Stereotypes in ads

 Advertising

What is a spoof? 

What's the difference between something that makes fun with stereotypes and something that exploits and perpetuates stereotypes?

White washing



Discuss the complexities of this advertisement.


"Smack and Cheese"


Burgerfuel Narcos spoof

BurgerFuel's latest campaign has come under fire from members of the Latin American community who say the advertising perpetuates negative stereotypes and capitalises on the drug war.

Advertising for the new Smack and Cheese burger plays on the word "smack" - slang for heroin or cocaine. It is themed around Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, the drug war and drug smuggling in South America.

A video advertising the burger is filmed in Spanish and features a Pablo Escobar-like character threatening and bribing soldiers as he attempts to smuggle "smack", which turns out to be macaroni, through the countryside.

Green Party candidate, Ricardo Menendez March, said he was concerned the campaign perpetuated negative stereotypes about the Latin American community, particularly that they are drug dealers.

"Latin Americans across the world already have to deal with commentary around the drug war and for many Latin Americans who come from violent areas, the drug war is quite close to us," he said.

"Some of us have friends and family members and acquaintances who have died as a result, and so to have to put up with those stereotypes can be really demoralising."

Following the election of US President Donald Trump - fuelled by anti-immigration sentiment, particularly targeting the Latin American and Muslim communities - such advertising could normalise some of the negative stereotypes the campaign was built on, Menendez March said.

"The Latin American community is rich in diversity and has a plurality of voices. Companies should not be exploiting narrow stereotypes for profit's sake."

BurgerFuel is yet to respond to repeated requests for comment.

Lorena Cuervo has been in New Zealand for two years and says since arriving she has been typecast when mentioning she is from Colombia.

"The following sentence is always related to cocaine: 'good stuff', 'oh! Yes, Pablo Escobar', 'did you bring some stuff to New Zealand?'," she said.

"I don't know why people think that it's funny, or even friendly, they obviously do not know the sadness and pain behind that. They ignore completely that in my country there are children without parents, parents without children because of the war."

Hearing things like this made you feel terribly discriminated against, she said, and seeing these messages in the media encouraged and even sanctioned this stigma.

"I know some people who would rather say that they are from another country instead of hearing those comments."

She believed it was inappropriate for BurgerFuel to use references to the drug war and the trade of cocaine in its advertising.

Menendez March thinks BurgerFuel has a responsibility to play a role in not inciting prejudice and racism.

"An acknowledgement from BurgerFuel that the ad was built upon some pretty negative stereotypes from a war that has cost thousands of lives in the Latin American region would be a start."

• Written by Sarah Murphy

Discuss the comments from the text:

1. "Latin Americans across the world already have to deal with commentary around the drug war and for many Latin Americans who come from violent areas, the drug war is quite close to us."

2.  "Following the election of US President Donald Trump - fuelled by anti-immigration sentiment, particularly targeting the Latin American and Muslim communities - such advertising could normalise some of the negative stereotypes the campaign was built on."

3. "The Latin American community is rich in diversity and has a plurality of voices. Companies should not be exploiting narrow stereotypes for profit's sake."

4. "I don't know why people think that it's funny, or even friendly, they obviously do not know the sadness and pain behind that. They ignore completely that in my country there are children without parents, parents without children because of the war."

5. "I know some people who would rather say that they are from another country instead of hearing those comments."

Gender Stereotypes





1. What are some stereotypes you know of about women?

2. What are some stereotypes about men?

3. Where do we learn these gender stereotypes?


Pierce Brosnan Kia Ad

How does the ad use female stereotypes?

What are the two males in the ad like?

What kind of customer do you think the ad is appealing to?

B2.1 Unit 1: The Week

Unit objectives

Listen to a conversation about a work-at-home dad.
Interview classmates about their usual week.
Read a magazine article about a typical week in the future,
Write a report about a possible work week in the future.

Task: Plan someone's weekly timetable.

Grammar

Transitive and intransitive verbs
Present simple vs. present continuous.
Review: talking about the future.

Vocabulary

Phrases related to everyday activities.

Reading

An atypical work environment.

Speaking

Discussing work










P6 - phrasal verbs

deal with
pick up
get rid of
ring back
hang out
take part (in)
keep up (with)
write down
look at

In some of these actions, an object is directly changed by the action. In others, the action is not directly connected with an object.

With phrasal verbs, the ones that we call "transitive" (that have a direct object) can be separated by an object. The intransitive ones (that don't have a direct object) can't be.

Some verbs, such as arrive, go, lie, sneeze, sit, and die, are always intransitive; it is impossible for a direct object to follow. This means that they aren't able to be used in the passive. 








P7  Present Simple vs. Present Continuous

Simple:

Sub + verb = obj

Q: Do/does + sub + bare inf.

Continuous:

Sub + be + gerund

Future reference:

There is no future tense in English. Present continuous is a good tense for plans and arrangements in the near future. Using "will" often works better for things in the more distant future.









P8 - Listening

Do understand what a "to-do" list is?

Here's some of the vocab in this listening:

to make a transition
to bring home the bacon
commitment
to collect the kids
sounds intriguing
a line of work
a day off
to doubt
in case
no matter how
to switch roles
to question a decision
Either way,
to maintain a household
to retire sth
an egg beater
to last

Listen out for this week's phrasal verbs in this listening.


Use these words in a sentence



P9 - Speaking

Use "will" for discussing the more distant future.

Some useful vocab for this topic:

workload
work force
work-life balance
overwork
a challenge
work hours
recover, recharge your batteries, restore
burn out
pressure
commitments
overcommitment









P 10 - Language builder (everyday activities)

active + lifestyle
do + the laundry
go + to the theatre
take + exercise
be late for + a show
how are your + studies + going?
spend time + outdoors
like to + relax + with a long hot bath










P11 - Review (talking about the future)

P12 - Reading

Read the first 4 paragraphs. Stop and discuss the point of the article.

