IELTS Speaking for Success - 📢 Advertising (Part 3) + Transcript

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Get access to our episode archive: https://successwithielts.com/ Rory tackles the good, the bad, and the 'meh' of modern marketing. Learn high-level idioms like 'down the drain' and master how to soften your opinions when discussing business strategy. Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/ Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. Hello, hello, dear listener and welcome into AILD speaking part three. We are discussing advertising in general, advertising, advertisements, commercials.

Please listen to our previous episode about an advertisement with half-naked man. Like, what are you doing? I'm just, I'm drawing our learner's attention to the episode. All right, okay, whatever. let's talk about advertising in general. Advertising as an industry. Okay, so we have adverts, ads that we watch, but the industry is advertising. So you can say I watched an ad, I watched an advert, I watched an advertisement, but

advertising as a business. Like, he works in advertising. Like he works in sales, he works in advertising. Rory, which is more effective, online advertising or offline advertising? Well, I suppose it must be at least partially effective regardless of where it is because companies keep doing it, even though people don't like it and frequently voice their displeasure with it. I suppose online might be better just because there are more ways to reach people through the various apps they're using on their phones, which they're constantly on,

as opposed to the TV, which you have to sit down and find the time to watch. And what evidence do you have for that? It just seemed like the most logical conclusion I could come to. People seem to spend more time online than offline these days, and so there will be, and there are more avenues to get their attention. I don't know any of this for a fact. It's just logically deduced. Is advertising important for a company? Well, it has to be.

otherwise they wouldn't keep at it for very long. You can't just throw infinite money down the drain without some sort of return on investment, can you? Has that always been true? For as long as we've had advertising, I suppose so. Companies have always been flaunting their wares in various ways. Why are some advertisements boring?

Well, you have no interest in buying the thing in the ad. You're unlikely to be willing to give it the time of day, are you? another thing could be that the tone is too banal or the product is just a bit meh could you explain it further yeah probably should i mean if the product it doesn't really stand out from the crowd of others in the same market then people aren't exactly going to be enthusiastic about buying it there's only so many black rectangles you can display as phones before they all start to look the same what's the most important factor in an advertisement i can't Say for sure, because I've never been an advertising executive or got an MBA or something like that.

But at least for me, it's whether it grabs the attention of the customer and displays something that's useful or demonstrates that. For me, it's that simple. I imagine there is a plethora of other things, but I couldn't tell you what they are. Do you think that can change? I imagine it could if advertisers found some other way to make their ads more effective, but I've no clue what that might be. Why are many products endorsed by celebrities? Well, it's mutually beneficial, isn't it? The celebrities catch the eye of the customer, and they get paid for the privilege of doing so.

Though no wonder so many of them want to do it. How useful do you think celebrities are for this? It's hard to say, really. I suppose if there is a direct relationship between the celeb and the brand or product being advertised, then that makes sense. like Venus or Serena Williams advertising sportswear. That's kind of a logical connection. But Andre Agassian Kitchenware,

I just don't see her customers are meant to make the connection. What are the advantages of advertisements? Well, they at least raise awareness of the products on offer, which is good for alerting customers to certain or possible choices, and they could maybe reach people who otherwise wouldn't have heard of the products or the companies. Another plus point might be that there's a variety of ways to do them, which is handy. And what could be the disadvantages? Well, they can be annoying, can't they?

Especially the ones that pop up in the middle of doing something like trying to listen to a video or during a game or something like that. It can break your immersion, which I suppose is the point, but it doesn't make it any less irksome. So you could end up putting people off your product before they even give it a chance. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer.

Register today at PMC. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive. To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. So online advertising and offline advertising. You can call them online advertisements, adverts, ads, commercial. or advertising in general.

I think that both of them are partially effective. Or partly. Partly effective, or you can say online, advertising is more effective than offline. Very often people don't like advertising and they voice their displeasure. Voice their displeasure means they talk about it. They are annoying.

They write comments, they talk or they say, oh, I don't like it. It is pleasure, so like not pleasure with something. Online, there are more ways to reach people. Advertisements reach people. So they promote something. They let you know about a product, so they reach you. And there are a lot of ads on different apps. So you play your favorite game and that bam, before you play it, it pops up,

and you kind of have to watch it because you are playing for free, you know, and there are lots of ads. So pop up ads. And if people can see them, they reach people. People spend more time online than offline. And there are more avenues to get people's attention. So there are more ways to get people's attention online. Or more channels to get.

