Silk Cut by David Lodge - System of Tasks

Copyright 2005 Mary Dobrovolska and Alexander Sokol
(This material is developed in the framework of New Learners in the New Europe project supported by the British Council Latvia)

Part 1. Content Generation Tasks

In parts 1 and 2, the teacher chooses one or several tasks which seem most appropriate in your context.

Task 1.1.

You are the top manager of the advertising agency. The customer (the producer of razorblade / cars / chocolate etc) wants to hear/see the project of an advertising campaign that will guarantee success.
Choose one product and prepare a report. Keep in mind that the target-audience of your report is the customer.

Task 1.2.

Below is a list of things which you have never seen being advertised.
Imagine a millionaire comes to your office (you are the boss of a huge advertising agency) and offers you a fantastic amount of money for advertising campaigns of the following phenomena:

a) love (as a philosophical notion!)

b) friendship

c) hope

d) dreams

e) patience.

Draft a project of a campaign for one of these phenomena to be presented to the customer at the next meeting.

Task 1.3.

Imagine that you can decide which advertisement should be removed at all (because you consider it harmful) and which things should be advertised intensively (that are not presently advertised).
What would be your decision? Mention at least 5 things  to remove and 5 things to add.

Part 2. Language Tasks

Task 2.1.

Which words and expressions would change if advertisement disappeared?
Make a mind map “the world without advertisement”.
Exchange mind maps with your partners. Try to prove that words from the mind map will, in fact, not disappear. 

Task 2.2.

You work for a famous media company. One day you are invited to deliver a talk to upper secondary school students about the language of advertisement.
Draft your talk.

Task 2.3.

 Choose a website you like. Write 3 different advertising texts for this website. The texts should be up to 80 words.

Task 2.4.

Find definitions of “metaphor” and “metonymy”. Think of 3 kinds of advertisement you like. Are they examples of metaphors, metonymy or both? Explain your answer.

Part 3. Co-authoring

(for this group of tasks, you should answer from the point of view of the author, i.e. you are David Lodge)

In parts 3-5 and 8, you are offered to choose which tasks you would like to work upon. Your teacher may limit the choice by suggesting the number of tasks you should do in each part, eliminating some tasks (or parts), offering specific criteria for choice, etc. Forms of work may differ, starting with group work (you make a group with peers working on the same task) to individual written work. Your teacher will let you know what exactly he/she would like you to do at this moment.

Task 3.1.

You are being interviewed by a journalist from a feminist magazine. She’s raging at you and asking how you dared to write such a provoking and discriminating text? What will you answer?

Task 3.2.

You are being asked what would be different if you changed the roles, i.e. let Robyn have the point of view of Vic and vice versa.
What will you answer?

Task 3.3.

A number of people are invited to take part in a talk show “Why Complicate Life”. The text “Silk Cut” I used as an example of “complicating life”. You (a real you) and David Lodge are two of the participants. Write down what both of you say. These can be monologues or dialogues where you discuss some of the points.

Part 4. Content generation tasks

Task 4.1.

Choose 3 famous brands. Collect examples of their advertisement (TV, posters etc). Comment on the advertisement from the point of view of Vic and Robyn.

Task 4.2.

Vic and Robyn are applying for a job in a large advertising agency. As a test they are asked to draft projects of 3 advertising campaigns:
a) a washing machine
b) jeans
c) Cartier watch.
Choose one of the above and try to predict proposals Robyn and Vic could make.

Task 4.3.

Make a marketing research. Find examples from existing ads (TV or radio or any other media) for „vics” and „robyns” (ie for those who take things “as they are” and for those who keep looking for SIGNS in everything and tend to interpret things).
Mention features of ads that make them belong to one group or the other.

Task 4.4.

Collect examples of existing ads which you consider to be BAD. Explain why they are bad (you may also choose to comment on the ads in your data based from Robyn’s or Vic’s point of view).

Task 4.5.

You work for a large media company and have to take into account all groups of potential customers, including people such as Robyn and Vic. You are going to release several new brands on the market (e.g., a razor blade, a car, a soft drink, a chocolate bar etc.) Think of parallel advertising campaigns for „robyns” and „vics” (ie for people who like looking for SIGNS in everything and for those who see things “as they are”). Draft your ideas for the campaigns and add notes on “what has to be done and why”.

Task 4.6.

(Mini-research is required). Compare advertisement 100 years ago and now. What has changed? Has anything changed? (function/target audience/”philosophy” etc)

Task 4.7.

You need to make an advertising campaign, using the following symbols (left column are the things to be advertised, right column – the things to be used as „tools”):

SHAMPOO - LION (e.g. how to advertise shampoo using a lion as the main character in the ad?)

DOG FOOD - SKY

SHOES - ICE-CREAM

CHAIRS - CHOCOLATE

FRIDGE - GARDEN

WHISKEY - LIPSTICK

BICYCLES - TV-SET

Make a brief description of each kind of advertisement (you may choose different types of ads: video/audio/paper etc).

Task 4.8.

You are the owner of a large advertising agency. Suddenly all kinds of advertisement are forbidden by law. Companies which want to get ads are willing to pay you ten times more than usually if you invent a way of creating advertisement which would be legal. Come up with ideas for possible ways out in the given situation.

Task 4.9.

Choose 3 TV advertisements of famous brands (e.g. Nike, Coca-Cola, Snickers etc) and change the point of them: make them advertise something else, not the brand. You should change as few things as possible in the original advertisement but in the end the final slogan should be different! (e.g., not Nike but „Respect you neighbour... don’t walk with your shoes on his carpet”). It is important though that the original advertisement is clear when reading / watching your variant.

Task 4.10.

Read the following quotation from the text:

'You must have a twisted mind to see all that in a perfectly harmless bit of cloth,' he said.
A cigarette is a cigarette. A piece of silk is a piece of silk. Why not leave it at that?
'When they're represented they acquire additional meanings,' said Robyn. 'Signs are never innocent. Semiotics teaches us that.'

Think of at least 5 examples of images in advertisement where signs stop being innocent. Provide your comments on the “lost innocence”.  

 

Part 5. Speaking tasks

Task 5.1.

Somebody is obsessed by the idea of seeing signs everywhere. Choose the type of obsession yourself (e.g. obsession by death or by George Bush or by Mickey Mouse – add yours) - give examples from this person’s life to prove that he/she interprets things in a specific way based on the obsession (e.g. sees SIGNS in ads, in people on the street, everywhere...) Draft a monologue of this person illustrating the obsession.

Join in groups according to the type of obsession you’ve chosen. Each group is to prepare a presentation illustrating the obsession. Other groups have to prove that there is no obsession and there exists a different explanation to examples the presenting group has given.

Task 5.2.

You take part in a talk show dedicated to advertisement. Choose one of the roles and prepare what you’re going to say.

Role 1. A senior person. You like watching TV and remember the time when no advertisement was there at all. You believe it was much better as nothing disturbed you when watching your favourtite programme.

Role 2. A young person. You grew up with advertisement and are very much used to it. You think that advertisment in media is natural and the modern world cannot function without it. At the same time, you think that a lot of advertisement is very boring and is done unprofessionally.

Role 3. A person working for a media company. Making advertisment is your job. You agree that some advertisment can be better than other, but you also consider that most people have an extremely amateurish approach to advertisment and forget that it is made for different target audiences and therefore it must be different. 

Role 4. You are a politician. You are mostly supported by senior citizens (like role 1) and altough you personally have nothing against advertisment, you always say that you believe our life would be much better if there was no advertisment as it is important for your political success.

Role 5. You are a researcher in the field of media. You know a lot about advertisment, not only at present but also in the past. You would like to explain to people that advertisment has an important role in the modern world and there are different types of advertisment. Your approach is much deeper than that of a person in role 3. At the same time, you are a theoretician while the person in Role 3 is a practitioner.

Role 6. You are a senior person, however, unlike the one in Role 1, you are trying to change with the world. You would like to understand what advertisment is all about and why we have to face so much of it. You have to come to the show to ask questions and get answers.

Role 7. You are an extravagant musician. You come to talk shows to draw people’s attention to yourself. You are famous for provocative statements and extravagant behaviour. You don’t know how you can use this talk how yet, but you are sure you will be able to do something ”in your style”.

Role 8. You are the host of the show. Your programme is popular because you always manage to organise quite a heated discussion. You believe that this time the topic is perfect for a good agrument and are ready to do everything to make it happen.

Part 6. Transformation tasks

In part 6, you are normally asked to choose one task as your home written assignment. You will be asked to hand in your first version and then continue to work on subsequent versions after receiving feedback from the teacher and / or peers.

