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
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.
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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.
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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, Email, 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.
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(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
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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.
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(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.
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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.
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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.