THE LAST OF THE OPTIMISTS
Publié le 07/02/2012
Extrait du document
Washington.-The most consoling tbings in print tbese days are the advertisements. The novelists seem to bave given up on tbe human race. The reporters are hooked on disaster. Even the poets and preacbers empbasize our sins and shortcomings, but tbe ad-writers, bless their cunning souls, are still appealing, not only to our vanity and greed, but to our better natures and even to tbe oJd values and virtues. God may be dead, but they otfer us "sometbing to believe in" (Cadillac). Also, when you get physically and spiritually depressed, it's reassuring to realize tbat Cadillac "cao make a difficult world seem beautiful", because Cadillac is "dedicated to tbe free spirit in just about everyone."
«
the last of the optimists these days in America, and in a funny
way, they balance the outrageous pessimism of ali other writers
of our time.
1.
Commentaire dirigé
JAMES RESTON,
International Herald Tribune,
Monday, December 15, 1975.
1) In what way can an advertisement be a bit of a fraud?
2) What does a street look like when the dustmen are on
strike?
3) How does the author show that he did not write this article
in praise
of advertising?
4) What is wrong with the world if the advertisers are the last
of the optimists ?
2.
Version
Traduire depuis "They sing of a world ...
" jusqu'à la fin du
texte.
I) In what way can an advertisement be a bit of a fraud?
(cf épreuve A, question 2)
An advertisement is a bit of a fraud because:
• It wants to make you buy the product at ali costs, and thus
tries
to seduce the potential buyer,
+ it does not tell you ali the truth about the product.
• The products are associated with a symbol, and people
attribute
to the things the qualities relative to the symbol.
Example:-cigarettes are synonyms of virility
-chocolates evoke romance
-cosmetics imply a beauty-queen
+ people do not huy a product, but buy their dream.
il People are so brain-washed that they huy products which
are superfluous
and do not fulfill any urgent need..
»
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