Skills for Study Level 2 Teacher's Book - Cambridge University Press

4.23aSuggested answers1 The survey is an informal, small-scale one. There is no information aboutthe criteria that were used to select the models used. It might suggest a linkbetween the attractiveness of the models and the customers’ responses, butit cannot be said to prove anything conclusively.2 Not really academically suitable, as they are based on an informal experimentconducted by an unnamed newspaper.3 The speaker concludes a strong link between the beauty of the modelsused and consumers’ preferences, though the evidence does not supportsuch a strong link. The speaker also concludes that standards of beautyare cross-cultural because the customers included people from a range ofethnic groups; again, this study does not show very strong evidence for thatconclusion.4 People may have gone to one booth rather than the other for a number ofreasons not connected to the attractiveness of the models. For example,people may have been attracted to the drink; one of the booths may havebeen set up in a more or less popular area of the shopping centre than theother; the staff in the booth may have been more proactive about trying toentice customers into the booth.4.33bAnswersTheme of talk: How advertisers use beauty to appeal to consumersClaims:1 Notions of what a ‘beautiful’ personis clearly vary between differentcultures.2 Criteria for judging beauty vary fromplace to place.3 Advertising within a culture issimpler than advertising betweencultures.Supporting points:Claims a preference amongmany white Europeans andNorth Americans for tanned skin,compared to a preference for palerskin among East Asians. However,no evidence for this is offered.USA: more focused on the shape ofthe body and even some notion of‘sex-appeal’Taiwan and Singapore: focuses moreon facial characteristicsCites a 2005 study by Frith et al.which found that US women’smagazine advertising tendedto focus more on clothing andthe body, while in Taiwan andSingapore, women’s magazineadvertising tended to focus onfacial products and cosmetics.Gives an example of a companyneeding to adapt its brand to localconditions, but offers no otherevidence except that already given.3c Students compare their ideas with a partner.Unit 4 Part A ∙ Understanding spoken information 108