ABSTRACT
Advertising is one of the means through which marketers or
manufacturers convince buyers to patronize their products. It involves the
dissemination of information about products, services, ideas e.g from
advertisers to the public in a short time and space. There are different kinds
of advertising but this research work will focus on retail advertising. This
work examines the meaning and features of advertising and by using the
descriptive approach. Audio tapes were collected from selected media stations
and were transcribed and analysed. Data were drawn from both English and Igbo
advertisement. The researcher endeavoured to highlight the choice of words used
in the advertisement. The imageries and figurative expressions of the selected
advertisements were also discussed. The study tried to account for the reasons
and meanings of some grammatical expressions in the selected radio
advertisements. In advertising specialized terminologies enable advertisers to
sell the products, services, or ideas being advertised to the public.
Advertising has its peculiar linguistic devices which are used to get the
attention of the audience to patronize the advertised products. It has
preference for short and condensed sentences, as well as catchy phrases and
sentence fragments.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background
of Study
Advertising is one of the tools
of public communication. Advertising is essentially a persuasive means of
communication task to reach a defined audience in a given form of non-personal
presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services. Advertising has become
a part and parcel of man’s life in society.
Every linguistic setting has
peculiar language items that are acceptable and appropriate to it. This is also
applicable to advertising. It would be recalled that communication is one of
the most essential roles of language and that advertising is a specialized form
of communication. A given set of utterances devoid of meaning does not make for
effective communication. For communication to be effective there must be a
sharing of the symbolic representations between the sender and receiver.
Meaning therefore is always at the core of communication. Before a given
advertisement communicates effectively to its target audience, it must be
meaningful; if not, the purpose of such an advertisement is defeated.
The ultimate goal of an
advertiser is to appeal to his audience to accept his view on the advertised
products, services, etc as well as to retain the patronage of those already
using the product. In some cases an advertiser only informs his audience of the
availability of the advertised item. In order to effect these within the
shortest time and space available, the advertiser tilts the language items in
such a way as to suit his purpose. This results in the linguistic style of
advertising.
The aim of this research is to
highlight the various linguistic features of advertisement which make for
effective communication.
1.0.1
Brief History of Advertising
According to Ranson (1997:204),
advertising began around 3200 BC when the Egyptians stenciled inscriptions of
the names of kings on the temples being built. Later, they wrote runaway slave
announcement on papyrus. Signboards were placed outside doors in Greece and
Egypt around 1500 BC. Ranson says, it was not until 1704 that paid
advertisements were printed in the U.S. Benjamin Franklin made advertisement
more readable by using large headlines and by surrounding the advertisement
with considerable white space. By 1771, there were 31 newspapers in the colony
and all carried advertisement.
Dominick (1990:364) observed
that the most important event in the history of advertising was the printing of
the Gutenbery Bible, about 1450 to 1455 in which the first printed
advertisement in English announced a prayer book sale. The first newspaper
advertisement appeared on the back page of a London newspaper in 1625. The
early town crier was also a “medium of advertising”. The development of a
national transportation system during the last half of the 19th century
increased the number of readers who could be reached and led to expansion in
newspaper and magazine circulation. At first, service to advertisers was
provided by news dealers who accepted advertisements for any U.S. newspaper.
This gave rise to advertising agents who obtained information about publishers
their locations, rates and susceptibility to bargaining. The agents usually
received 30% in commissions.
Consequently, commercial radio
dates only from about 1920, when Westinghouse began to utilize the vast
investment it had made in radio research and in the manufacture of radio
equipment during World War I. On November 2 of that year, Westinghouse’s
station KDKA in Pittsburgh Pa, initiated programme service by broadcasting the
presidential election returns. The growth of radio usage was fast. By 1926, the
foundation had been land for national networks, resulting in much greater use
than ever before of radio as a major advertising medium. From modest
beginnings, there were over 198 million radio sets in the U.S. or 3.2 per home.
By that year the nation had 3,922 AM radio stations and 1,270 FM stations on
the air (Ranson 1997:204).
The advent of the television
brought about the “radio transmission of faces and pictures”. This took place
in the late 1920s. Before the coming of the British, advertisement in Nigeria,
especially in the rural areas before the advancement of technology was carried
out by town criers. The first printed advertisement in Nigeria appeared in the
Daily Times of Nigeria in 1926. With the advancement of technology in Nigeria,
the electronic media was introduced and with time, advertising was not only
done in the print. It is equally done in the electronic media, which include
radio, television, E-mail, internet and so on. Most of the advertisers however
opt for network broadcasting because of its ensured coverage.
1.0.2
Kinds of Advertising
According to Shally-Jensen
(2004:197) advertising can be classified according to who advertises what to
whom and where in order to bring about what response. The following eight classifications
of advertising provide an overall view of the kinds of advertising.
(1)
National Advertising: Branded
consumer products and services are closely identified with the firm’s name: producers advertise
nationally although sometimes differently in different geographical regions to
consumers. The message is “Buy our brand or service”.
