each model is only marginally better than the previous one. Yet, buyers are queuing up in front of the store. They want to be the first among their friends or family to own that model. They already have a handset that is working perfectly fine. Yet, they are buying the new model for features that they will probably never use. This is the power of advertising. They introduce the product as a must have. They convince us that if we do not buy their product, our looks, health, personality, relationships or productivity will suffer in some way. This fear of falling behind spurs people into buying.
On the other hand, sometimes genuine products too need advertising. There is too much competition among manufacturers. In any product category, we have multiple options to choose from. The products that get sold are the products that get in front of buyers. Without advertising, people may not even find out about the existence of a particular product. Because of this reason, companies have to invest in marketing even if they have a quality product. If they do not, they will lose to their competition. With the power of advertising, sometimes even an inferior product gets more buyers than a superior product.
To conclude, it is true that sometimes advertising encourages people to buy even those products they do not really need; this, however, does not mean that the only objective of advertising is to make people buy useless things. In the highly competitive market, quality products also need advertising to gain visibility.
How to add variety to your writing?
We can express the same idea in many different ways.
Study the sentence given below.
While I do admit that advertising encourages us to buy useless things, sometimes, even genuine products need marketing to gain visibility.
We connected the two clauses with while. While is a subordinating conjunction used to connect two contrasting ideas. When we connect two clauses with while, we get a complex sentence.
We can also express the same idea using however. Note that however is not a conjunction. It does not connect clauses. It is a transitional adverb and merely establishes a connection between the ideas. Put a full stop or a semicolon before however. Also, put a comma after however.
I do admit that advertising encourages us to buy useless things; however, sometimes even genuine products need marketing to gain visibility.
We can also use the conjunction but to connect these sentences.
I do admit that advertising encourages us to buy useless things but sometimes even genuine products…
A common mistake is to use two conjunctions to connect two clauses. We need just one conjunction. For example, if we used both while and but in the sentence above, it will result in an error. Use either while or but.
