Match the following words with their explanations.
a. lay-off a very expensive posh car
b. tire-kicker to make something look smaller
c. parvenu the act of making redundant
d. pixie ruined illusions
e. belittle shame and embarrassment after being
made to look stupid
f. shattered dreams a well deserved punishment
g. humiliation to change into steam
h. comeuppance an imaginary small creature with
magical powers
i. evaporate a former low class representative who is
now rich and powerful
Explain the following.
a. Unbridled optimism has been splattered with a large coating of reality.
b. If the savagery of a young industry leads to casualties, so does the chaos surrounding rapid corporate growth.
c. Over the past 20 years, business writers have penned plenty of premature obituaries for all the companies mentioned.
d. Although stock-market indexes are dropping to ankle level, there is still little reason for gloom about the long term prospects.
Answer the following questions.
a. What signs of “shockingly sudden economic slowdown” does the author mention?
b. What is the attitude to starting new businesses?
c. What is the investment climate like in Silicon Valley?
d. What are the periods of Silicon Valley history?
e. Do the phases of the history contradict the rapid corporate growth?
f. Why is there little reason for gloom about the prospects of future development of Silicon Valley?
5. Comment on the title of the article and sum up the information.
■ 1.6 C. Wall Street's New Pitch
By david noonan
These days banks sell simple joys instead of riches.
Never mind the recent surge in layoffs or Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Green-span's congressional testimony last week about faltering consumer confidence. Perhaps the best evidence yet that the economy is softening is a new crop of ads from some of the nation's top financial-services firms. In the latest example of Madison Avenue's knack for quickly capturing shifts in the Zeitgeist, the ads have dumped the "Why aren't you a millionaire yet?" pitch that dominated financial ads in the '90s for a celebration of life's simpler pleasures. Indeed, one new TV spot for Citibank suggests that the surest way to "get rich quick" these days is to play with your kids. Remarkably, the ad, from one of the world's most powerful financial institutions, ends with the line "There's more to life than money."
The financial-services giants have long been among the nation's most skillful and pervasive advertisers, but the economic slowdown has left the multitrillion-dollar industry in a bind. After years of easy profits for themselves and their customers, the nations big brokerages, which spent $2.9 billion on advertising in the first six months of 2000, are struggling to reinvent their marketing strategies. Gone are the days of the memorable 1999 Discover brokerage ad that featured a scruffy tow-truck driver whose day-trading talents earned him enough money to buy his own island. "Our target customer is not the person who thinks they're going to become a millionaire with the next IPO," says Marge Magner, head of Citigroup's consumer businesses.
Citigroup was one of the first big firms to sense the changes in the air. The company, which hadn't launched any significant new advertising since its buzzy "The Citi Never Sleeps" campaign premiered in the late '70s, began researching its latest ads last spring, not long after the markets plunged so dramatically on April 14. Bank officials quickly concluded that pushing the accumulation of wealth in today's shaky climate just wouldn't work. So the new ads focus instead on home and family and strike more of a spiritual note than a material one. The Citibank ads, like similar ones for Van Kampen Investors, aren't about the how of making money, they're about the why, and they are slick and evocative. The things that matter most in life they say, are children splashing in wading pools, grandmothers nuzzling happy babies, pretty girls making fanny faces and other fleeting moments of simple human joy. It's very different image of what Wall Street is a about, says former Labor secretary Robert Reich, whose new book is called "The Future of Success." "Their message through the late 1990 s was 'Come with us and make a bundle Now people are thinking about saving a little bit more, slowing down, getting a life."
Of course, the new pitches are not simply about promoting a sense of well-being. Citibank is calculating that its new ads, create by Fallon Minneapolis, will transform it into the bank of choice for the millions of Americans it refers to as "balance seekers." Guide by research, the bank is targeting households with incomes ranging from $60,000 to $100,000. They are "people who have always believed that money is not the end, but the means to an end," says Anne Bologna, the director of planning Fallon Minneapolis. Citibank execs say 90 million Americans fit into the category. That's a whole lot of mortgages, credit cards and other services, and to snare a big chunk of it, Citibank is investing as much as $100 million in its campaign, which was launched in January and includes print, TV and outdoor display ads. Despite skepticism about banks and investment companies de-emphasizing the importance of money marketing experts say the soft sell may bejust the right approach for hard times.
Culture
exec – (informal) executive
Vocabulary
surge – a sudden large increase in a feeling, demand, profit, interest; a sudden movement of a lot of people: a surge of refugees; surge (v)
falter – to become weaker and unable to continue in an effective way; faltering – nervous and uncertain or unsteady
knack – a special skill or ability that you usually gain by practice; to have a knack of doing sth – to have a tendency to do something
capture – to catch someone in order to make them a prisoner, to get control of a place that previously belonged to an enemy; capture sb’s imagination/ attention/heart/firm/ part of the market
dump – put something somewhere in a careless, untidy way; get rid of something you do not want; sell goods to a foreign country at a much lower price; copy information stored in a computer’s memory on to a disk or magnetic tape; dump on - to criticize someone very strongly and often unfairly; dump (n)
pervasive – existing or spreading everywhere: the pervasive influence of television, all-pervasive mood of apathy; pervasiveness (n); pervade (v)
launch – to start official, public, or military activity that has been carefully planned: launch a campaign/ appeal/ inquiry/ attack; launch a product – to make a new product, available for sale for the first time; launch a boat/ spaceship; launch into – to suddenly start a description or a story, or suddenly start criticizing something; launch out – to start something new, especially something that involves risk; launch (n)
plunge - move, fall, or be thrown suddenly forwards and downwards; (price) go down by a large amount; (ship) move violently up and down, usually because of high waves; plunge in – start talking, doing sth quickly and confidently without worrying; plunge sb/sth into – make someone experience a particular type of situation, especially one that is difficult or unpleasant: be plunged into gloom/ despair; plunge into sth – begin to do something suddenly without thinking about the possible results; plunge (n)
evocative – making people remember something by producing a feeling or memory in them; evoke – to produce a strong feeling or memory in someone; evocation (n)
fleeting – lasting for only a short time: fleeting glimpse/ impression/ glance/ moment
