2025 JC1 ASRJC P1A8 Essay Outlines

Anderson Serangoon Junior College\English Department\General Paper\JC1 2025 (8881) Anderson Serangoon Junior College General Paper Paper 1 Assignment 8 Suggested Essay Outlines Question 1 Can advertising ever be trusted? (2021 ASRJC Promo) Question Analysis Issue: The purpose of advertising is generally to persuade people to buy products/services, or subscribe to certain perspectives and values. This casts doubts on the reliability and honesty of the message. Context: Global Conceptual Understanding: • Advertising is subject to the interests of the entities commissioning it. • Such entities would want to present narratives that align with their interests. This makes the advertisement unlikely to be objective/neutral and therefore untrustworthy. Key words: • Can: to be able to • Advertising: the business of trying to persuade people to buy products or services • Ever: at any time • Be trusted: deserving of the belief that someone is good and honest and will not harm you, or that something is safe and reliable Significant aspects/areas to be discussed (5W1H, Multiple Perspectives, Significant Trends, SPECTRAM): • Who advertises and what might be their agenda? • How are businesses using advertising today, and how does that affect its reliability? • How have recent trends (e.g. use of social media) affected advertising? • How do consumers respond to advertising today? Possible Stands • Advertising can be trusted most of the time. • Advertising cannot be trusted most of the time. Reasons why… Reasons why… not… Due to greater competition and the ease with which consumers can share their experiences, businesses are beginning to understand the need to be truthful in advertising so as to maintain a good reputation and gain the continual support of customers. • It is increasingly easy for customers to share their opinions and experiences of products and services today. E-commerce websites like Amazon feature review sections where customers can rate products. Consumer Reports, a non-profit consumer organisation, publishes information about products they test. Due to a desire for greater sales and profits, it is in the interest of businesses to exaggerate the merits of their products, undermining the trustworthiness of advertising. • Brands and influencers have been accused of using filters to promote beauty products, leading consumers to think that the products are more capable than they actually are. This led to the Advertising Standards Authority of the United Kingdom ruling in 2021 that filters should not be

Anderson Serangoon Junior College\English Department\General Paper\JC1 2025 (8881) The easy availability of product information means that consumers can verify the advertising published by businesses, and it is in the interest of businesses to be truthful in their advertising. applied to social media advertisements if they exaggerate the effect of the product. Advertisemen