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Fashion victim fights back

 

1. Useful Vocabulary:

street market уличный рынок

brand  торговая
марка, брэнд

fake    подделка, фальшивка

counterfeiter  фальшивомонетчик

merchandise   товары

 

2. The text:

Walk into a
street market anywhere from Manila to Manchester, and someone will be selling T-shirts branded
with the distinctive CK logo of Calvin Klein, the New York fashion designer.

If the
price is very low, the T-shirts are probably fakes. Calvin Klein, like
most other internationally-known fashion designers, has, for a long time, had
problems with counterfeiters selling poor-quality merchandise
bearing his brand name. Now he is doing something about it. “As the Calvin
Klein brand has become well-known, we’ve seen a big increase in counterfeit activity”, says Gabriella Forte, chief executive of Calvin
Klein. “The better-known the brand name, the more people want to rip it off”.

In the past
Calvin Klein took a relatively passive approach to the counterfeit problem. The
company has now got tougher by establishing a network of employees and external
specialists to uncover copyright abuse.

The move
began with a general change in corporate strategy whereby Calvin Klein has
aggressively expanded its interests outside North America.
Calvin Klein has been one of the leading designers in the North American market
since the mid-1970s. Now Calvin Klein is building up its fashion business in
other countries. It has increased its investment in advertising, and
restructured its licensing arrangements by signing long-term deals wit partners
for entire regions such as Europe or Asia,
rather than giving licensing rights to individual countries. But as sales and
brand awareness have risen, Calvin Klein has become an increasingly popular
target for Asian and European counterfeiters, alongside other luxury brands
such as Gucci, Chanel and Ralph Lauren.

The fake
goods, mostly T-shirts, jeans and baseball caps, not only reduce the company’s
own sales but damage its brand image by linking it to poor quality merchandise.
“You’d be amazed at how many people pay $5 for a T-shirt without realizing it’s
counterfeit”, said one executive.

From The Financial Times

 

3. Provocative thinking:

1. Have you
ever bought a fake? If yes, what was that? Did you know it was a fake?

2. How can
common people tell a fake from a real product?

3. What
kind of industry has more fakes in the market?

4. In what
industry counterfeiting has the worst effect on customers?

5. What
means can you suggest to fight counterfeiters?

 

4. True or false, according to the article:

1. Calvin
Klein has always been fighting counterfeiters.

2. Fakes
produce much more harm than just reducing company’s own sales.

3. The more
popular the merchandise is, the more problems the producers have with
counterfeiting.

4. Calvin
Klein has been one of the leading designers in since the mid-1990s.

5. Calvin
Klein policy is to give license rights to individual countries.

 

5. Fill in the prepositions if necessary:

1. It takes
nearly half an hour to get ____ the centre of Moscow ____ my house.

2. He’s
been known ____ one ____ the leading food producers
____ 1960s.

3. The
products ____ this German company are widely known … Germany.

4. We can
not eave Peter ____ trouble – let’s do something ____ it!

5. What
fantastic jeans you’ve got! I recognize ____ the style ____ Levi’s.

 

6. Match the words to their meaning:

 

1. restructure                        a. the symbol of the
company or other organization

2. to rip off                           b. taking strong
actions all over the world

3. licensing rights                  c. a large number of people or
organizations working together as a system

4. global offensive                 d. to sell illegal copies of a
brand as if they are the real thing

5. a network                         e. a person who copies
goods in order to trick people

6. logo                                 f. plans of a
company to achieve its objectives

7. merchandise                     g. agreements which allow a
company to make and sell a registered product locally

8. copyright abuse                h. to change the way something
is organized

9. counterfeiter                     i.
to copy somebody else’s work without permission

10.corporate strategy           j. goods for sale

 

7. Match the word pairs from the text and
compose the sentences of your own using them
.

 

1. distinctive                                                             a.
quality

2. to establish                                                           b.
its interests

3. to be                                                                    c.
in advertising

4. poor                                                                     d.
increase

5. to expand                                                             e.
known

6. investment                                                            f.
designer

7. fashion                                                                 g.
a fake

8. to damage                                                            h.
a brand image

9. a big                                                                     i. logo

10. internationally                                                     j.
a network

 

8. Try to give an English definition to the
following words
:

1. fashion                   ____________

2. designer                 ____________

3. brand                     ____________

4. leader                    ____________

5. licence                   ____________

 

9. Find antonyms to the following words:

1. fake           ____________

2.
well-known            ____________

3. to sell                     ____________

4. general                   ____________

5. to increase             ____________

 

10. Make up a dialog between:

1. A fashion designer and the counterfeiter of its production;

2. A counterfeiter and a police officer who duty is to catch the
counterfeiters;

3. A prominent fashion designer and a young talented but inexperienced
young designer.

 

KEYS:

4. 1. F; 2. T; 3. T; 4.
F; 5. F

5. 1. from, to; 2. as, of, since; 3. of, outside; 4. in, about; 5. –, of

6. 1. h; 2. d; 3. g; 4. b;
5. c; 6. a; 7. j; 8. i;
9. e; 10. f

7. 1. i; 2. j; 3. g; 4. a;
5. b; 6. c; 7. f; 8. h; 9. d;
10. e

 

Compiled by Alyona Pavlova