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THE SOCIAL MEDIA PRODUCT PLACEMENT JUGGERNAUT Social media is the air that celebrities breathe. No other platforms can keep them so relevant in the cut-throat business of fame. But beyond satisfying their need to connect with the public, social media is also helping to fill bank accounts. To maintain their fabulous lifestyle, celebrities can turn to social media where the world of Instagram and influencer marketing awaits. And what a lucrative world it is.

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So what do we know about specific rates for social media posts? Mid-level reality TV stars can earn anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000 for a brand sponsored Instagram post. This can go as high as $50,000 for a TV sitcom star. That's a lot of money, but relatively low compared to the current crop of It-girl model who can command up to $300,000 for a single Instagram post, or an A-list actor who can receive up to $500,000.

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Although celebrity endorsements have been around for as long as advertising itself, their foray into social media is new territory. Traditional print and TV advertising is replete with famous faces pushing products we doubt they use or consume, but there is an understanding that we accept the falsehood because we know the game, we know they've been paid. The pseudo-ads posted as selfies on Instagram or Twitter, however, usually contain no clear indication that money has changed hands, despite the fact that, in many cases, it's legally required to do so.

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Beginning enthusiastically with "OMG", the original post was liked online by hundreds of thousands of followers. There was no doubt that she had actually used the medication, as it had been prescribed by her doctor. But had she included the mandatory information, it would have given the very distinct, and true, impression that it was a promotion. Ever mindful of her public image, she was aware this may not go down well with her followers. For her sins, she was forced to remove her gushing reviews from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and repost with a huge risk of disclaimer.

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Celebrities love social media because it helps them to build some semblance of authenticity and social intimacy with fans. First they create an image of openness and honesty with their online followers and then they exploit it in their sponsored posts. One star, for example, recently confided that her "secret" to staying trim was a certain weight loss tea. A photo of her looking slim and healthy, holding a cup of the miraculous fat-melting infusion was there for all to see. No mention was made of frequent, grueling sessions with a well-paid personal trainer. A clearly sponsored post — though honest — would have dismantled her credibility.

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As advertising professionals will tell you, that is exactly the goal of any ad — to sell an idea or a desirable lifestyle, and it doesn't even have to be true or attainable. The personality vouching for the product isn't even required to actually use it. All that needs to happen is for consumers to want some glamour and coolness to rub off on them. That is how advertising works. But this sneaky new form of celebrity endorsement, with its camouflaged product promotions requires consumers to completely suspend belief in order to place their trust in someone with an agenda.

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As such, the language has to be just right, peppered with the kinds of casual terms friends use with each other. Celebrities 'swear by' a new skincare product, are 'in love with' a new coconut water, 'can't live without' a new protein shake. The more cynical among us might question the true author of these snappy captions — is it the paid influencer or has the brand's marketing department come up with the text and tailored it to the target audience? Because the audience is what it's all about. Keeping it is important, but first it has to be found.

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So far, it's been a very successful strategy, and as long as a supply of famous faces are willing to accept cash for comments, the use of social media as a unique advertising tool won't be going away any time soon. Missing Paragraphs: A. Make no mistake — they are raking in it. Even those who are no longer as famous as they once were can be offered tantalizing amount by companies to promote products on the main personal social media platforms —Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The uber — famous with the largest followings are making money hand over fist, and the amounts are staggering.

B. Besides failing to list the downsides of the product, the celebrity fell foul of the law by not being explicit about the fact that she was paid to make the post. There are rules about this sort of thing, too. Celebrities receiving payment to promote a product on their platforms are required to tag the post #ad or #sponsored — something to indicate that a monetary transaction has taken place in return for their endorsement. So what's preventing them from adding those few letters? C. The beauty of influencer marketing for brands is that they don't have to build their target audience from scratch — something which is costly and time-consuming as it involves extensive market research. Once the influencer has been chosen, it is just a matter of getting the followers to support the brand, talk about it themselves to others, and buy the products. D. For that kind of money, celebrities are happy to plug a product hard. Juice cleaners, meal replacement regimes, weight-loss teas, waist shapers, teeth whitening kits — they comprise a range of categories that are perfectly suited to the highly narcissistic nature of the medium that is social media, requiring nothing more than a love of selfies and a complete lack of shame. The questionable efficacy of the products is no deterrent to the blatant money-grab. E. But what makes people susceptible to such influence? When asked, consumers said they trusted celebrities over brands. The problem with branded marketing content is that it is biased; influencer marketing, on the other hand, does not come across as an overt marketing attempt. Instead, it looks like a recommendation from a trusted friend. F. Advertisers have a major responsibility to inform celebrities, bloggers and anyone else they're paying to push a product that appropriate disclosures need to be made. Advertising should be identifiable as advertising so that consumers know when they're hearing a marketing pitch versus an independent viewpoint. G. Advertising is powerful and its manipulation runs deep when consumers are gullible to such marketing ploys. The endorsements — casually slipped in between a candid photo with a beloved pet and a carefree snap with a close friend, for example — make unwitting followers feel that this product is simply a part of the celebrity's daily life, and that they should make it a part of theirs too. They want it, and at that point, they're hooked. H. Disclosure with regards to medication is one of these instances. An American celebrity got into hot water with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for promoting a medication without providing information about possible side effects. The FDA, which is responsible for protecting public health through the regulation and supervision of a range of products including dietary supplements, prescription and over-the-counter medications, took a very dim view of this. 69. A “But beyond satisfying their need to connect with the public, social media is also helping to fill bank accounts. To maintain their fabulous lifestyle, celebrities can turn to social media where

