Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 652, Outdoor Advertising.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 652.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Download this episode's learning guide to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode has a dialogue between Cam and Gina using business vocabulary related to advertising.
Let's get started.
Okay, the purpose of our meeting today is to listen to some ideas for our new advertising campaign.
Gina, take it away.
Thanks, Cam.
I'm going to talk today about outdoor advertising.
Can we talk specifics?
One is the billboard, both the traditional kind and the digital ones.
Advertising on ones in high traffic areas will give us a lot of exposure.
To get even more exposure all over town, we can use mobile advertising.
You mean advertise on buses?
Yes.
Yes, more and more products are being advertised on buses and cars.
These wraps can also be put on the side of buildings and other structures.
There really are a lot of outdoor advertising options, from bench ads to skywriting.
That's all very interesting.
But which of these methods do you recommend?
I think we should use all of them.
Blanket the city with our new ads.
All of them?
Yes, all of them.
You know what they say.
Go big or go home.
Cam begins our dialogue by saying to Gina Okay to listen to some ideas for our new advertising campaign.
An advertising campaign is a coordinated effort, a project that includes all the different parts of advertising.
There may be advertising on the Internet.
It may include advertising on television.
Together, these things are called an advertising campaign.
Cam says to Gina, Gina, take it away.
The expression take it away is used in an informal meeting or an informal situation to show that you are done talking and you are ready for action.
Someone else to begin their presentation or to begin leading the meeting.
Cam is done talking, so he wants Gina to start talking.
He says, Gina, take it away.
Gina says, thanks, Cam.
I'm going to talk today about outdoor advertising.
Outdoor, O-U-T-D-O-O-R, one word, refers to what is not inside a building or a house.
That is, if you're not in a building or in a house, then you are outdoors.
You are outside of a house or building.
Outdoor advertising would include things that you would see while driving or walking outside of your house or building.
Gina says, I know that it's a new area for us.
Outdoor advertising is a new area for them.
And it hasn't been on our radar in the past.
But I know it'll work well for our new campaign.
The expression to be on your radar or to be on our radar, R-A-D-A-R, is used to show that you are ready. aware of something you are considering something you are thinking about something radar as you probably know is the system used to determine for example where planes are in the sky it allows you to know where objects are that you cannot see Gina says that her company has not used outdoor advertising in the past, but she thinks that it will be successful for their new campaign.
Cam then interrupts Gina and says, can we talk specifics?
There's actually two things here.
The first is the expression, can we talk blank?
In this case, it's specifics.
But you could say, can we talk vacation now?
Can we talk advertising?
This is a somewhat informal, abbreviated way of saying, can we talk about something now?
Now, Cam says, can we talk specifics?
Meaning, can you tell us the specific things about this advertising?
Specific is the opposite of general.
You want to know what is the case for this particular campaign.
Gina says, sure.
There are several types of outdoor advertising.
One is the billboard, B-I-L-L-B-O-A-R-D.
A billboard is a large sign used to advertise.
Typically, it's up high in the air, and you can see it when you are driving down the street.
That's a billboard.
Gina says that there are both traditional billboards and digital ones.
A traditional billboard has the same image.
You see the same thing every time you go buy it.
It's often made with large pieces of paper.
A digital billboard is a new thing, where it's actually a big video screen like a big television and the images change as the day goes on.
In fact, they often change every five or ten seconds.
We have these digital billboards now here in Los Angeles, including one just about four or five blocks from where I live.
Gina says advertising on ones meaning on billboards in high-traffic areas will give us a lot of exposure.
A high-traffic area is a place where there are a lot of people or there are a lot of cars going by.
Many people will see the sign.
Times Square in New York is a high traffic area.
There are always people there in the center of the city in Manhattan.
Well, a high traffic area would be any area that you had a lot of people either walking or driving by.
If you put advertisements in this case a billboard, in a high traffic area, you will get lots of exposure.
Exposure just means you will be seen or heard by many people, in this case, seen.
Gina says, to get even more exposure all over town, meaning in every part of the city we can use mobile advertising.
Something that is mobile moves around.
It doesn't stay in one place.
Cam asks, you mean advertising on buses?
