The Language Of Advertising

Michaela Pretorius

 

Everyone hears it, everyone sees it. Everyone's a victim. You can't escape it. It's on the train, in the car, on your TV, on the radio, on the bus shelter, on your clothing, on buildings. It is everywhere. It surrounds us with a tight grip around our necks, keeping us conscious enough to listen but not letting us breathe.

Advertising is a type of communication, used to persuade the audience to buy, or interact with their items. Most advertising is very loud and in your face as the companies want to stand out from the others. It is common that the most annoying adverts are the ones you remember the most. Such as the 'Go Compare' adverts with the large singing man. Advertisements are usually paid for by the sponsors such as Vauxhall are advertising themselves on the English Football teams' kit as it reaches a wide audience and strikes their target audience.  Advertisements feature in many different places such as newspapers, magazines, television commercials, radios, outdoor advertising, and the Internet.

There is always a frequent use of adjectives and adverbs, especially evaluative adjectives such as new, clean and improved.  Hyperbole is also used to exaggerate and make things seem more exciting than they are. This can also be seen in the tone used by the narrator of the advert, shouting and singing is more exciting them a monotone tone of voice. Neologisms are also used to give a novelty impact and have a fun play  on words which can be seen as humorous by the audience such as 'tangoed' or 'wonder fuel'. Humour can feature as both visual and verbal. Short sentences are also a feature as they are abrupt and impact on the reader, such as a bold heading or slogan printed across the product advertisement such as 'half price' or 'brand new'. Ambiguity is common also. This is what makes a phrase memorable and re-readable. Ambiguity may be syntactic (the grammatical structure) or semantic (the way it sounds such as puns for example).

Weasel words are used but not as commonly. These are words which have an underlying meaning without actually being direct. There is an open comparative: "Toms Football is Better" (which makes you question what it is better than). With the other type being the bogus superlative: "Toms Footballs are The Best" (which also makes you wonder what it is in comparison with). There is also the use of imperatives: "Buy Toms Football Now!" I believe that these words would mainly feature on advertisements targeted at children as children always want what someone else has. SO the use of the weasel words talk the child into wanting what is being advertised which is then pushed on to the parent as they want the best for their child.

Many advertisements make sure to avoid the negatives such as emphasising only the good side. For example Marmite is a brand that is known to either be loved or hated. But the advert only focuses on the loving side of the marmite.

Simple and Colloquial language is also used such as, "It ain't half good" to appeal to ordinary people, though it is in fact often complex and deliberately ambiguous. Along with the use of familiar language which is the use of second person pronouns to address an audience and suggest a friendly attitude.

Advertisements just seem simple and obvious to us as we see it everywhere but the most annoying thing is that it is not easy and a lot of time goes in to us being cornered into spending our money…

 

LINKS:

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/19advert/advert2.html

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weasel%20word