But of course, if the examiner asks you for evidence and you don't really know because you're not an expert, you can say, I don't know any of this for a fact. Exactly. And that's absolutely okay. Advertising is crucial for a company, but sometimes companies throw infinite money down the drain. So if something is thrown down the drain, it's just wasted. Okay. Down the drain, C2, bern9, idiom.

if work or money goes down the drain, it's spoiled or wasted. For example, millions of dollars went down the drain. So they were wasted, lost, right? And, you know, with advertisements, you pay a lot of money for advertising and then no clients come to you. So money down the drain. companies throw infinite money infinite like so much money you can't even count it infinite money yeah if you say like the universe is infinite that's c2 and it's with a phrasal verb throw money oh no it's not it's not a phrasal verb it's an idiom throw money down the drain throw infinite money down the drain

that must be like c27 i know c2 c2 is like Ben, Ben, nine, twice. Yeah, but that's natural. So that's absolutely natural to say. We are not squeezing in two idioms. So infinite is just a word. And yeah, that's true that companies throw unlimited amounts of money sometimes. And if you are a company and you would like to throw unlimited amounts of money down the drain,

why not sponsor this podcast? Yeah, exactly. illegal, you know, Coca-Cola. Macy, if you're listening, just get in touch. Okay, we'll love you. Yes, Renalidino, if you need any help with your perfect English. Yeah, we are here for you, you know. Let us know who will help you out.

Diet Coke, yes, go ahead. And that's a half-naked man. Get in touch. Right. So, where were we? Infinite amounts of money being thrown down the drain. Advertisements could be boring. Advertisements could be dull.

So if the examiner says boring, you say dull. Advertisements, you paraphrase ads adverts. And if you have no interest in buying this product, you are unlikely to be willing to watch the ad, for example. the tone of the advert could be banal. But if it's banal, it's just not interesting. It's normal. It's like, oh, okay.

Boring, not original. Commonplace, like banal pop songs. Yeah. Banal remarks. Banal ads. Commonplace. And, you know, like, I like how Rory said, like, oh, the product is just a bit me. Mew, it's a super advanced word.

That's way too informal, though. you will have to qualify that probably. The examiner will probably say, please explain. Meh. Is it a word, Rory? It should, if it's not a word, then it should be. It is an exclamation, dear listener. It's in the Cambridge Online Dictionary.

I'm not joking. So me, me, he, H. It's meh, informal explanation. It's used to show that you are not interested in someone or something and do not care about it or them. So, for example, I say, okay, Rory write this essay, and Rory goes, Yeah, exactly. This advert is just me. Maybe in your language, you have a different exclamation.

Poof. Poof. Off, off, off, off. That may be the first exclamation we've had in the podcast. So there you go, it's the first. It's seven years of working on. this thing and we're still coming up with new stuff to see. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer.

That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca. Legendary is here with BetMGM Sportsbook. Sign up to unlock access to hundreds of pre-match and live betting options for all your favorite sports.

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Standard message and data rates may apply. I'm excited. Oh, this is just great. Let's start a new trend. You know, in your IEL's test, you just say, well, this ad is just, uh... That's what's going to happen now. I'm going to have a million students coming to my classes

saying that for every single one of their answers. And they'll be like, okay. Who teaches you this? Why does everyone do the same thing? Why do... Why does everyone say meh? And then they'll be like, oh, it's Rory and Marie. and then we will be in trouble with the IELTS police.

Yeah, you'll listen. You can make sounds. Like, if I talk about, for example, annoying adverts, I say, like, oh, yeah, I really dislike how all ads pop up while I play a game. Off, off, off. You see, off, off. And the product is, eh, meh. Rory, could you, could you say this phrase again?

So we notice the intonation and the sound of meh. Yes. Another thing could be the tone is tubinal or the. The product is just a bit meh. Perfect, Ben-N-E. So the product doesn't stand out from the crowd. It's not original. It's just commonplace.

It's ordinary, usual. So it doesn't stand out from the crowd. And people are not enthusiastic about it. Or you could say they aren't exactly going to be enthusiastic. If you are not sure what's important in advertising, you can say, well, I have never been an advertising executive. Well, I'm not an advertising expert. I haven't worked in advertising, but I guess that it should grab the attention of the customer. The attention of the customer. The customer, the consumer, the buyer, the audience, yeah? Grab advertisements,

grab your attention. They take your attention. You watch it and kind of, you want to watch because it's interesting because Messi isn't there. Half-naked guy is there, okay? So you want to watch it because you're interested, okay? They grab your attention. Or there's some drama. However, we are not experts in that, or we're not advertising executives,

which is a specific job, and we don't have MBAs. That's a special qualification for working in business. It's a master of business administration. So in case you get bored of saying, I'm not an expert, you could name the specific kind of expert. Celebrities advertise different products or celebrities endorse different products. Please write it down a very important word because celebrities, well, they advertise, but a more specific word would be indoors.

