IELTS Speaking – an advertisement that you remember well

Mostly through my phone, to be honest. I follow a couple of reliable news websites, and I glance at the headlines during my morning commute. I also listen to a news podcast while I'm cooking. I rarely buy a newspaper these days, although my dad still reads one every morning with his coffee.

Yes, pretty much every day. I usually watch a few short videos on YouTube while having lunch, often cooking tutorials or travel vlogs. I also use online videos for studying, for example, explanations of tricky grammar points. The only problem is that it's easy to lose track of time, so I try to set myself a limit.

Not really, or at least not straight away. There's so much misleading content out there that I've learned to take everything with a pinch of salt. If I see a shocking story, I usually check whether a reputable news outlet has reported it before I believe it, and I definitely don't share it until I've double-checked.

The advertisement I remember best is a TV commercial for a brand of instant coffee that came out a few years ago, around the Lunar New Year. I first saw it on television at my grandparents' house, during the week before Tet, and then it was everywhere, on YouTube, on Facebook and even on big screens at bus stops. I think I must have watched it dozens of times without getting bored, which is quite unusual for an advert. What was clever about it was that it barely showed the product at all. Instead, it told a short story about a young man who had moved to the city for work and hadn't been home for several years. He was always too busy, always promising his elderly father that he'd visit next time. In the advert, he finally takes the long bus journey back to his village on New Year's Eve, and his father, who had been waiting by the gate, makes him a cup of coffee. There was hardly any dialogue, just gentle music and the sound of rain. Only at the very end did the brand's logo appear, with a short line about coming home. The main reason I remember it is that it struck a chord with me personally. At the time, I'd just started university in another city, and I was feeling quite homesick. I remember my eyes welling up the first time I saw it, and I immediately called my parents afterwards. I think it was a brilliant example of emotional advertising, because instead of telling people to buy coffee, it connected the brand with family and nostalgia. To be honest, I still associate that brand with going home for Tet.

Yes, I strongly believe it should be. Young children aren't able to tell the difference between entertainment and a sales pitch, so they're easily persuaded by colourful characters and catchy songs. This is especially worrying when it comes to junk food and toys, because children then pester their parents for things they don't need. Some countries, like Sweden, have already banned TV adverts aimed at under-twelves. Of course, it's much harder to regulate online, since adverts are often disguised as videos by influencers. But I think stricter rules, along with teaching children media literacy, would make a real difference.

I think the first step is simply to slow down. Fake news is often designed to provoke a strong emotional reaction, so if a headline makes you angry or shocked, that's a warning sign. People should also check the source: is it a well-known news outlet, or a website they've never heard of? Another useful habit is cross-checking, which means seeing whether other reliable sources are reporting the same story. With images, a reverse image search can reveal whether a photo is old or taken out of context. Ultimately, though, I believe schools need to teach these skills from an early age.

Printed newspapers will probably become much rarer, but I don't think they'll vanish completely. Most young people already get their news online, and printing and distributing paper is expensive, so many publications have cut back on their print editions or gone fully digital. However, there will likely remain a niche market of older readers and people who simply enjoy the ritual of reading a paper over breakfast. More importantly, I think newspapers as organisations will survive, because we'll always need professional journalists. They'll just reach us through apps and websites rather than on paper.