ESL podcast 888 advertising in TV and movies

English as a Second Language Podcast
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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

GLOSSARY
to clear (one’s) throat – to make a low, deep sound, almost like a cough, to
move the food or mucus (thick liquid) that is in one’s throat so that one’s voice
will be clearer and easier to understand, and/or to get attention before one
begins to speak
* The presenter cleared her throat nervously before she began speaking into the
microphone.
congratulations are in order – a phrase used when someone has done
something impressive or good and deserve recognition, appreciation, admiration,
and praise from other people
* Did you hear that Ahmed just secured the company’s biggest deal ever? I think
congratulations are in order!
to score – to get or obtain something that is very good or impressive, especially
when it is difficult to do so
* How did you score front-row tickets for the concert?
product placement – the appearance of a company’s product in a television
show or movie, intended to make people want to buy it, usually in exchange for a
payment from that company
* Car makers pay a lot of money for product placement in action movies where
they want the hero to drive their car.
brand – the name of a type of product or several related products sold by a
particular company
* David always buys his favorite brand of cereal, but Yuki just buys whatever
cereal is on sale.
prominent – famous and important; seen and noticed by many people
* What is that prominent building on the mountaintop?

logo – a small image that represents a company or organization
* We need to find a graphic designer who can create a new logo for our website,
stationary, and business cards.
in the blink of an eye – very quickly, almost unnoticeably
* People who have a lot of money invested in the stock market can lose
thousands of dollars in the blink of an eye.

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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

subtle – very delicate, almost unnoticeable; not obvious
* This dessert is mostly chocolate, but it has a subtle flavor of cherries.
to be embedded – to be placed within something else, almost becoming a part
of it
* How did those fossils become embedded in the rocks?
associated with – connected to; related to; thought about in connection with
* Street gangs are associated with drugs and violence.
to beat around the bush – to be very indirect, wanting to avoid saying
something
* If you’re going to ask your boss for a raise, do it directly. Don’t waste her time
by beating around the bush.
sole – the bottom of one’s shoe; the part of a shoe that touches the ground
* How do I get gum off the sole of my favorite shoes?

slow motion – referring to a video recording that is played very slowly so that
one can see all the details
* The referees had to view the action in slow motion to determine whether a
player had committed a foul.
subliminal advertising – messages that appear very quickly that encourage
viewers or listeners to buy something without making those people aware of the
message
* The company is considering flashing very quick images of its product on the
screen as a form of subliminal advertising.
horde – many people; large groups of people
* If we offer free pizza, hodes of students will come to the meeting.
genius – a very smart or intelligent person, much smarter than others
* Albert Einstein was a genius in physics.

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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1.
a)
b)
c)

What will be on the bottom of the star’s shoe?
A small image representing the company.
A photograph of the company’s products.
A popular advertising slogan.

2.
a)
b)
c)

Why does Gerard tell Victoria to “stop beating around the bush”?
Because he wants her to speak clearly and directly.
Because he wants her to stop being nervous.
Because he thinks she is bragging too much.

______________
WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?
to score
The verb “to score,” in this podcast, means to get or obtain something that is very
good or impressive, especially when it is difficult to do so: “It can be really hard to
score a reservation at that popular restaurant.” The verb “to score” also means to
make a point during a game: “How many points did Gerry score in the basketball
game?” The phrase “to score points with (someone)” means to do something that
another person will like, making that person want to do something nice in return:
“Right before the big test, Samantha tried to score points with the teacher by
bringing her cookies.” Finally, when talking about cooking, “to score” means to
use a sharp knife to make shallow (not deep) cuts in the surface of a piece of
meat so that flavors can get into it: “Score the steak and place it in soy sauce for
about an hour.”
sole

In this podcast, the word “sole” means the bottom of one’s shoe, the part that
touches the ground: “It’s time to replace these tennis shoes since they have
holes in the sole.” A “sole” is also a type of white fish: “This sole would taste
better with some lemon juice and pepper.” The word “sole” also means only or
single: “Heather was the sole woman employed by the engineering firm.” Or,
“The sole reason why we hired Jenna was because she was the owner’s
daughter.” Finally, the word “sole” can mean belonging to only one person, not
shared with anyone else: “As the journalist who wrote that article, I take sole
responsibility for the contents and any mistakes it may contain.”
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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

CULTURE NOTE
Movie Product Placement
Movies have “a long history of” (a lot of experience with) product placement,
“dating back to” (from) the 1920s, when a “silent film” (a movie made without
sound, before sound recordings were possible) called Wings included a product
placement for Hershey’s chocolate.
The 1949 “classic” (very well known and admired by many people) film It’s a
Wonderful Life had a product placement for National Geographic Magazine when
a young boy who wanted to become an “explorer” (a person who travels to
unknown places) was shown with the magazine.
The 1982 film E.T. had several examples of product placement. When the young

boy wanted to “attract” (bring closer) the “alien” (a creature from another planet),
he left a “trail” (long line) of Reese’s Pieces candies. Sales of the candies
increased by 65% after the movie “appeared in theaters” (was first shown in
movie theaters). In another scene, the alien became “drunk” (affected by alcohol)
after drinking a can of Coors Beer.
The “James Bond films” (one of many films about a popular private detective)
called GoldenEye (1995) and the Tomororw Never Dies (1997) contained
“heavy” (a lot of) BMW product placement, with James Bond driving the “latest”
(newest) car model.
The 2000 film Cast Away had extensive product placement for FedEx, with logos
appearing in many scenes. Interestingly, FedEx did not pay for the product
placement, but it did benefit from it when its “brand awareness” (people’s
familiarity with a company’s products) increased internationally. The movie also
had product placement for Wilson “volleyballs” (a white ball hit over a net by team
members’ “wrists” (the body part connecting one’s hand and arm) and hands).
______________
Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – a; 2 – a

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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 888: Advertising in

TV and Movies.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 888. 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. Go there and become a member of ESL Podcast.
This episode is a dialog about advertising, or having commercial advertisements
in the world of television and movies. Let’s get started.
[start of dialog]
Victoria: [clears her throat] Congratulations are in order. I just scored a product
placement for our brand in the latest McQuillanator movie. Thank you, thank you
very much.
Gerard: Really? That’s great! Will it have a prominent place in the movie?
Victoria: Well, you know how these things are. Our logo goes by in the blink of
an eye, but millions of people are going to see it.
Gerard: So will the star be wearing our logo on his shirt or something?
Victoria: Something like that.
Gerard: But not that.
Victoria: No, it’s a little more subtle than that, but it’ll be embedded into an
important scene.
Gerard: But where are they going to see it?
Victoria: Is that really important? The important thing is that our brand will be
associated with a major Hollywood movie. What more could we ask for?
Gerard: Stop beating around the bush. Where in the movie will our logo
appear?
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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

Victoria: All right. It’ll be on the bottom of the star’s shoes, on the sole, and the
audience will be able to see it when he’s running.
Gerard: Only if he’s running in slow motion, but he won’t be, right? If it goes by
that quickly, it’ll be more like subliminal advertising.
Victoria: Exactly! I hadn’t thought of it that way, but hordes of people will be
going out to buy our products and they won’t even know why. I’m even more of a
genius than I thought!
[end of dialog]
Victoria begins by clearing her throat. “To clear your throat” is to do this [clears
throat)]. You are making a low sound, almost like a cough, to get rid of anything
that's in your throat that would prevent you from being heard clearly. I clear my
throat before I record often.
Victoria begins by saying, “Congratulations are in order.” “To congratulate
(congratulate) someone” means to say they've done a good job, to give them
your best wishes after they have accomplished something. Someone who wins a
race or wins a competition will be congratulated by other people – “Good job!”
“Congratulations!” “Congratulations are in order” is a phrase used when you are
talking to a group of people, typically, and you want to congratulate one person.
You want to announce some achievement or accomplishment by this person,
and tell him what a good job he did.
Victoria says, “I just scored a product placement for our brand in the latest
McQuillanator movie.” We learn immediately then that Victoria is congratulating
herself or telling other people to congratulate her because she's accomplished
something. We don't normally ask other people to congratulate us, but Victoria
does. This is Hollywood, after all.
She says “I just scored a product placement.” “To score” here means to get or to

obtain something that is very good. “I scored us two tickets to the Bruce
Springsteen concert.” I was able to get, I was able to buy, I was able to obtain,
two tickets. “Product placement” is when a company's product appears usually in
a television show or a movie. So, if you're watching a TV show like “Friends” or
“24,” and you see somebody drinking a can of Coca-Cola, or drinking from a can
of Coca-Cola, that would be an example of product placement. Usually the
company pays to have its product in the movie or in the television program.

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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

Victoria scored a product placement for our “brand,” she says. A “brand” (brand)
is a type of product or related products that are sold under a single name. CocaCola is a brand name. It's the name of a group of products that are similar.
Victoria scored a product placement for the company's brand in the latest
McQuillanator movie. (And if you haven't seen the latest, the most recent,
McQuillanator movie, I think you'll like it!) Victoria says “Thank you. Thank you
very much.” She sort of making a joke. She's congratulating herself.
Gerard says, “Really? That’s great. Will it have a prominent place in the show?”
“Prominent” means important or easily seen, easily noticed, so that people will
see it easily. Victoria says, “Well, you know how these things are,” which means
“you understand this kind of situation.” “Our logo goes by in the blink of an eye,
but millions of people are going to see it.” A “logo” (logo) is a small image that
represents the company. The expression “in the blink of an eye” means very

quickly, almost without noticing it.
Victoria said the logo goes by “in the blink of an eye, but millions of people will
see it.” Gerard says, “So, will the star be wearing our logo on his shirt or
something?” He's asking if the main actor in this movie will be wearing something
that has the logo of the company on his shirt. Victoria says, “Something like that,”
meaning “Well not exactly, but something similar to that.” Gerard says “But not
that,” meaning not that exact thing I just said, wearing the logo on his shirt.
Victoria says, “No. It's a little more subtle than that.” “To be subtle” (subtle)
means not obvious, not easily noticed, something that is there but you may have
to look for it.
Victoria says, “The logo will be embedded into an important scene.” “To embed”
(embed) means to put something inside of something else, almost to become
part of it. The logo, then, will be embedded into an important scene, an important
part of the movie. Gerard says, “But where are they going to see it?” Where are
they going to see our logo, the thing that represents our company? Victoria says,
“Is that really important? The important thing is that our brand will be associated
with a major Hollywood movie.” “To be associated with” means to be connected
to, to be related to. Their brand is going to be related or connected to a major, or
very important, Hollywood movie. “What more could we ask for?” That question
means “What could be better than this situation?” The idea of course, is nothing.
Gerard says, “Stop beating around the bush.” The expression “to beat (beat)
around the bush (bush)” means to be very indirect in describing something or
telling someone about something. You're trying to avoid saying exactly what
you're talking about. “To beat around the bush” is always a bad thing. It's a
negative way of describing what someone is doing in talking to you.
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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

Gerard says, “Where in the movie will our logo appear?” In what part of the
movie will we see our logo? Victoria replies, “All right. It will be on the bottom of
the star’s shoes, on the sole, and the audience will be able to see it when he's
running.” The bottom of your shoe is called the “sole (sole)” of your shoe. Of
course, usually you can't see the bottom of someone's shoes. Victoria says that
the logo will be on the sole of the shoe and people will see it when the star, the
main character in the movie, is running with these shoes.
Gerard says, “Only if he's running in slow motion, but he won't be right?” “Slow
motion” refers to playing a video recording at a slower speed so that it looks like
the people are moving and talking very slowly – like our podcast English in slow
motion. Gerard says, “But if it goes by that quickly, it will be more like subliminal
advertising.” “Subliminal (subliminal) advertising” is advertising where the
message only appears on the TV or movie screen very quickly, for less than a
second. The idea is that people see the image, the message, and their brain
captures it but they're not aware that they saw that message. That's called
subliminal advertising.
Victoria says, “Exactly. I hadn't thought of it that way,” – in that manner – “but
hordes of people will be going out to buy our products and they won't even know
why.” Once again, the idea of subliminal advertising is that people get an idea,
but they don't know where they saw it because they weren't consciously able to
see the message or the image. Victoria is trying to make the best of a not very
good situation by saying that “Oh yes. Our advertising will work and hordes of
people will be going out to buy our products.”
“Hordes” means a large group of people, many people. Hordes is a word that you
need to pronounce carefully. You need to have the “d” at the end of hordes

otherwise you get the word “whores” which means something very different. It
means a prostitute. And of course, you don't want to be talking about prostitutes
when you mean a large group of people.
“I'm even more of a genius than I thought,” Victoria says. A “genius” (genius) is a
very smart or intelligent person, someone who is smarter than the rest of us. In
the twentieth century, we often talked about Einstein as being one of the
geniuses of science. Victoria says that she is smarter then she even realized
because she has created this subliminal advertising by putting the logo on the
bottom of the star’s shoes.
Now let's listen to the dialog this time, at a normal speed.
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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

[start of dialog]
Victoria: [clears her throat] Congratulations are in order. I just scored a product
placement for our brand in the latest McQuillanator movie. Thank you, thank you
very much.
Gerard: Really? That’s great! Will it have a prominent place in the movie?
Victoria: Well, you know how these things are. Our logo goes by in the blink of
an eye, but millions of people are going to see it.
Gerard: So will the star be wearing our logo on his shirt or something?
Victoria: Something like that.
Gerard: But not that.

Victoria: No, it’s a little more subtle than that, but it’ll be embedded into an
important scene.
Gerard: But where are they going to see it?
Victoria: Is that really important? The important thing is that our brand will be
associated with a major Hollywood movie. What more could we ask for?
Gerard: Stop beating around the bush. Where in the movie will our logo
appear?
Victoria: All right. It’ll be on the bottom of the star’s shoes, on the sole, and the
audience will be able to see it when he’s running.
Gerard: Only if he’s running in slow motion, but he won’t be, right? If it goes by
that quickly, it’ll be more like subliminal advertising.
Victoria: Exactly! I hadn’t thought of it that way, but hordes of people will be
going out to buy our products and they won’t even know why. I’m even more of a
genius than I thought!
[end of dialog]
Congratulations are in order for our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Tse.
Congratulations Lucy, on another great script.
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ESL Podcast 888 – Advertising in TV and Movies

From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come
back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse,

hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational
Development

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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.