C2 endorse a product or, for example, Messi endorsed Lego. So appear in an advertisement. And they're paid for the privilege of doing so. So if you're paid for the privilege of something, it means you're paid to do something quite nice. And famous people stars, they grab your attention, they attract many people, they attract consumers who wants to make connection with them. Oh, like he wears Adidas. I'm going to wear Adidas too, so I'll become closer to Messi.

When the examiner says advantages, you say benefits. When examiner says disadvantages, you say drawbacks or negatives. Advertisements reach many people. Advertisements reach millions of people. And advertisements could be annoying, could be frustrating. Definitely annoying. Ooh, at a question tag, they can be annoying, can't they? They pop up in the middle of a game.

They pop up, they appear suddenly. If you are doing something, you are watching a video and they pop up. They break your immersion. Immersion. That's just being focused on the thing you are trying to enjoy without the advert. Yeah, immersion or immersion. Your involvement, your focus. So companies could end up putting people off.

So put people off, people dislike it. Right? It's kind of like, oh, it's off-putting. Like, it puts me off. I don't like it. It annoys me. It puts me off. I don't like it.

And, dear listener, you can also talk about AI, which is turning advertising into a real-time personalization engine. So with artificial intelligence, brands can deliver more relevant ads in the moment. So the internet knows that Rory enjoys black t-shirts. So all I see is adverts for black t-shirts. Exactly. Adverts of different black t-shirts. They collect your behavior data and give you personalized adverts.

So this is one of the trends now. And also like short video ads are also quite popular. Like short form video ads are becoming like an essential tool to capture your attention, to grab your attention. And also ads without sound are very popular because you keep scrolling, you know. You don't have time to listen. You just keep scrolling. So there are ads without sound.

Yeah, these three trends are, you know, catching on in the world of advertising. Now you know. We would never resort to those kinds of things. No, no. We need sound, you know. So now that we spend all that time bashing adverts, join us again for our next episode. Bye.

Bye. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca. Rory, which is more effective, online advertising or offline advertising?

Well, I suppose it must be at least partially effective regardless of where it is because companies keep doing it, even though people don't like it and frequently voice their displeasure with it. I suppose online might be better just because there are more ways to reach people through the various apps they're using on their phones, which they're constantly on, as opposed to the TV, which you have to sit down and find the time to watch. And what evidence do you have for that?

It just seemed like the most logical conclusion I could come to. People seem to spend more time online than offline these days, and so there will be, and there are, more avenues to get their attention. I don't know any of this for a fact. It's just logically deduced. Is advertising important for a company? Well, it has to be, otherwise they wouldn't keep at it for very long. You can't just throw infinite money down the drain without some sort of return on investment, can you?

Has that always been true? For as long as we've had advertising, I suppose so. Companies have always been flaunting their wares in various ways. Why are some advertisements boring? You have no interest in buying the thing in the ad. You're unlikely to be willing to give it the time of day, are you? Another thing could be that the tone is too banal or the product is just a bit meh. Could you explain it further?

Yeah, I probably should. I mean, if the product doesn't really stand out from the crowd of others in the same market, then people aren't exactly going to be enthusiastic about buying it. There's only so many black rectangles you can display as phones before they all start to look the same. What's the most important factor in an advertisement? I can't say for sure because I've never been an advertising executive or got an MBA or something like that. But at least for me, it's whether it grabs the attention of the customer and displays something that's useful or demonstrates that. For me, it's that simple.

I imagine there is a plethora of other things, but I couldn't tell you what they are. Do you think that can change? I imagine it could if advertisers found some other way to make their ads more effective, but I've no clue what that might be. Why are many products endorsed by celebrities? Well, it's mutually beneficial, isn't it? The celebrities catch the eye of the customer, and they get paid for the privilege of doing so. Though no wonder so many of them want to do it.

How useful do you think celebrities are for this? It's hard to say, really. I suppose if there is a direct relationship between the celeb and the brand or product being advertised, then that makes sense, like Venus or Serena Williams advertising sportswear. That's kind of a logical connection. But Andre Agassian Kitchenware, I just don't see how customers are meant to make the connection.

What are the advantages of advertisements? Well, they at least raise awareness of the products on offer, which is good for alerting customers to certain or possible choices, and they could maybe reach people who otherwise wouldn't have heard of the products or the companies. Another plus point might be that there's a variety of ways to do them, which is handy. And what could be the disadvantages? Well, they can be annoying, can't they? Especially the ones that pop up in the middle of doing something like trying to listen to a video or during a game or something like that.

It can break your immersion, which I suppose is the point, but it doesn't make it any less irksome. So you could end up putting people off your product before they even give it a chance. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca.