Language of advertising

Aristotle (1991) Rhetorical appeals of persuasion: 1) Logos: logic and facts 2) Pathos: the emotion conveyed or the emotion connected to the issue, plays on the listener’s beliefs and values - Anecdotes: puts the readers in someone else’s shoes - Sympathetic characters: people that readers feel concerned for - Analogy: to simplify a complex idea or concept to something more relatable and understandable by the reader - Vivid imagery 3) Ethos: arguments from personality, trusting the argument or ideas because of trust in the speaker; brands can build ethos when they stand with important causes - Phronesis: the perceived intelligence of the speaker; can be established through the use of titles, accolades or personal experience In her 2013 address to the UN Youth Assembly, Malala Yousafzai used her experience as an assassination attempt survivor to advocate for girls’ education in Pakistan. - Arete: the moral value of the speaker’s argument - Eunoia: the speaker’s likability and accessibility Celebrity advertisements or endorsements, though they may not be experts in the area or the product, people like and have a good impression of them so they will hear what the celebrity has to say. - Ordinary people can also be used in ethos, it is especially common in political advertisements 4) Telos: appeal to purpose 5) Kairos: appeal to timeliness / urgency (Aaker, 1997) 5 general types of brand personality: 1) Brand sophistication: elegance, poise, allure 2) Brand ruggedness / toughness: rebel, powerful, forceful, outdoorsy 3) Brand competence: intelligence, success, reliability 4) Brand sincerity: genuine, honest, caring, authentic 5) Brand excitement: playful, daring, imaginative, youthful - Other types of brand values: sage, dreamer, trail-blazer, rebel… (Fairclough, 1989) How advertisements work ideologically: 1) Building relations with the reader (potential customer) 2) Building images (an ideal that the consumer finds appealing) 3) Building the consumer (by asking who is the ideal consumer) Techniques used in advertisements:

- Reinforcing cultural stereotypes / reflecting changes in society by challenging stereotypes - Companies have realised that audiences appreciate seeing “ordinary” people, not just famous celebrities; changing with the times helps with virtue signalling ethical consumption - (Goddard, 2008) Tricks of the trade - Comparative reference: use of gradable adjectives and lexis with positive connotations - Problem-solution discourse pattern - (Fairclough, 1989) Informalisation of discourse - Modality: bare declaratives - (Shabo, 2005) Glittering generality: use of a vague word or phrase that is used to evoke positive feelings rather than convey information Greenwashing, using terms such as “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” to convey a false impression and providing misleading information about how a company;s products are more environmentally sound.

Lexis: - Neologisms - Polysemy: single word that has multiple meanings Persil: can take another load off your mind; where load can mean the mental load of having to do the chore and the load of laundry that needs to be washed - Colloquial expressions Freebies - Adjective phrases KFC: finger lickin’ good - Homonymy (homophones and homographs) Almay’s pore cleansing solution claims to provide users with “no more pore excuses”, a word play on the homophone “poor” - Metaphors: brand and product now associated with the characteristics of that in the metaphor - Personification: when an inanimate object is given human characteristics or abilities; usually in relation to the physical appearance of their product, the product’s logo, or product imagery which makes it memorable Goldfish: the snack that smiles back Directly used on the name of the product: Mr. Muscle, Scrub Daddy (with new variations such as Scrub Mommy) Kleenex: Kleenex says bless you - Abbreviations (initialisms and acronyms): being the first to use and popularise the abbreviations, companies can be associated with or “trademark” the characteristic used in the abbreviation Samsung: QLED TVs (Quantum dot LED TVs), UHD TVs (UltraHigh Definition TVs); making them the face of high resolution TVs - Specialist lexis in that particular field / pseudo specialist lexis: pseudo specialist lexis ais to increase product complexity to give the effect that the product is credible since it has been tested or created by experts, EVEN IF the information isn’t entirely true or useful for its purpose Especially in skin care or health care - Euphemisms: surrounding private, intimate products which can help to observe politeness in discourse when communicating about a sensitive topic Sanitary pads: feminine hygiene, sanitary protection, intimate irritation

Grammar: - Adjectives that are often hyperbolic and synonymous - Verbs with adverbials - Verb tenses: use of past and present tense to draw comparisons between before and after using the product - Mode of address - Synthetic personalisation: illusion of personalised communication, consumers are less sensitive to mass, generalised advertising Expedia: You were made to exchange hugs. We were made to tell you when flight prices drop. (Pathos: family values, syntactic parallelism) - Unconventional use of vocatives - Use of count nouns are if they were mass nouns Want more car for your money? - Comparative adjectives and adverbs Avis car hire: We try harder Syntax: - Slogans: comprising short, snappy phrases and clauses L’Oreal: Easy, breezy, beautiful – Covergirl; Because you’re worth it. - Verbless clauses Carlsberg: Probably the best beer in the world Cold Storage: The fresh food people - Imperatives: call-to-action Nike: Just do it - Rhetorical questions - 3-part listing Rice Krispies: snap, crackle, pop - Marked themes often using adverbials - Complex noun phrases with pre-modifiers and post-modifiers / noun modification L’Oreal: Long-lasting hydration for softer, smoother skin - Antithesis: draw contrast Mr. Muscle: Loves the jobs you hate - Listing - Parallel syntactic structures Courts: Fanatic about furniture, passionate about prices - Repetition

Sound symbolism: used in slogans or jingles, exploits associations of certain sounds with particular meanings, concepts, ideas, and emotions - Onomatopoeia: words that imitate non-linguistic sounds - Fricative sounds (f, v, and sh) are associated with abrasive qualities Usually used to advertise cleaning agents: Cif, Shelltox, Vim - May build up a pattern of similarity so they can break it for effect (using alliteration, rhyme) - Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds Gillette: the best a man can get - Rhyme: repetition of ending sounds Mars: A mars a day helps you work, rest and play LFs of persuasion: - Contrast Labell