单项选择题

In a competitive economy, the consumer usually has the choice of several different brands of the same product. Yet underneath their labels, these products are often nearly identical. One manufacturer’’s toothpaste tends to differ very little from another manufacturer’’s. Two different brands of shampoo may vary only in scent or color. And the tobacco in two different brands of cigarettes frequently comes from the same fields. This close similarity means that a shopper often has little reason to choose one brand over another. Thus, manufacturers are confronted with a problem--how to keep sales high enough to stay in business. Manufacturers solve this problem by advertising. Through advertising, each manufacturing company tries to convince consumers that its product is special. To do this ,the companies try to appeal to consumers in various ways. In fact, advertisements may be classified into three types according to the kind of appeals they use. 　　One type of advertisement tries to appeal to the consumer’’s reasoning mind. It may offer a claim that seems scientific. For example, it may say that dentists recommend Flash toothpaste, or it may declare that Woof dog food contains a special, vitamin-rich ingredient known as K-9, or it may report that laboratory tests show that R. I. P. cigarettes contain fewer harmful ingredients than other brands. In selling a product, the truth of advertising may be less important than the appearance of truth. A scientific approach gives the appearance of truth. 　　Another type of advertisement tries to amuse the potential buyer. Products that are essentially boring, such as cleaning powder or insecticide, are often advertised in an amusing manner. One way of doing this is to make the products appear alive. The advertiser may draw little cartoon eyes, arms, and legs on the cans of cleaning powder and have the resulting figures scrub the sink. Ads of this sort are silly, but advertisers believe that consumers are likely to remember and buy the products that the consumers associate with fun. 　　Associating the product with something pleasant is the technique of the third type of appeal. In this class are ads that suggest that the product will satisfy some basic human desires. One such desire is the wish to be admired by other people. Many automobile advertisements are in this category. They imply that other people will admire you--may even be jealous--when they see you driving the hot, new Aardvark car. This kind of appeal is sometimes strengthened by hiring a famous person to endorse the product. Seeing the famous person, the consumer is supposed to reason thus: Everyone admires Judson Smith the great football star. Judson Smith used Buckworthy Bank traveler’’s checks. Therefore, if I use Buckworthy Bank traveler’’s checks, everyone will admire me too. Some other basic desires that ads commonly try to appeal to are the desires for social acceptance ,financial security, and so on. 　　One only needs to look through a magazine or watch an hour of TV in order to see examples of these three different advertising strategies. Manufacturers take to advertising primarily