Notice the informal way he asks.
You mean advertise on buses?
Instead of, do you mean advertise or advertising on buses?
Gina says yes.
More and more products, things that people sell, are being advertised on buses and cars, obviously on the side of the bus or the back of the bus.
These wraps can also be put on the side of buildings and other structures.
A wrap is W-R-A-P is a large piece of plastic or other material that completely covers something else.
It can be used as a form of advertising, for example, on a bus.
Sometimes here in the U.S. when you see a bus, there isn't just one sign on one side of the bus.
But the entire bus is wrapped, is enclosed, if you will, by this plastic.
That is advertising for whatever the company is advertising.
That's a wrap.
You can also put these on the sides of buildings and structures.
Sometimes buildings have advertisements that go on the side of the building or around the building.
Structures is just something that has been built.
A building, a bridge, a monument, all of these are structures, things that we build.
Gina says there are really a lot of other outdoor advertising options or possibilities, from bench ads to skywriting.
A bench, B-E-N-C-H, ad is a bench advertisement.
Ad is short for advertisement.
It is when you have a long chair, basically, for people to sit on.
So you can have two or three people sitting.
And you put these on the street where the bus stops.
So when you are waiting for the bus, you can sit down on this thing that, as I say, looks like a long chair.
We call it a bench chair.
You can put advertising on the benches.
Here in Los Angeles it's very common for people who sell and buy houses real estate agents we would call them to advertise on bench ads.
Another kind of outdoor advertising is skywriting advertising.
The sky is what's above you up in the air.
It's usually blue in most places.
Today, here in Los Angeles, it's a little gray because we have clouds, at least this morning.
Well, skywriting is when a plane goes up in the air a small plane typically and And it writes something in the air.
It leaves a white vapor or smoke behind it that you can look up and see.
Often people will, for example, write messages to their loved ones.
Will you marry me, for example, would be a piece of skywriting.
An expensive marriage proposal, to be sure.
Cam says, that's all very interesting, but which of these methods do you recommend?
Gina says, I think we should use all of them, all of the kinds of advertising she has talked about.
She says, blanket the city with our new ads.
To blanket, B-L-A-N-K-E-T, as a verb, means to cover something entirely.
She's saying that we should put advertising in all the different places in the city.
Billboards, bench ads, skywriting, mobile advertising, wraps, and so forth.
Blanket has a couple of different meanings, however.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Cam is a little surprised.
He says, all of them?
Gina says, yes, all of them.
You know what they say, go big or go home.
To go big means to do something with the most energy, with the maximum amount of effort.
Something that is going to be the most you could do.
If you were going to propose to your girlfriend and you wanted to go big...
You could hire a plane.
You could pay to have a message written in the sky, skywriting.
Or you could I don't know fly to the moon and send a message from the moon back to your girlfriend.
That might work.
You should try that.
That would definitely be going big.
Well, the expression is go big or go home, meaning either do something 100% or don't do anything.
Forget about it.
Gina thinks the company should go big or not do anything at all.
Of course, it isn't Gina's money that's being spent here.
It's the company's.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Okay, the purpose of our meeting today is to listen to some ideas for our new advertising campaign.
Gina, take it away.
Thanks, Cam.
I'm going to talk today about outdoor advertising.
I know that it's a new area for us and it hasn't been on our radar in the past, but I know it'll work well for our new campaign.
Can we talk specifics?
Sure.
There are several types of outdoor advertising.
One is the billboard, both the traditional kind and the digital ones.
Advertising on ones in high-traffic areas will give us a lot of exposure.
To get even more exposure all over town, we can use mobile advertising.
You mean advertise on buses?
Yes.
More and more, products are being advertised on buses and cars.
These wraps can also be put on the side of buildings and other structures.
There really are a lot of outdoor advertising options, from bench ads to skywriting.
That's all very interesting, but which of these methods do you recommend?
I think we should use all of them.
Blanket the city with our new ads.
All of them?
Yes, all of them.
You know what they say.
Go big or go home.
If you've been listening to ESL Podcast for a long time, you should have Lucy Say Dr Lucy Say on your radar.
She is, of course, our wonderful script writer.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