Do the exercises on P13.

Extn: see of you can find some other interesting language in the text to ask me about.

Self study quiz for reading vocab

What are the differences between "affect" and "effect"?









P14 - Writing

Suggested headings (not in the correct order):

Flexible hours
Cost-effective
Conclusion
Introduction
Free-time
Productivity

Discuss: what will a typical working week be like in the future?

(B2.1 Unit 1: the week) Average worker wastes 2 hours a day

Lead in:

MY TIME:

In pairs / groups, talk to each other about how much time you spend each day doing different things. What takes up most of your time at home? What takes up most of your time at work or school? Do you waste a lot of time during each day? Talk about your time management skills.

"Average worker wastes 2 hours a day"

1. TRUE / FALSE:

Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	The average worker wastes 25% of his/her working time.	T / F
b.	Companies did a secret check on their workers.	T / F
c.	Company bosses thought workers wasted an hour a day.	T / F
d.	Many executives think time wasting is beneficial to a company.	T / F
e.	Drinking tea and coffee is the biggest time waster.	T / F
f.	Almost 40 % of employees waste time by daydreaming.	T / F
g.	Many employees complain that they do not have enough work to do.	T / F
h.	Women waste much more time than men.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	completed	extraordinary
b.	idled away	daydreaming
c.	amazing	upset
d.	angered	private
e.	beneficial	discovered
f.	personal	filled in
g.	confessed	sidetracked
h.	staring into space	admitted
i.	distracted	wasted
j.	found	favorable

Read and check

Time is money and according to a new 

survey, workers waste 25 per cent of working time on non-work related matters. That’s a lot of company money down the drain. A poll of 10,000 respondents by Salary.com and AOL.com indicates an average of 2.09 hours per day is idled away in offices. This is twice as much as company bosses predicted and amounts to a whopping $759 billion in the USA. However, corporate bosses are not rattled by these figures. They said one hour a day of time wasting is factored into calculating salaries. Many executives deem time frittered away to be of benefit to a company. Salary.com’s Bill Coleman called it “creative waste”.

The survey said the top time-wasting activity was using the Internet for personal use – 44.7% of respondents owned up to this. Other big offenders were socializing with co-workers (23.4%), conducting personal business (6.8%) and that most productive of pursuits – spacing out, otherwise known as staring into space (3.9%). Employees indicated the blame for time wasting could not always be pinned on them. The top time-wasting excuse was not having enough work to do (33.2%). Other employee gripes were feeling underpaid (23.4%) and being distracted by co-workers (14.7%). The survey also found that men and women squandered away equal amounts of time.

3. PHRASE MATCH: 

Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	a lot of company money	into calculating salaries
b.	amounts to a whopping	away equal amounts of time
c.	bosses are not rattled by	on them
d.	time wasting is factored	up to this
e.	executives deem time frittered	$759 billion
f.	respondents owned	gripes
g.	spacing	down the drain
h.	could not always be pinned	away to be of benefit
i.	employee	out
j.	men and women squandered	these figures

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the correct spaces.

Average worker wastes 2 hours a day

Time is money and according to a new survey, workers waste 25 per cent of working time on non-work related ________. That’s a lot of company money down the ________. A poll of 10,000 respondents by Salary.com and AOL.com indicates an average of 2.09 hours per day is ________ away in offices. This is twice as much as company bosses predicted and amounts to a ________ $759 billion in the USA. However, corporate bosses are not ________ by these figures. They said one hour a day of time wasting is ________ into calculating salaries. Many executives deem time frittered away to be of ________ to a company. Salary.com’s Bill Coleman called it “________ waste”.		idled factored drain benefit matters rattled creative whopping
The survey said the ________ time-wasting activity was using the Internet for personal use – 44.7% of respondents owned up to this. Other big ________ were socializing with co-workers (23.4%), ________ personal business (6.8%) and that most productive of pursuits – spacing out, otherwise known as staring into ________ (3.9%). Employees indicated the ________ for time wasting could not always be ________ on them. The top time-wasting excuse was not having enough work to do (33.2%). Other employee ________ were feeling underpaid (23.4%) and being distracted by co-workers (14.7%). The survey also found that men and women ________ away equal amounts of time.		conducting pinned squandered space gripes offenders blame top

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Listening

Average worker wastes 2 hours a day

BNE: Time is money and _________ to a new survey, workers waste a lot of working time. A questionnaire __________ by 10,000 employees reports an average of 2.09 hours ___ ___ is idled away in businesses. This is ______ __ much as company bosses thought. It means companies lose __ ________ $759 billion in the USA. However, bosses are ___ _______ by these figures. Many executives think this idle time is beneficial to a company. Salary.com’s Bill Coleman called it “________ waste”.

The top time-wasting activity was using the Internet for ________ ___ – 44.7% of workers confessed to this. Other big ____ _______ were chatting with co-workers (23.4%), personal business (6.8%) and staring into space (3.9%). The top time-wasting _______ was not having enough work to do (33.2%). Workers also complained about feeling __________ (23.4%) and being distracted by co-workers (14.7%). The survey also found that men and women wasted ______ ________ of time.

SPEAKING

GET STUDYING (ENGLISH):

In pairs / groups, think of ways how you can make better use of your time to study English more.

SITUATION	HOW TO USE TIME TO STUDY ENGLISH MORE
Breakfast	• • •
Going to work / school	• • •
Watching TV	• • •
Walking around town	• • •
Surfing the Internet	• • •
Bedtime	• • •

After you have finished, change partners and tell each other about your ideas. Give each other advice on how to make your ideas better.

Return to your original partner and use the advice you got to make your ideas

12-word quiz