InfinitivesHatice Yağmur

Advertising, Guerrilla Style

  Would you tattoo a website address on your body? One woman from Utah did just that. A company got her to tattoo its website address on her forehead for $ 10,000. She wanted to do it to raise money for her son’s education. The company wanted her to do it for cheap advertising space. They also got free publicity because the story was on the news. This kind of extreme advertising- known as guerrilla marketing- uses surprising ways to advertise a product and get people’s attention.

A way to advertise with guerrilla marketing is to use the environment in an unexpected way. For example, a few years ago, a popular candy company painted park benches so that they looked like giant chocolate bars. This creative ad strategy got consumers’ attention in a positive way.

For guerilla marketing to be successful, people must talk about the ads. In the 1990s, the company Half.com persuaded the town of Halfway, Oregon, to change its name to Half.com. People all over the United States heard about Half.com, and soon thousands of consumers went to the website.

Not all guerilla marketing works. In 2007, an ad company decided to place signs with flashing lights around different cities to advertise a television show. However, in Boston, the police thought the signs were bombs. The police tried to find and destroy all of the signs.

Unlike those who use traditional advertising strategies, guerilla marketers are not afraid to shock people. The idea is to convince people to talk about the products. However, it is important for companies to consider how people react. Not all publicity is always good publicity.

Infinitives with Verbs

An infinitive is to+the base form of the verb. Some main verbs in a sentence are followed by an infinitive, not a gerund.

Ex: I decided to learn about advertising.

The company planned not to use traditional advertising.

Verbs+Infinitives

Use an infinitive after the following verbs:

Time: hesitate, wait

Ex: We hesitated to use guerilla marketing.

Likes or dislikes: care

Ex: I don’t care to see boring ads on TV.

Plans or desires: decide , hope, need, plan

Ex: The company is hoping to buy advertising space.

Efforts: attempt, help, learn, manage

Ex: Guerilla marketers attempt to get your attention.

Communication: agree, offer, promise

Ex: Our company promised not to waste money.

Possibility: appear, seem, tend

Ex: Guerrilla ads tend to shock consumers.

Use not before the infinitive to show the infinitive is negative.

Ex: The company decided not to pay bloggers to write about their products.

Verbs+Objects+Infinitives

After some verbs , and object comes before the infinitive. The object performs the action of the infinitive.

Ex: He got us to try a new technique.

verb + object + inf.

The following verbs are followed by an object+infinitive:

advice, allow, convince, encourage, get, persuade, prepare, teach, tell, urge, and warn

Ex: The company didn’t tell the salespeople to educate consumers.

Some verbs can be followed by either an object+infinitive or an infinitive only.

These are: ask,choose, expect, help, need, promise, want, and would like

Infinives vs. Gerunds

Some verbs can be followed by an infinitive or a gerund. Much of the time , the meaning is the same, but sometimes it is different.

Similar meanings of infinitive vs. gerund After some verbs, you can use either a

gerund or an infinitive with no change in meaning.

begin love

can’t stand prefer

continue start

hate like

When begin, continue, or start are in a progressive form, use an infinitive

Different meanings of infinitive vs.

gerund

The following verbs can be followed by an infinitive or a gerund, but the meaning is different.

forget

Did you forget to tell your secretary you’d be late today? ( You never told your secretary.)

Did you forget telling your secretary you’d be late today? ( You told your secretary, but you do not remember it.)

regret

I regret to tell you that our sales have dropped. ( I’m sorry that our sales have dropped, but I’m telling you about it.)

I regret telling you that our sales have dropped. ( I told you our sales had dropped, but I wish I hadn’t. )

remember

They remembered to e-mail the sales figures. (They almost forgot, but then they sent the e-mail.)

They remembered e-mailing the sales figures. ( They sent the e-mail. Later they thought about it again. )

stop

People stopped to look at the colourful signs. (People stopped and looked at them. )

People stopped looking at the colourful signs. ( People were looking at them but then stopped. )

try

The mayor tried to change the town’s name, but the citizens didn’t want to. (This was an experiment to see if he could do it. The mayor didn’t succeed. He couldn’t change the name.)

The mayor tried changing the town’s name, but it didn’t help tourism. ( The mayor made an effort to do this, and he succeeded. He changed the name.)

Infinitives after adjectives and nouns

Infinitives can also follow some adjectives and nouns.

be+ajectives+infinitivesUse infinitives after the

following adjectives:

afraid

amazed

difficult

easy

embarrassed

fun

interesting

lucky

necessary

ready

sad

shocked

sorry

surprised

(un)likely

upset

Some companies are afraid to use new marketing techniques.

The advisers were sorry to cause a problem.

It would be fun to surprise people with guerrilla advertising.

nouns+infinitivesUse infinitives after the

following nouns:

Ability, chance, decision, time, way

Ex: Some ads have the ability to excite the public.

It’s time to be more creative in advertising.

Thanks