You’re in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation:

“I can’t believe it — Lorenzo Bertolla! It is almost impossible to find. Isn’t it beautiful? And it’s a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome.”

They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It’s nice and the price is right. You’ve never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. They must know. So, you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes.

Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too. This is the secret of undercover marketing.

Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.

Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don’t pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation — consumers between the age of 18 and 34. It is a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don’t trust ads.

So advertising agencies hire young actors to “perform” in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice misleading, but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative. “Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing.” It is true, because everyone knows and ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. However, you don’t know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance.

Must-read Books of October

A Child Called It

Author: Dave Pelzer

Regular price: £11.95

This book tells about the story of Dave Pelzer, whose mother no longer considered him a son, but a slave and no longer a boy, but an "it". He had to learn how to survive. It is his dreams that kept him fighting, dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him son.

Trio

Author: William Boyd

Regular price: £18.99

Over his long career, William Boyd. has written many novels that reflect the 20thcentury's great turning points. Now, Trio is a feast full of delicious plots and subplots. For most writers, all this might be more than they could chew but William' Boyd combines the various plotlines together in a completely: satisfying way.

Home Stretch

Author: Graham Norton

Regular price: £20

Graham Norton has been known as a good novelist and Home Stretch will surely add to his fame. This book talks about Connor, a teenager in a small town, who killed three passengers when the car he was driving ran into a truck. Graham Norton could use his own experiences-in making Connor's painfully mixed feelings so convincing.

Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day

Author: Tom Moore

Regular price: £21

This book beautifully shows Captain Tom's mixture of amazement and pride. In April, Tom Moore decided to walk 100 sponsored laps (圈) in his garden before his 100th birthday.

His hope was to raise £1, 000 for a charity organization and surprisingly he raised £38.9 million. A couple of months later, he was honored by the queen.