the world of Instagram and influencer marketing awaits. And what a lucrative world it is.” connects with “Make no mistake — they are raking in it. Even those who are no longer as famous as they once were can be offered tantalizing amount by companies to promote products on the main personal social media platforms —Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.” 70. D “That's a lot of money, but relatively low compared to the current crop of It-girl model who can command up to $300,000 for a single Instagram post, or an A-list actor who can receive up to $500,000.” connects with “For that kind of money, celebrities are happy to plug a product hard.” 71. H “The pseudo-ads posted as selfies on Instagram or Twitter, however, usually contain no clear indication that money has changed hands, despite the fact that, in many cases, it's legally required to do so.” connects with “Disclosure with regards to medication is one of these instances. An American celebrity got into hot water with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for promoting a medication without providing information about possible side effects... There was no doubt that she had actually used the medication, as it had been prescribed by her doctor.” 72. B “Beginning enthusiastically with "OMG", the original post was liked online by hundreds of thousands of followers...For her sins, she was forced to remove her gushing reviews from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and repost with a huge risk of disclaimer.” connects with “Besides failing to list the downsides of the product, the celebrity fell foul of the law by not being explicit about the fact that she was paid to make the post.” 73. G “...make unwitting followers feel that this product is simply a part of the celebrity's daily life, and that they should make it a part of theirs too. They want it, and at that point, they're hooked.” connects with “As advertising professionals will tell you, that is exactly the goal of any ad — to sell an idea or a desirable lifestyle, and it doesn't even have to be true or attainable.” 74. E “The problem with branded marketing content is that it is biased; influencer marketing, on the other hand, does not come across as an overt marketing attempt. Instead, it looks like a recommendation from a trusted friend.” connects with “As such, the language has to be just right, peppered with the kinds of casual terms friends use with each other.”

75. C “The beauty of influencer marketing for brands is that they don't have to build their target audience from scratch — something which is costly and time-consuming as it involves extensive market research. Once the influencer has been chosen, it is just a matter of getting the followers to support the brand, talk about it themselves to others, and buy the products.” connects with “So far, it's been a very successful strategy...”

SUPER HUMANS

Sit down with an anthropologist to talk about the nature of humans, and you are likely to hear this pearl of wisdom: 'Well, you have to remember that 99 percent of human history was spent on the open savanna in small bands of hunter-gatherers.' It's a classic scientific cliché, and it's true. Indeed, those millions of ancestral years produced many of our hallmark traits — upright walking and big brains, for instance. Of course, those useful evolutionary innovations come at a price: aching backs from our bipedal stance and existential despair from our large, selfcontemplative cerebral cortex. Compounding the challenges of those trade-offs, the world we have invented is dramatically different from the one to which our bodies and minds are adapted. Have your dinner delivered to you instead of chasing it down on foot; log in to Facebook to interact with your nearest and dearest instead of spending most of the day with them. But this is where the utility of the anthropologist's cliche for explaining the human condition ends. The reason for this mismatch between the setting we evolved to live in and the situations we encounter in our modern era derives from another defining characteristic of our kind, arguably the most important one: our impulse to push beyond the limitations evolution imposed on us by developing tools to make us faster, smarter and longer-lived. Science is one such tool — an invention that requires us to break out of our Stone Age seeing-is-believing mindset so that we can clearly see the next hurdle we have to overcome, be it a pandemic flu or climate change. You could call it the ultimate expression of humanity's singular drive to aspire to be better than we are. To understand how natural selection moulded us into the unique primates we have become, let us return to the ancestral savanna. There the sun was hotter and nutritious plant foods were scarcer. In response, our predecessors lost their hair and their molars dwindled as they abandoned a tough vegetarian diet for one focused in part on meat from grassland grazers. Meanwhile, the selective demands of food scarcities sculpted our distant forebears into having a body that was extremely thrifty and good at storing calories. Now, having inherited that same metabolism, we hunt and gather burgers as diabetes becomes a worldwide scourge. Or consider how our immune systems evolved in a world where one hardly ever encountered someone carrying a novel pathogen. Today, if you sneeze near someone in an airport, your rhinovirus could be set free 12 time zones away by the next day. As regards behavior, our abilities abound. We can follow extraordinarily complex scenarios of social interaction and figure out if a social contract has been violated. And we are peerless when it comes to facial recognition: we even have an area of the cortex in the fusiform gyrus that specializes in this activity. The selective advantages of evolving a highly social brain are obvious. It paved the way for us to finetune our capabilities for reading one another's mental states, to excel at social manipulation and to deceive and attract mates and supporters. Among Americans, the extent of social

