THE FEATURES OF ADVERTISING LANGUAGE

ABSTRACT

An advertising text is a kind of creativity that has its own methods and rules. Its main goal is to convince a person to buy a product. A good advertising language must conform to the certain requirements.

Keywords: advertising, advertising text, features.

Language has a very important social purpose. It is used for human cooperation and communication. The development of language is inextricably linked with the development of society. Language is influenced by historical, political, and social changes in society. We use language in all areas of public life, such as education, politics, mass media etc. and advertising is not the exception. It is impossible to imagine the modern world without advertising. Today, it has firmly taken a leading position and comes to the fore as an economic, informational, communicative, and general cultural phenomenon. The aim of advertising is influence on customers. Advertising language has a lot of features that affect publicity and marketing. The purpose in this article is to emphasize the idea that language plays a decisive role in the entire process of marketing.

Advertising is the business of trying to persuade people to buy products or services. In business English it means the activity of making products or services known about and persuading people to buy them.  Companies seek to attract the attention of potential consumers to products. The task of modern advertising is to stand out from a lot of information that falls daily on the consumer and to increase the degree of perception of specific advertising information.

The headline is used to flag down the readers who are prospects for the kind of product is advertised. Every word is treat to people’s interests. It should promise them a benefit, as in the headline of the pillow company: ‘How to sleep better’. Advertising is considered an art and science at the same time. It effectively combines information and knowledge from human sciences with creativity of art, because of it there are a lot of features of advertising language.

1. Persuasive Language. Well chosen adjectives, puns, alliteration, assonance, exaggeration, repetition, rhetorical questions, commands, slogans and catchy phrases. Customers like new products and new ways of using old products, so the two most powerful words people use in a headline are ‘FREE’ and ‘NEW’. David Ogilvy also identifies the other most pervasive and effective words used in advertising in his famous book, Confessions of an Advertising Man. Words and phrases which work wonders are: HOW TO, SUDDENLY, NOW, ANNOUNCING, INTRODUCING, IT'S HERE, JUST ARRIVED, IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT, IMPROVEMENT, AMAZING, SENSATIONAL, REMARKABLE, REVOLUTIONARY, STARTLING, MIRACLE, MAGIC, OFFER, QUICK, EASY, WANTED, CHALLENGE, ADVICE TO, THE TRUTH ABOUT, COMPARE, BARGAIN, HURRY, LAST CHANCE. Verizon: ‘Can You Hear Me Now? Good.’, Bounty: ‘The Quicker Picker Upper’, Staples: ‘That was easy’, for example.

2. Avoidance of negatives. Studies have shown that it is dangerous to use negatives in advertising. If you write ‘Our Snacks Contain No Palm Oil’, many readers will miss the negative and think that you wrote ‘Our Snacks Contain Palm Oil’.

3. Modal verbs. Modality is a system of linguistic options that express a person's general intentions and the person's belief that proposition is certain, possible, obligatory, or desirable. In other words, modal verbs show the speaker's attitude or feelings about a situation. For example, how probable or necessary something is, or that the speaker is offering or requesting something. Modal verbs in advertising are used to show a high degree of certainty about something. Texaco: ‘You can trust your car to the man who wears the star’, U.S. Army: ‘Be all that you can be’, U.S. Forest Service/Smokey the Bear: ‘Only you can prevent forest fires’, for instance.

4. Hyperbole. It is a writing technique, where the author used an obvious and intentional exaggeration. A hyperbole is not to be taken literally, but instead, is used for emphasis. Zenith Electronics: ‘The quality goes on before the name goes on’, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: ‘More stars than there are in heaven’.

5.  Imperatives. Imperative statements are used to give an order, command, instruction, warning and to make a request. Such verbs activate a potential buyer and stimulate specific actions. Advertisement that includes imperative verbs sounds stronger and demanding that you do something. Such slogans are more effective in getting something done. By the way of examples, American Express: ‘Don’t leave home without it’, Chevrolet: ‘See the USA in your Chevrolet’, Coca Cola: ‘Have a Coke’, FTD: ‘Say It With Flowers’, Skittles: ‘Taste the Rainbow’.

6. Emotional words. Headlines can be strengthened by the inclusion of emotional words, like DARLING, LOVE, FEAR, PROUD, FRIEND, and BABY. These are words that evoke an emotion in the buyer. In advertising, words that cause pleasant sensations in the buyer are often used so that buyers are prompted to do something. Johnson's Baby: ‘Best for the Baby – Best for You!’, Coca Cola: ‘Open happiness’, Disney Land: ‘The happiest place on earth’, Trix Cereal: ‘Trix Are For Kids’.

7. Puns. A pun is a play on words that exploits several meanings of a word, or of words that sound the same but have different meanings, for an intended humorous effect. Puns attract the attention of potential buyers and reader of a particular advertisement lingers longer over it because of its humorous language style. A better example is Australia Beautiful WA’s slogan: ‘Litter and you’re rubbish’.

8. Neologisms. A neologism is a word that advertisers create for specific products that didn’t exist before. They create certain images and associations, causing consumer interest in a product or service. Lindt: ‘Intensely coffenomenal’, ‘Intensely prepeared’,’ Intensely mintastic’,’ Intensely berrysmatic’.

9. Informal Language. In the advertising text, it is better to use the pronouns, such as you or we, because the buyer responds better when slogan contact him directly. Allstate: ‘You’re in good hands with Allstate’, M&Ms: ‘Melts in your mouth, not in your hands’, McDonald’s: ‘You Deserve a Break Today’, WINS Radio, New York: ‘You give us 22 minutes, we’ll give you the world’.

To sum up, an advertising text is a kind of creativity that has its own methods and rules. Its main goal is to convince a person to buy a product. It should be noted that the advertising language is the result of the work of many specialists, from philologists and linguists to copywriters and psychologists. The language in advertising should meet the following rule: small text must contain a lot of memorable and convincing information. A good advertising language must conform to the certain requirements. It must be clear, simple, original, memorable, logical and grammatically correct. To create a quality advertising text, adman need to know certain language features, such as the use of modal verbs, hyperboles, imperatives, puns, emotional words, neologisms, etc. that will help to focus consumer’s attention. All the above features of advertising language help creators of high-quality advertising texts to highlight the main idea and create a memorable advertisement that will work for the development of the company.

References:

1. Dyer G. Advertising as communication / G. Dyer. – Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. – P. 111-114.
2. Language in the World of Marketing (Advertising) [Electronic Resource]. – Access mode: https://romebusinessschool.com/blog/language-world-marketing-advertising/ (accessed: 17.05.2021).
3. Meaning of advertising in English [Electronic Resource]. – Access mode: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/advertising (accessed: 17.05.2021).
4. Ogilvy D. Confessions of an Advertising Man / D. Ogilvy. – Southbank Publishing, 2004. – P. 133-143.
5. 101 Best Slogans and Taglines of All Time List [Electronic Resource]. – Access mode: https://www.brandsandtags.com/101-best-slogans-list.html (accessed: 17.05.2021).