The advertising techniques and methods used today were for the most part devised in Britain, Europe and America, and as a new technique evolved in one country it was quickly taken up elsewhere. The practice continues on a world¬wide scale. The simplification of the words and illustrations in advertisements has come about as the result of the skill of copywriters, artists and photographers combined with the findings of advertising research workers. Advertisers have found it is often more effective to concentrate on putting across one aspect of their product than to go into lengthy descriptions. They have seized on the truth of the saying that a picture can be worth a thousand words. Some critics of advertising have argued that an advertiser should be content to furnish the public with information about his product and draw the line at persuasion, but in practice the dividing line between informing and persuading is impossible to draw. Persuasion starts at the point when is first supplied, particularly when, as must happen for reasons of space and time, the information given is selective.
As it is pointed out in the passage, advertising in this age _____.
has not grown rapidly more effective in spite of the increased enthusiasm and skill of copywriters and artists
has tended to give more and more detailed information
tends to concentrate on the arts of persuasion
seems to have forgotten how effective an illustration can be
has grown more selective and simpler
According to the passage, as new techniques in advertising evolve in one part of the world ____.
other parts of the word feel under pressure to come up with something new
they rapidly spread to another
the competition for markets is intensified
and are copied in acuter, local differences disappear
copywriters start to look for fresh inspiration elsewhere
We understand from the passage that is generally regarded as serving the dual functions of informing and persuading, ______.
though the information supplied is not always reliable
persuasion, however, is by far the more important
however, these two functions are actually inseparable
but the amount of information offered is restricted by lade of space
and this is the reason why advertisements have grown longer