intelligence in youth is a better predictor of adult success in the occupational world than are academic scores. Indeed, when it comes to social intelligence in primates, humans reign supreme. The social brain hypothesis of primate evolution is built on the fact that across primate species the percentage of the brain devoted to the neocortex correlates with the average size of the social group of that species. This correlation is more dramatic in humans than in any other primate species. The fact that we have created this world proves a point — namely, that it is in our nature to be unconstrained by our nature. Science is one of the strangest, newest domains where we challenge our hominid limits. It also tests our sense of what is the norm, what counts as better than well and it challenges our sense of who we are. Thanks to science, human life expectancy keeps extending, our average height increases, our intelligence test scores improve and we eventually break every world record. But when it comes to humans becoming, on average, smarter, taller and better at athletics, there is a problem: Who cares about the average? As individuals, we want to be better than other individuals. Our brain is invidious, comparative and more interested in contrasts, a state that begins with sensory systems that do not normally tell us about the quality of a stimulus but instead about the quality relative to the stimuli around it. 1. According to the writer, the anthropological cliché to explain the nature of mankind A. needs some slight modifications B. requires little analysis C. should be considered paradoxical D. is limited in scope 2. Humankind will only be able to use science to progress if A. ethical considerations are ignored B. we discard an outdated approach to acquiring knowledge C. our drive to eliminate barriers continues D. the philosophy we adopt can be widely understood 3. Our ancient ancestors lived in a world where A. the necessity to hunt for food led to good health B. it was vitally important to have a balanced diet C. isolation allowed them to develop immunity from disease D. their restricted movement protected them from illness 4. The word peerless (Para.5, Line 2) in the passage is closest in meaning to A. friendless B. unsurpassed C. uncompetitive D. flawless 5. Having a highly social brain A. allows us to create groups with more members B. prevents us from being misunderstood

C. causes us to be more devious D. helps us to read other people's minds 6. The way we tend to think A. forces us to overlook our shortcomings B. has enhanced our understanding of sense perception C. distorts our perception of the notion of average D. makes us less likely to be concerned with absolutes 7. The word invidious (Para.7, Line 3 from bottom) in the passage mostly means A. prejudiced B. preordained C. unfathomable D. attitudinal 8. Which of the following square brackets [A], [B], [C], or [D] best indicates where in the paragraph the sentence "We are no strangers to going out of bounds." can be inserted? [A] The fact that we have created this world proves a point — namely, that it is in our nature to be unconstrained by our nature. [B] Science is one of the strangest, newest domains where we challenge our hominid limits. It also tests our sense of what is the norm, what counts as better than well and it challenges our sense of who we are. [C] Thanks to science, human life expectancy keeps extending, our average height increases, our intelligence test scores improve and we eventually break every world record. [D] But when it comes to humans becoming, on average smarter, taller and better at athletics, there is a problem: Who cares about the average? As individuals, we want to be better than other individuals. Our brain is invidious, comparative and more interested in contrasts, a state that begins with sensory systems that do not normally tell us about the quality of a stimulus but instead about the quality relative to the stimuli around it. A. [A] B. [B] C. [C] D. [D] 9. It can be inferred from the passage that A. there are no limits to human capabilities B. we will be able to adapt to harsh environments C. humankind's evolutionary path will not be smooth D. our knowledge of the past is crucial to our future 10. Which of the following is the main idea of the passage? A. Social intelligence enables Americans to be both academically and professionally successful. B. Science helps prolong human life and improve human intelligence to break all world records. C. Our evolutionary limits can be exceeded and that's what sets us apart from other species. D. A highly evolved social brain paved the way for humans to be able to read and distort others' thinking.

1. D But this is where the utility of the anthropologist's cliche for explaining the human condition ends. The reason for this mismatch between the setting we evolved to live in and the situations we encounter in our modern era derives from another defining characteristic of our kind, arguably the most important one: our impulse to push beyond the limitations evolution imposed on us by developing tools to make us faster, smarter and longer-lived 2. B Science is one such tool — an invention that requires us to break out of our Stone Age seeingis-believing mindset so that we can clearly see the next hurdle we have to overcome, be it a pandemic flu or climate change 3. D Or consider how our immune systems evolved in a world where one hardly ever encountered someone carrying a novel pathogen. Today, if you sneeze near someone in an airport, your rhinovirus could be set free 12 time zones away by the next day. 4. B 5. A It paved the way for us to finetune our capabilities for reading one another's mental states, to excel at social manipulation and to deceive and attract mates and supporters. Among Americans, the extent of social intelligence in youth is a better predictor of adult success in the occupational world than are academic scores. 6. D Our brain is invidious, comparative and more interested in contrasts 7. A 8. B 9. C 10. C