(2)
Retail Advertising: The advertisers
are consumer outlets such as department stores, supermarkets and drug stores,
and service institutions such as dry cleaners, laundries and banks. Their items
and services are advertised to consumers within a geographical market area. The
message is: “Do business with us”.
(3)
Industrial Advertising: The
advertisers make such products as office equipment, machinery and computers –
items and services that are used in manufacturing or that aid the operation of
a business or institution. These items and services are advertised to
industrial buyers, either nationally or regionally. The message is: “Use our
product or service in your operation”.
(4)
Trade Advertising: Producers and
distributors have both branded and non branded consumer products ready for
consumption that is bought for resale or someone else. These products are
advertised to retailers and to wholesalers through whom the products are sold
to consumers. The message is “Stock and promote the sale of our product”.
(5)
Professional Advertising: Certain
producers and distributors depend largely on professional people to recommend,
prescribe or specify their products to buyers –items strongly influenced by a
professional person are advertised with the message: “Recommend, prescribe or
specify our product”.
(6)
Farm Advertising: The farm is a
consuming until –and some advertising features consumer products that appeal to
farm families as household units. But the farm is also a producing unit, and other
advertising is directed to greater farm efficiency. The message is: “Buy our
product or service”.
(7)
Non product or Idea Advertising:
Churches, political parties, individuals and groups (fraternal, trade and
social) advertise. Institutions, ideologies and social betterment are
nationally and locally advertised to citizens and community leaders. The
messages are: “Accept our idea”, “Vote for our candidate” or “Help our cause”.
(8)
Classified Advertising: Most of the
“want advertising” (classified advertising) in newspapers and in some magazines
are short statements, one column wide, set in small type. Some of the
advertising, however are of the display variety –that is a bit larger and
presenting more white space, various kinds of type and sometime illustrations
to attract special attention. Classified advertisements are grouped according
to products and services. The message is: “Get in touch with me for what you
want”.
1.0.3
Advertising Media
It should be emphasized here
that there are eight principal media for advertising. (Shally-Jensen 2004:198)
These are; the newspaper, magazine, radio, television, direct mail, outdoor
billboards and posters, advertising and miscellaneous media.
(1)
The Newspaper: Of these media, the
newspaper is the most basic, which offers advertisers large circulation, a
readership close to the advertiser’s place of business and an opportunity to
alter his advertisements on regular basis.
(2)
Magazines: The other chief print
media, the magazines may be aimed at specific audiences (like people interested
in literature, health issues, outdoor games or politics) and offer the
manufacturers of products of particular interests to such people the opportunity
to make contact with their most likely customers.
(3)
The electronic media: This includes
radio and television. These are pervasive in many countries, especially in the
western industrialized nations. Although in some countries radio and television
are run by the state and so accept no advertising. In others, advertisers can
buy short “spots” of time, usually about one minute duration. Advertising spots
are broadcast between or during regular programmes, sometimes at the time
discretion of the broadcaster.
(4)
Direct Mail: Direct mail offers
advertisers enough time to make a highly detailed and personalized persuasion
to the audience.
(5)
Outdoor bill boards and posters and
transit advertising: These are used to reach millions of people who use the
mass transit system.
(6)
Miscellaneous Media include the use
of dealer displays and promotional items such as calendars to win the public
patronage of the advertised products.
1.1 Purpose
of Study
This study will make members of
the public understand that the language of advertisement has connotative
meaning not just the denotative meaning of the expressions used. Also the
construction of the sentences observes linguistic devices which feature
prominently in expressions.
1.2 Significance
of Study
This study will enable
linguists to know that advertising has its own style of language use. To this
effect, linguists will direct their minds towards learning and using the
correct forms, since meaning is always at the core of communication.
1.3 Scope
of Study
This study is limited to the
electronic media, specifically radio advertisements, especially on consumables.
The data are drawn from both English and Igbo advertisements. The Igbo and
English data are analysed based on linguistic devices that relate to the
relevant advert pieces in the appendices.
1.4 Area
of Study
The area under study falls
within the range covered by the Radio Nigeria (Purity FM), Awka and the Anambra
Broadcasting Service (ABS) Awka transmitting stations. This area is made up of
Anambra, and parts of Delta, Enugu and Imo States.
1.5 Limitations
of Study
It was not possible to get
copies of the scripts because the advertisements are usually played by the
radio stations from the tapes. The researcher therefore had to transcribe the
advertisement pieces orthographically. The arrangement of the advert pieces
into stanzas or verses was at the discretion of the researcher.
1.6 Conventions
Used
The orthography used for Igbo
examples is standard Igbo. The audio tapes were transcribed orthographically.
The Igbo examples were tone marked; leaving high tones unmarked.
1.7 Data
Collection
The data for this research was
obtained from audio tape-recorded advertisement copies collected from Radio
Nigeria (Purity FM) and the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) Awka. The audio
tapes for the advertisements were played repeatedly and were transcribed
orthographically. Brand names were left as they were perceived. The researcher
did not subject such brand names to Igbo orthography.
1.8 Data
Analysis
The data was analysed based on
a number of linguistic devices such as figurative language, idiomatic
expressions and appeal among others. Each linguistic device was examined with
the relevant advertisement piece in the appendices.
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