Otherwise identical subway advertisements in major U.S. cities someti

Question

Otherwise identical subway advertisements in major U.S. cities sometimes have different messages depending on whether the intended audience is English or Spanish speaking. Whereas the ads in English tend to emphasize benefits gained by the individual using the product or service, the ads in Spanish tend to emphasize benefits to the individual's community.

Which of the following, if true, can be most logically inferred from the argument?
 A. Community is more important to people who speak Spanish than it is to people who speak English.
 B. Most advertisers target their advertisements at specific audiences and adjust content accordingly.
 C. Recent immigrants are more likely to respond to advertisements in their native language.
 D. Some advertisers believe that Spanish speaking and English-speaking audiences will respond in different ways to the same message. 
E. Advertisements targeted at French-speaking audiences are rare in major U.S. cities.

winterschool · Answer

Otherwise identical subway advertisements in major U.S. cities sometimes have different messages depending on whether the intended audience is English or Spanish speaking. Whereas the ads in English tend to emphasize benefits gained by the individual using the product or service, the ads in Spanish tend to emphasize benefits to the individual's community.

Which of the following, if true, can be most logically inferred from the argument?
A. Community is more important to people who speak Spanish than it is to people who speak English.  Keeps

B. Most advertisers target their advertisements at specific audiences and adjust content accordingly.  Incorrect

it strengthens argument

C. Recent immigrants are more likely to respond to advertisements in their native language.  Irrelevant

D. Some advertisers believe that Spanish speaking and English-speaking audiences will respond in different ways to the same message.  Keeps

E. Advertisements targeted at French-speaking audiences are rare in major U.S. cities.  Irrelevant

between A & D

A- we dont know Community is more important to Spanish people

D. advertisers believe that people respond in different ways to the same message, so they advertise same add differently

so my answer - D

globaldesi · Answer

Official explanation:
D) If you assume that advertisements are crafted to be most effective, then it is logical to infer that the differences in the advertisements discussed in the passage are the result of the advertisers' belief that certain messages would be more effective with some audiences than on others. This is the same as saying that the two audiences will respond in different ways to the same message, so choice (D) is correct. 
In order to identify choices (A) and (C) as invalid inferences, you must recognize that the advertisements might not accurately reflect the two audiences' actual beliefs. In other words, it could be the case that the advertisers got it wrong, and ads emphasizing community provoke equally strong responses among members of both audiences. If this were the case, which it very well may be, then you can't infer anything about either audience from the information given in the advertisements alone. Choice (A) is a sweeping generalization. Does this apply to people in Spain, Mexico, or is it limited to Spanish-speakers in US cities? Choice (C) is also problematic because there is no mention of recent immigrants. 
Choice (B) is tempting because it generalizes the information given in the passage regarding subway advertisements; however, you do not have enough information to conclude anything about the behaviors of "most" advertisers. 
Choice (E) contains unrelated information. 
Choice (D) is the only one that can be logically inferred from the argument. Therefore, it is the correct answer.

elavendan1 · Answer

Can someone explain option D in detail? 
D says Spanish speaking and English speaking audiences respond 'differently' to the same message. Is the response positively skewed towards English ads for English speaking audiences or negatively skewed? We don't know. I agree this is subtle, but option B is much more closer than option D.

Passage says, barring few occasions, most subway ads are identical. Those few occasions simple modifications to the type of ads. i.e, English speaking ads target X, and Spanish speaking ads target Y. 
Option B says, Most advertisers change their ads based on the target they're trying to penetrate to.

On the other hand, D says: some advertisers believe that people react differently to same advertisements. Consider a scenario in which English speaking and Spanish speaking people react 'differently' to the same advertisement. Can we really infer that English speaking people tend to emphasize benefits gained by the individual, and  that  is the reason they are behaving differently?

richirish · Answer

The question stem clearly states that "otherwise identical" that means the advertisements are more or less the same except the messaging solo vs group and the stem also says "Sometimes..." that means it is not that common.

We can reasonably infer from this is that if both the ads were exactly the same in both the languages and their impact would be the same on the two audiences, there would be no need to tweak the messaging but the fact that "sometimes = some advertisers" do so is testament to the fact that they believe a literal translation of the same ads will yield different results or elicit varied responses from the two communities.

Hope it helps

VerbalBot · Answer

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Otherwise identical subway advertisements in major U.S. cities someti

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