Shadowing Practice: How Commercials Get Us To Buy Crap We Don't Need - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

B2
Advertising is everywhere.
⏸ Paused
63 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Advertising is everywhere.
2
And what you read, what you watch, what you eat, what you wear.
3
They're in the sky.
4
They're on the ground.
5
They're in the water.
6
Our economy thrives on you buying more and more and more.
7
Even though you don't need any more.
8
And, oh yeah, you're in debt.
9
The goal of advertising is simple.
10
Get you to buy a product.
11
To make you say, yes, I want this.
12
I need this.
13
My life will be better with this retro cowbell dispenser but a mason jar too.
14
That is adorable.
15
This is the mug that won't fall over.
16
Watch this.
17
It fell.
18
It fell.
19
We wanted to learn how advertisers capture our attention and get us to buy stuff we don't even really need.
20
So we turned to Jonas Sachs, an advertising executive and co-founder of Free Range Studios, to explain a few ways brands get into our heads.
21
How do ads tell us who we are or tell us who we should be?
22
We see 3,500 of them a day.
23
And the majority of them basically tell us, you suck.
24
And if you don't buy this product, you're not going to be rich enough, smart enough, hot enough.
25
And so we walk around being told 3,500 times a day how deficient and lame we are.
26
Are there any ads that have stuck out in your mind?
27
The number one most shared advertisement on YouTube of all time is that Dove Real Beauty Sketches ad.
28
They make the real beauty sketches.
29
It's all about how women are
30
so much more beautiful than they think they are through this stunt of a police artist who's sketching them.
31
Tell me about your hair.
32
They make a picture of what they think they look like, which is what a stranger thinks.
33
Kind of have a fat, rounder face.
34
People are saying, listen, they're reaching hundreds of millions of people with a positive message about beauty.
35
People want to share it because they say, oh, those are my values, that's my idea.
36
And then you start buying the soap because you share those values.
37
So this is one of those classic shop therapy ads.
38
That, you know, parenthood is hard, drinking coke is easy.
39
You need to speak to people on the level of identity, you need to speak to people on the level of emotion.
40
There are millions of people who are going to sit there and be like, yeah, that's my truth.
41
That's it.
42
It's totally me.
43
Thanks, Coke.
44
Why use Beckham?
45
Advertisements tell you not that this product does this thing, it's that people like this use this product.
46
If you want to be like these kind of people, use this product and you're instantly one of them.
47
We want heroes in our lives and we want to know how to be more like those heroes.
48
And watching sports and watching movies that these guys are in, we don't necessarily know how to be more like them, but advertisements tell us how to be.
49
Are you up for whatever?
50
Don't answer.
51
Grab a Bud Light and show it.
52
Try new things.
53
Make new friends.
54
I mean, it's all just crafted around creating a gap.
55
You don't have enough, you don't have what's right.
56
It's not necessarily even that the audience is sitting at home and saying, oh man, I need to spend more time in the club.
57
It's like saying, they're saying everybody else is in the club and why aren't you there?
58
So advertising is just a constant fear of missing out?
59
There's a huge amount of that.
60
Wow, advertisers are like crappy friends.
61
They make us feel needy, ugly and uncool, but we keep them around anyway.
62
This is a beautiful moment.
63
Sure could use a coke.

Download App

AI scoring for every sentence you speak

Scan To Download
Scan To Download
Download on theApp Store
Get it onGoogle Play
TRENDING

Popular

About This Lesson

In this lesson, you will practice speaking and listening skills by exploring how advertisements influence our buying decisions. Understanding the techniques used in commercials can enhance your listening comprehension and give you insights into everyday English usage. You will engage with captivating content that illustrates persuasive language, emotional appeal, and identity connection in advertising. By analyzing this aspect of language, you can improve your English speaking skills, making it beneficial for IELTS speaking practice and real-world conversations.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Advertising: The activity of producing advertisements for commercial products or services.
  • Deficient: Lacking or not having enough of something.
  • Emotional appeal: A method used in advertising to evoke an emotional response from the audience.
  • Identity: The qualities, beliefs, personality, looks, and expressions that make a person or group.
  • Shop therapy: The act of shopping to make oneself feel better.
  • Brand ambassador: A person who represents and promotes a brand.
  • Positive message: An uplifting and encouraging thought or idea communicated in advertising.
  • Values: A person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.

Practice Tips

To effectively improve your English pronunciation and conversational skills, consider using the shadowing technique with this video. Here are some tips:

  • Use a shadowing app: Choose an app that allows you to listen to the video while repeating what you hear in real-time. This practice can enhance your ability to mimic the rhythm and intonation of native speakers.
  • Adjust the speed: Start by slowing down the video if necessary, so you can accurately mimic the pronunciation and pacing of the speaker. Once you feel confident, gradually increase the speed to match the original pace.
  • Focus on emotion: Pay attention to the tone and emotional inflections in the ads discussed. Try to incorporate similar emotions into your shadow speech to sound more natural and engaging.
  • Practice in segments: Break the video into smaller sections. Focus on practicing a few sentences at a time, which allows for more detailed attention to pronunciation and expression.
  • Record yourself: After shadowing, record your voice and compare it to the original. This will help you notice areas for improvement, particularly in pronunciation and rhythm.

By integrating these techniques into your practice routine, you can significantly enhance your speaking skills and prepare effectively for the IELTS speaking exam while also gaining insights into how language shapes our understanding of identity and consumerism.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

☕ Buy us a coffee