You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Today, high sales of popular consumer goods reflect the power of advertising and not the real needs of the society in which they are sold. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.

SAMPLE ANSWER:

It is often argued that rather than the real needs of the customers, advertisements act as the driving force behind the soaring demand of popular consumer goods in the market. I too think in a similar way.

To begin with, it is clear that in many circumstances, adverts persuade people to buy frivolous products. The strategy that the advertising companies adopt is really innovative, so that it can rocket the sale of a product. Crowd-pulling tactics such as showcasing celebrities as brand ambassadors, announcing discounts, and promoting offers like ‘buy one get one free’ are some among those. On top of this, they highlight ‘unique features’ of customer-friendly products such as mobile phones and this makes their purchase real by an average financially sound customer, even if he has an advanced smart-phone. In one way, advertising companies create a feeling among the customers that if they are not purchasing these gadgets, they are not moving with the development. Finally, they project these adverts on the most popular media, especially at the peak time and thus ensure that it reaches the maximum number of people. When this occurs on a regular basis, customers would get a psychological feeling that these products are genuine.

Nevertheless, one cannot completely agree that the sale of products which are popular in the market is completely attributed to the power of advertising. This is because necessity is superior to any other feature. For example, one can see the sale of petroleum products such as gasoline and emergency drugs is neither influenced by adverts nor by any price hike.

In conclusion, though it is the circumstances which lead to the inclined sales of products which are customer-friendly, I would say that the strength of advertisements in luring customers is exceptional in many cases.

Word count: 296