Task 6.1.

You have to write an article about the Silk Cut ad for the following magazines:

a) Cosmopolitan
b) a magazine for parents or teachers (choose one and specify)

c) FHM.

What will be different about the articles?
Draft three variants of the article. Mention the differences between them and explain what they are caused by.

Task 6.2.

Vic writes a letter to his friends and tells about his conversation with Robyn. He tries to explain what the whole semiotics thing is about. He doesn’t really understand it but... well, he’s trying to, honestly. What does he write? (You are Vic. Write a letter and provide comments on why Vic would write it like this).

Task 6.3.

Imagine that you have to make a film based on D.Lodge’s novel. How would you film the given episode. Think both about the script (as a script writer) and other elements of the film (as a director).

Task 6.4.

Write a text where Vic and Robyn are discussing literature or films. Try to make sure that your Vic and Robyn are as close to those we can see in this text as possible.

Part 7. Project tasks

Project tasks are optional, however you are recommended to take up at least one project task to one of the texts offered to you. Forms of presenting a project may differ, however it is important to stress that the work itself is a process with several feedbacks and revisions. The theme of the project may change over time. So, don’t hesitate to approach your teacher and discuss possible ways of being involved in a project and obtaining feedback to what you do.

Task 7.1.

You are thinking of a new tool in advertisement: a data base that will include all possible symbols and signs which might be used in advertisement (i.e. you will collect all possible ways of interpreting different things). The idea is to give advice to people who create advertisement, to help them and to prevent blundering.

Try to collect entries for your new data base. Think of possible ways of describing your entries (ie field in the data base). Try to see of interpretation of symbols is static or changes in time and across cultures.

Task 7.2.

Future advertisement. Conduct a research on the development of advertisement and outline possible changes that will happen to the current system of advertisement in the future (you may choose between years 2020, 2050, 2200).

Part 8. Language tasks

Task 8.1.

Make a list of advertising slogans for “vics” and “robyns” for at least 5 of the following things (at least 3 slogans for each object for robyns and 3 for vics):

a) baby food

b) socks

c) hairspray

d) orange juice,

e) walkman

f) yoghurt

g) computer game

h) mobile phone

i) bread

j) designer furniture.

 

Task 8.2.

You are supposed to make an adaptation of this text for people who have elementary knowledge of English. You should make as few changes as possible  – but you may add comments and explain certain things.
Choose a part of the text (at least 1/3 of a page) and make an adaptation.

Task 8.3.

Metaphor and metonymy.
What is the difference between metaphor and metonymy according to Robin?
What examples does she give to illustrate the difference?
Find examples of metaphors and metonymy in advertisment you have come across (at least 5 examples of each).
Do you seem to prefer metaphors or metonymy? How do you explain that?

Part 9. Reflection and evaluation tasks

In part 9, you are expected to reflect on what you have been doing so far and make some conclusions. It is essential that you do all the tasks and approach them AFTER all other assignments have been completed.

Task 9.1.

List the words and expressions you found useful and worth learning when working upon these materials:

 

From the text:

 

From the exercises:

 

Other:

 

Task 9.2.

Explain why you chose to work on these particular tasks in parts 3 – 8? If you could choose again, would you work on the same tasks? Please explain.

Task 9.3.

To what extent did you enjoy working on the tasks? Please explain.

Task 9.4.

Look back at the tasks you chose to do.

9.4.1. Which OTSM-TRIZ models could be practised when working with these tasks – list them and provide short comments why you think so.

9.4.2. Which OTSM-TRIZ models did YOU use when working on these tasks?

9.4.3. Did the use of the models help you do the tasks better? Please explain.

Task 9.5.

Which new tools did you work out / old tools did you improve for performing the type of tasks you worked with?
(a) (in case of new tool) Describe the tool and point out how you think it can be used for performing similar tasks in the future.
(b) (in case of improvement of an old tool) Present the previous version of the tool and describe additions that have been made to the tool.

Task 9.6.

Have you worked out / improved any tools that can help you fulfil tasks in other subjects (real life)? Please explain.

Task 9.7.

Did someone help you with the tasks? What kind of help was it?

Task 9.8.

How much time did you spend on the tasks? __________ Did you find it enough? Please explain.

Task 9.9.

How would you estimate your work? ______ (10 point system). Why?