Some of the methods used in advertising are unethical and unacceptable in today’s society. To what extent do you agree with this view?
Sample Response
In today’s time we come across a plethora of advertisementsplethora of advertising via various mediamediums like Outdoor, Print, TV and Online. If done ethically, advertising is beneficial to advertisers as well as consumers. However there is a rising concern about some companies using unethical methods of advertising which is having a harmful effect on the society. In the following paragraphsIn following paragraphs I will delve deeper intoon the issue. Today, TV viewersIn today’s time, TV viewers get to see a lot of advertisementssee lot of advertisements during breaks in between their favourite TV programs. This distracts themdeviates their concentration thereby reducing entertainment value of the programs they are watching. Another drawback attributed to advertising is that kids and youngsters fall prey to appealing advertising of fast foods chains like McDonald’sMac Donald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut etc and they areget attracted to unhealthy fast food, resultingfast food resulting in various kinds of health problems like obesity, juvenile diabetes etc. Also, somefew people argue that some companies use obscene materialmaterials in their advertisements to attract viewersviews which pollutes viewers’ minds especially those of younger viewersespecially that of younger ones. On the other handOn the contrary, some people are of the opinion that advertising helps in increasing awareness about a company’s productsproduct or services. People get to know about a company’s new offeringsabout company’s new offerings easily through advertising. Without advertising publicity of company’s product and services will not be possible. Thus advertising helps companies in increasing their sales and profits. According to some schools of thoughtsome school of thoughts, advertising creates demand by educating its target customers about new ways of using an existing product or service. To sum up the discussion, I would like to add that advertising is important for a company to sustain itself in the competitive market but companies should follow certain ethics and a code of conduct in order to eliminate harmful effects of advertising. World Count: 290
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response’s main strength is its range of relevant examples, including fast-food promotion, sexualized material, and the commercial value of advertising. Its central weakness is that the exact extent of agreement remains somewhat implicit, while some points describe annoying or harmful advertising without clearly establishing why the methods are unethical. The highest priority is to state a precise position and connect every example directly to an ethical principle.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses the issue from both sides and reaches a relevant qualified conclusion, but its precise degree of agreement and ethical reasoning are uneven.
State the extent of agreement explicitly and explain why each criticized advertising method violates a specific ethical standard.
Coherence and Cohesion
The discussion moves broadly from concerns to benefits and a conclusion, but paragraphing is absent and some linking expressions feel mechanical.
Use separate paragraphs for unethical practices and legitimate benefits, with one controlling idea developed in each paragraph.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is adequate and sometimes varied, though recurrent awkward collocations, capitalization, and imprecise wording reduce naturalness.
Replace phrases such as deviates their concentration and school of thoughts with accurate, conventional collocations.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a mix of sentence forms and remains understandable, but article, agreement, plural, and punctuation errors recur throughout.
Edit systematically for missing articles and subject-verb agreement, especially in sentences containing singular company and advertising nouns.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some of the methods used in advertising are unethical and unacceptable in today’s society. To what extent do you agree with this view?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.