Product-Oriented Communication: A Linguistic Analysis of Selected Adverts
Jairos Kagira, Polytechnic of Namibia
Introduction
The language that is used in commercial advertisements in general often does more
than just inform the public about products that are on sale; the language usually has
an extra crucial task of trying to persuade potential customers to buy the products.
The question that may be asked right at the outset is: How do designers of adverts
make them persuasive? The main focus of this paper is to answer this and other
related questions. From a linguistic point of view, it is evident that, among other
things, designers of adverts pay attention to the morpho-syntactic, semantic and
phonological aspects of the language used in an advert.
Body
Linguistics Features of Different Adverts
The general structure of adverts follows what Fielding (1997: 338) calls the
AIDA approach, that is, adverts must attract the Attention of the reader, arouse
the reader’s Interest and Desire in the product, resulting in the reader’s Action.
Capturing people’s attention and interest is perhaps the most difficult thing to do in
designing an advert. Competition from other adverts, sometimes on the same page
in a publication, presents a problem, which must always be borne in mind when
designing an advert. So, designers of adverts usually use embellished language in
order to convince customers to buy certain kinds of products.
AD 1: In the heading look WHO CHOOSES BIG and GENTLE JADE in AD1 (The herald, 13 July 1999) we can identify alliteration on GENTLE JADE, a linguistic devise that makes the phrase memorable. In pronouncing the two words we use the voiced alveopalatal affricate. Alliteration is also found in the text “We love it because it lastsso long and it’s really economical,” words that are supposedly spoken by the mother in the illustration that accompanies the advert. This illustration communicates a nonverbal massage which helps the text to be more convincing; the smiles on the faces of the members of the Makiwa family have an implicature of happiness arising from the use of Jade soap. The slogan of the advert, BIG ON QUALITY, GENTLE ON YOUR SKIN, is more appealing as it is a short memorable phrase that has been made possible by the use of disjunctive syntax, which cannot be read in formal texts. It would be cumbersome to have a slogan which reads JADE SOAP IS BIG ON QUALITY AND IT IS GENTLE ON YOUR SKIN as this would defeat the purpose of a slogan being short and catchy. It is not clear what the meaning of BIG ON QUALITY is, but the adjective BIG and the noun QUALITY are most likely going to influence customers into thinking that they are getting value for their money if they buy Jade soap. Besides alliteration, adverts use rhyming words to make the massage interesting and memorable. In AD 2 below, the copywriter uses the words “bite” and “right” to produce rhyme.
AD 2: STORK MARGARINE
“Just one bite, And you know you are right.”
Adverts also strive on the use of comparatives and superlatives in order to
communicate massages effectively. Comparatives are made possible by the use of
the words “more” and “less” and the inflectional morpheme “-er”. On the other hand, in order to form superlatives, the words “most” and the inflectional morpheme “-est” are used.
AD 3: (Horizon, October 1998) in which comparatives have been underlined: “Sunbeam. The polish that gives you more shine and more time.
SUNBEAM SHINES BRIGHTER, DRIES FASTER AND LASTS MUCH LONGER”.
The implication here is that Sunbeam” polish is better than any other floor polish.
This impression is supported by the illustration (non-verbal communication) which
shows two women (mother and daughter) leisurely talking in a room that has a
sparkling floor, suggesting the good results of using sunbeam floor polish. In the
body copy, the older woman says her daughter never used to have time with her
because of the poor type of floor polish that the daughter used. “Now we have
more time to get together”, says the older woman because she has introduced
her daughter to ‘Sunbeam polish with Wondershine’. The use of compound words
in this advert is effective as Sunbeam (Sun + beam) suggests a reflection of the
sun from a well-polished surface; Wondershine (Wonder +shine) implies that the
use of this brand of polish produces an extraordinary shining of the floor. Related
to compounding is a linguistic technique called blending. This is when a word is
formed from parts taken from other words, for example WINDOLENE (a name of a
liquid used to clean windows) named from the words “window” and “cleaner”. This
technique is usually used to form brand names of products.
AD 4: Still on comparatives, JIK (AD 4, Horizon, October 1998) is compared to no other bleach. Again, comparatives are underlined in the following text: NO BLEACH
WHITENS AND REMOVES STAINS OR IS SAFER ON FABRICS THAN JIK. NO
BLEACH IS BETTER THAN JIK THAT’S A PROMISE. Besides the comparative
force of the above text, the massage is strengthened by the illustration (non-verbal communication) of a nun dressed in white and also by the white garment she is
hanging on the line. The nun is used as a symbol of purity, implying, if one uses JIK,
one’s clothes are likely to be pure and as white as those of the nun in the picture.
AD 5: In the BLACK OPAL cosmetic advert, we see a comparative
that is used in a negative form: YOU NEVER LOOKED MORE BEAUTIFUL. This
comparative has an illocutionary force of persuading the potential customers to buy
the product with the belief that if they buy this product, one becomes more beautiful. Although it does not openly say that one must use Black Opal, the comparative used has a connotative meaning, which is left to the reader to work out.
Superlatives are a common feature in adverts. People are made to believe that if
they use brand X of a product, they will always get the best results.
The following show how the superlative inflectional morpheme “-est” is used:
AD 6: if one uses SUPER BLUE SURF, one gets the cleanest wash ever!
AD 7: HARVEST MARGARINE is purportedly made from the purest vegetable oil. And when one buys a Mazda, one is definitely making the cleverest choice.
AD 8: In the heading, ‘The most trusted name in
colour cosmetics and skincare products’ in AD above, we are given the impression
that BLACK OPAL is the only trusted cosmetic that one can use among a wide
range of skincare products. In general, the language that is used in skin care products is more emotive and powerful that more people, especially women, are made to believe that beauty is a result of the use of these products and not a natural quality or characteristic.
AD 9: It is claimed that Lanolene Milk ‘gently pampers and conditions
your skin, penetrating deeply to cleanse and moisturise, nourishing and revitalising
it to a fragrant, sensual softness’. The advert is appealing because of the careful
use of adverbial phrases gently pampers and penetrating deeply, the adjectival
phrase fragrant, sensual softness and the verbs moisturise, cleanse, nourishing
and revitalising.
AD 10: The following phrases in the AMBER VALLETTA deodorant
are attractive in the sense that the underlying topic is love:
A FRAGRANCE SENSATION, A SPARKLING LOVE STORY, WONDERFULLY
ROMANTIC.
AD 11: What would be your interpretations of the following advert selling a piece of furniture?
“FOR SALE:
AN ANTIQUE DESK SUITABLE FOR LADY WITH GOOD LEGS AND
LARGE DRAWERS”
There are two possible meanings: the old, valuable desk has good legs and
large drawers; The lady has good legs and large drawers (old-fashioned female
underwear) The advert shows a case of structural ambiguity, “a term used in
linguistics to refer to a construction with more than one grammatical interpretation
in terms of constituent analysis” (Crystal 1991: 330). To produce humour which is
intended to draw the attention and interest of readers, the designer of the advert
uses this linguistic aspect. The advert puns on the words “legs” and “drawers”.
There is nothing unusual in the first meaning but eyebrows are raised when the
“legs” and “drawers” refer to a woman’s. It is clear that this second meaning of
the advert is in bad taste. Designers of adverts usually use puns to make adverts
appealing as explained above.
Structural ambiguity can also be caused by the omission of a word or words in a
structure. The linguistic term used when there is omission of word is called ellipsis.
Advert designers sometimes use this linguistic technique, to make the advert
attractive.
AD 12: Consider this heading of an Ortho-King bed advert:
“NOBODY IS BETTER IN BED”
When I first came across this heading, I thought there was something wrong with
it. I thought the copywriter wanted to say NOBODY’S BETTER BED! I refused to
think that it meant what it literally implies that there is no one who is better than the
other in bed, a meaning that may be interpreted as being in bad taste. The other
meaning is that no one is better in bed manufacturing than Ortho-King, the maker
of the spring bed that was being advertised. The designer of this advert intentionally
omitted the lexical item MANUFACTURING at the end so that the heading could
have a double meaning. The elliptical heading shows emphasis on the product
being advertised and is more likely to capture the attention of potential customers.
What is interesting with this advert is that all the people who were asked to interpret
the heading were able to bring out only the literal meaning; they were unable to
notice that this elliptical structure could mean something else.
AD 13: The use of homonyms (homophones) shows how copywriters can be creative in advert designing. Homonyms are words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings. These words may or may not be spelt the same (Fromkin and Rodman 1996), for example “meet” and “meat”; and “bank” and “bank”. The way the Marvo stationery advert uses the homonym “secretary” in AD 13 (The Business Herald, 28 January 1999) is very interesting. A huge picture of a secretary bird is accompanied with the heading “About the only secretary we can’t satisfy”. The implication is that Marvo stationers can satisfy all needs of ordinary secretaries, that is human beings, but not the needs of a bird. The contrast between a human being and a bird in relation to the use of the stationery makes this advert interesting. The use of this semantic technique is further extended to the slogan of the same advert. It reads: MAKE THE WRITE IMPRESSION. Instead of using the word RIGHT, the designer used WRITE. Both words have the same pronunciation. The effect of using WRITE is that it emphasises to the reader that the product being advertised has something to do with WRITING. The word WRITE is used in the slogan asa reminder that the advert is about stationery. The same technique is used in aninteresting way in another Marvo stationery advert below:
AD 14: When we say stationery
We don’t mean stop!
Quality, range, service and quick delivery.
Move to the first class stationery
The advert is accompanied with a big stationary truck. In this advert, the copywriters
plays around with the same sound of homonyms “stationery” as for office use and
“stationary” meaning “not moving”. The denotative versus the connotative meaning
makes the advert interesting to read.
Advert designers may also use words in a way that might arouse nationalistic
feelings in people. This may make people associate themselves with the product.
AD 15: “We feel sari for anyone who doesn’t take advantage of these value for
money specials to see the real India.” (Air Mauritius)
The word “sari” which refers to part of the dress code of Indian women, is used
instead of “sorry”. The designer breaks the rules of meaning and uses a word that
does not have anything to do with being sorry. The designer also takes advantage
of the fact that the words “sari” and “sorry” are nearly pronounced the same.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that rhetoric is the essence of advertising. Adverts aim at
eliciting changes in people’s behaviour, habits, attitudes and tastes in relation to certain products. Designers of adverts make use of linguistic theory, that is, they use their knowledge of the phonetics, phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics and pragmatics of a language, including of course the non- verbal communication in the language. It has also been demonstrated that the use of some of the techniques discussed above results in adverts that are in bad taste. It is always advisable to treat adverts with a critical mind.
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