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English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 82

TOPICS

U.S. advertising in other countries; Habitat for Humanity; bad-tempered versus

short-tempered; no pun intended; to be raining cats and dogs

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GLOSSARY

advertising campaign – the combination of similar advertisements on radio, TV,

the Internet and in magazines and newspapers for a specific product, service, or

company

* Right now our company has a very successful advertising campaign that uses

funny videos and billboards to advertise our product.

ill-mannered – rude; impolite; not polite; with bad manners

* Jake is very ill-mannered. He chews with his mouth open and he never holds

doors open for other people.

overseas markets – groups of potential or actual customers for a company’s

products or services in another country

* Japanese car manufacturers have very large overseas markets. Most of their

cars are sold outside of Japan.

hip – very “cool”; familiar with what is popular and fashionable

* Hip high school students at this school all have new clothes, listen to new

bands, and have new technology like cell phones and digital music players.

nerdy – not familiar with what is popular and fashionable; geeky; more interested

in computers or books than in music and fashion

* I was a nerdy student in college, always spending extra time studying in the

chemistry laboratory instead going to parties.

direct comparison – comparing two things next to each other; determining how

similar or different two things are by looking at them one part at a time

* You can’t make a direct comparison of Ming’s and Dana’s intelligence by

looking at their grades, because Ming has to work 20 hours a week while

studying full-time, and Dana doesn’t work at all.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 82

to brag – to talk proudly about how good something you own is, or about

something you have done very well

* Kimberly doesn’t have very many friends, because she’s always bragging about

how much money she has.

to backfire – to do the opposite of what something was supposed to do; to have

an effect that is the opposite of what was intended

* Bertha planned to win the horse race by riding her horse for hours every day,

but her plan backfired when the horse was very tired on the day of the race.

habitat – the place where a plant or animal normally lives

* The natural habitat for penguins is in South America and Antarctica and not in

zoos.

affordable – not too expensive; with a price that one is able to pay without very

much difficulty

* It can be very difficult to find affordable housing in large cities like Washington,

DC and New York City.

volunteer – a person who works without receiving any money

* Evelyn is a volunteer at the local hospital because she likes helping people.

unskilled – without special skills or education

* Unskilled workers don’t make as much money as skilled workers do.

mortgage – a home loan; money received from a bank that is used to buy a

home but then must be paid back to the bank over a certain number of years

* The Gamarra family had to get a $200,000 mortgage to buy their new home in

Denver.

short-tempered – unable to control one’s anger; becoming angry very easily

* Bea is very short-tempered and often gets angry for no reason.

no pun intended – a phrase used after one realizes that what one has just

finished saying has more than one meaning because two words sound similar

* A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired [too tired]. No pun

intended.

to be raining cats and dogs – to be raining very heavily; to be raining a lot

* We wanted to go for a walk, but it was raining cats and dogs so we decided to

stay inside and play a game instead.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 82

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

Classic Advertising Slogans: “Where’s the beef?,” “Don’t leave home

without it,” “Just do it”

In the United States, companies “invest” (spend money to make something more

successful) a lot of money to have creative, “memorable” (easy to remember)

advertising campaigns that help to sell their products. Many advertising

campaigns use “slogans” (short phrases) that are very easy for people to

remember. If the advertising campaign is successful, people think about the

company’s product every time they hear the slogan. Some “classic” (very

famous and well done) advertising slogans include: “Where’s the beef?”, “Don’t

leave home without it,” and “Just do it.”

The advertising slogan, “Where’s the beef?” was used in a 1980s “commercial”

(a TV advertisement) for Wendy’s, a fast-food hamburger restaurant. In the

commercial, a woman goes to another hamburger restaurant and when she is

given a large piece of bread with a very small piece of beef, she shouts, “Where’s

the beef?” The commercial was very funny and soon people began saying

“Where’s the beef?” about other things to question the value of a product or idea.

Another classic advertising slogan, “Don’t leave home without it,” is used by

American Express, a credit card company. It means that people shouldn’t leave

home without their credit cards, because they might need them to buy

something. People might say, “Don’t leave home without it,” to refer to many

other things, too, but many Americans will think of the credit card when they hear

that slogan.

