The general objective of public interest advertising is to inform, persuade, or remind people about the particular idea, cause, or philosophy being advertised. This kind of advertising is often used by non-business institutions, such as schools, hospitals and charity organizations. We also see advertising by associations. In addition, we witness millions of dollars’ worth of advertising placed by government organizations. Much government advertising announces the availability of such valuable government services as consumer assistance, welfare aid, or career guidance. However, with the resource available to it, the government can also use advertising techniques for propaganda purposes. Many state governments use advertising to attract new businesses, tourists, or workers to aid their economy.
Because of the fact that public interest advertising is nonprofit, the words it uses are much more different from the other 3 kinds of advertising. Its purpose is not to urge readers to spend their money, but to disseminate a kind of concept or advocate a social ethic. The headline of public interest advertising also acts as a role of attraction. The average words of them are 10.6, and most of them are curious headlines (60%) and emotional headlines (30%). We can know from the statistics that attracting the reader is still a main task for the headline of public interest advertising, because only when the readers feel the advertising will benefit them (no matter physically or mentally) should they have the patience to read it further—that’s the rule of all the advertisements. I also notice that only 10% of those advertisements include their advertiser’s brand, which shows that the public interest advertisements do not aim to propagandize any company or organization. Straight-line body copy is the most frequently used form—which is 50% of the 20 ads. 75% of those ads have used imperative sentences. Most of these sentences are urging readers to take action immediately for others or social ethics. All these data show the fact that public interest advertising does not please readers by beautiful words or original ideas, but touch them through true feelings.
32. Governments spend millions of dollars on advertisements mainly to ________.
A. promote special produce or business B. show mercy on less developed organizations
C. spread a kind of concept to the public D. give away money to charities and schools
33. According to the passage, public interest advertising is mainly used by all the following EXCEPT ________.
A. charity organizations B. cinemas C. government services D. associations
34. What public interest advertisements have in common with other advertisements is that they are ________.
A. interesting B. expensive C. attractive D. tiring
35. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Public interest advertising encourages people to buy goods.
B. Public interest advertising sometimes forces concepts upon the public.
C. We cannot see any advertiser’s brand in public interest advertisements.
D. The words of public interest advertisements are mostly emotional.