How to Write Better Essays

the village is a small green, dominated by a huge tree. On this tree

someone has attached a small hand-written notice with the words:

August 31st.

The Annual Village Fête.

On the Village Green.

Starting 3pm.

There is no enticing message with promises of gifts and untold wealth

for the lucky person who wins the fête raffle, not even the simple appeal

‘Come to the village fete!’ There is nothing but information.

In this case, if we are still to assume that it is the intentionsof those

who put out the information, that define a notice as an advertisement,

then they are more deeply hidden here than those of the people who

framed the bus and railway timetables. Nevertheless, we might still be

justified in arguing that the writer of the village fête notice had one

unmistakable intention in putting up the notice: to encourage more

people to attend and participate. This would no doubt mean more

money for the local appeal to restore the church bells or to build an

extension to the old people’s day centre.

 3 Doubtful cases

If this is the case, we’ve now reached a stage where we seem to have

shaken out a core characteristic of advertising that was not sufficiently

clear in our original analysis. We seem to be saying that even though

an announcement is concerned with imparting information, with

advertisements this is only surface appearance. What matters above all

is the intentions of those who frame the notice. In an advertisement

they are suggesting or attempting to persuade us to adopt a certain

course of action. Whereas with a simple statement of information there

are no ulterior motives: they are just presenting information and

leaving it there.

Given this, we must move to the next stage and test the conse-

quences of adopting this distinction. We need to imagine cases in which

it would be difficult for us to accept these consequences. Clearly, if

we’re right in thinking this way, then any announcement or statement

of fact that suggests a possible course of action is an advertisement.

For example, a factual statement made in a television programme that

smoking cigarettes is responsible for over 80 per cent of cases of lung

cancer, or a report by a health authority that a diet containing large

38 Interpretation of the Question

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