Finally, “Just do it,” is an advertising slogan for Nike, a company that makes

athletic shoes and clothing. “Just do it,” means that one should simply do

something without thinking about it a lot. It’s a phrase that is used to “encourage”

(give help or support to someone) people to do things, especially athletics and

sports. Most Americans think of Nike when they hear someone say, “Just do it.”

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 82

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to English as a Second Language Podcast's English Café

number 82.

This is ESL Podcast's English Café number 82. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan,

coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los

Angeles, California.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com; we have some new things on the

site. You can also take a look at our ESL Podcast Store, which has some

additional premium courses that you may be interested in.

On this Café, we're going to talk about advertising - American advertising in other

countries, and the problems that that can cause sometimes. We're going to look

at an organization that is very famous in the US called “Habitat for Humanity,”

and what they do. And as always, we'll answer some questions. Let's get going!

Our first topic today is talking about advertising from the United States, television

ads that are translated and shown in other countries. There was an article in The

Wall Street Journal, which is the main business newspaper in the United States,

a couple of months ago about advertisements that are made in the United States

and then translated in other languages for other countries, and the problems that

this sometimes causes.

This particular article was about the Apple Mac ads - the Macintosh computer

ads versus the Windows, or PC, computers. One of the problems is that the

advertisements that Apple Computer has recently been running here in the

United States. When we say an ad “runs” (runs), we mean it is showing on

television or it is in the newspaper.

Mac has an advertising, or marketing, campaign. A campaign (campaign) is just

an organized effort by a company to advertise its product. The Mac advertising

campaign has two people, one of them is a Macintosh computer; the other one is

supposed to be a Windows computer. The Macintosh computer makes fun of -

laughs at in some ways - the PC computer. So the man - the two men represent

the two computers. Now, this is considered funny in the United States; many

people think it's funny. In other countries, however, this is considered rude or ill-

mannered. When we say something is “ill (ill) -mannered” (mannered), we mean

it's rude; it's not very nice.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 82

When Apple tried to put this kind of advertisement in other countries, what we

would say “in overseas markets” - overseas (overseas) means in another

country, usually across the ocean from the United States, but generally any other

country, markets are just different places where people buy things, in this case,

different countries - well, when Mac tried to put these ads in overseas markets,

many people didn't like them.

The original advertisement shows the Mac man to be very hip. When we say

someone is “hip” (hip) we mean they're very modern; very contemporary; very

cool. The PC guy is nerdy in the advertisement. “Nerdy” (nerdy) comes from the

word “nerd,” which is an insulting term, usually, to describe someone who may

know something about technology, but is not very socially sophisticated - doesn't

have a lot of friends; doesn't know how to act around other people.

The direct comparison between the Mac and the Windows computers on the

advertisement is considered to be ill-mannered in some countries. In Japan, for

example, according to the article they are very few advertisements that have

direct comparison. A direct comparison ad would be one where the company

says, “We're better than this other company; we're better than this other product.”

This is not as common, apparently, in Japanese advertising; it's very common in

American advertising. But in Japan, according to the article, it's ill-mannered to

brag about one's strengths. “To brag” (brag) means to say that you are the best;

you are the greatest.

Americans have the reputation for bragging - for saying that they are better to

other people, and that's one of the problems with these advertisements when

they try to put them in other countries. In fact, one person in the article said that

if you put the American Mac ads on Japanese television they would backfire. “To

backfire” (backfire - one word) means that they will have the opposite effect that

you wanted. So, you walk up to a woman - a beautiful woman - and you ask her

to dance with you, and instead of dancing with you, she slaps you on the face.

This is just an example; this never happened to me! That would be an example

of something that “backfired.” You thought it would have a good result, and it

had a bad result, and that's what these Mac ads have had in some of the

overseas markets.

So, it's interesting to see these cultural differences, and how they affect things

like advertising products that are sold in more than one country. In fact, Mac had

to make separate ads for Japan and even for England in order to make sure that

the ads didn't backfire.

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2007). Posting of

these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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