The Power behind Images: Advertisement Discourse in Focus (original) (raw)

Discourse analysis in the field of advertising: a comparative study

Lfe Revista De Lenguas Para Fines Especificos, 2007

Advertising has aroused the interest of linguists for many years in the sense that they have attempted to describe its language and to discover the principles of its structure. As regards its language, it appears to be concrete and this concreteness leads us to a well-defined social purpose: to persuade the audience with the aim of promoting sales of a particular kind of product. The main purpose of this article is going to be focused on the textual analysis of two advertisements concerned with two brands of watches (TISSOT and PATEK PHILIPPE) taking into account the differences and similarities between them with regard to the following fields: non-linguistic textual features (the image) and its relationship with the text itself; the linguistic situation (type of discourse), the content (semantic structure) and the form (grammatical structure and vocabulary). Although both texts advertise almost identical products, they differ in language, design, structure and the kind of audience they are addressed to. Nevertheless, their language is a good example of language adapted to the same social purpose: to make the audience buy a particular kind of product, in both cases a watch. Furthermore, the language used by the advertisers is closely linked to a visual image through which the addressee can appreciate the commercial message very well. Both, the linguistic structure and the visual image, iconically related, are arranged strategically so as to get a precise material goal.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Car Advertisements in Television

International Journal of English Linguistics, Literature, and Education (IJELLE), 2019

This research was conducted to find out realities that showed on discourse of car advertisements in television based on the critical discourse analysis theory by Guy Cook and to know the purposes that are showed in car advertisements on television. This research used the Critical Discourse Analysis based on Guy Cook's theory. It is a descriptive qualitative research in conducting the research. The data of this research are 21 car advertisements that are in four commercial televisions, such as metro TV, Trans 7, MNC TV, and RCTI. The data are taken from spoken text, written text, and also expression of the advertisement models. The researcher also uses respondents to answer the questionnaire. This questionnaire is used to answer second problem statement that is the purposes that are showed in car advertisements in television. Based on the analysis, eight elements of Guy Cook's theory in Critical Discourse Analysis are substance, music and pictures, paralanguage, situation, co-text, intertext, participant, and function. It can be concluded that 100% of 21 car advertisements contains substance, music and pictures, paralanguage, situation, participant, and function. From 21 car advertisement, there are two car advertisements that contain cotext. So the percentage is 9, 52%. Then, only Daihatsu (Man. City vs Daihatsu Team version) that didn't contained in intertext. So, the percentage of the car advertisements that contain intertext is 90, 47%. Based on the questionnaires which were distributed to the 15 people in all segments, the purposes of car advertisements are to influence the people to choose the product based on its strengths. Because of advertisement, the power of interest also appears by the costumer to buy this product. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the teacher have to conduct some research about Critical Discourse Analysis in other subjects. For the student, it is expected they can explore Critical Discourse Analysis in other theories, such as theory from Roger Fowler and friends, Theo Van Leeuwenn, Sara Mills, Van Dijk, and Norman Fairclough. For other researchers, it suggested to conduct a research in other subject of advertisement and other theories of Critical Discourse Analysis. Besides, it is also suggested to the other researcher to analyze the data which are taken from the different data sources, such as advertisements and articles in magazines, newspaper, and others.

THE PECULIARITIES OF ADVERTISING DISCOURSE

2018

The article deals with the peculiarities of the advertising discourse based on various linguistic theories. It focuses on the different classification of discourse analysis, psychological aspects of advertisements, the mechanisms of influence on readers, the basic principles and types of advertisements, which are mainly used in the advertising industry. Specifically, it examines the basic characteristics of the advertising discourse. However, the study does not mean to exhaust all the aspects of this particular discourse, or to answer all the problems it poses. Rather, it aims at uncovering the basic elements of the most influential discourse of our time. Firstly, it investigates the types of advertisements and advertising discourse. Advertisements make use of a wide range of material of other discourses. Secondly, it explores the various strategies of the advertising discourse, investigates how advertisements influence readers’ decisions, what cultural variation they have and what genres the advertising discourse use. Advertising is omnipresent in every day life. It clarifies the importance of the advertising discourse for the society, its daily communication and detects the human’s inner world. This paper has tried to shed some light on the many interesting aspects that advertising discourse presents.

A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of “Garnier Sakura White” Advertisement

International Journal of English and Applied Linguistics (IJEAL), 2023

Television ads are one of the many types of mass media advertisements that inevitably surround people's lives today. It is a multimodal discourse in which the text consists of complex meaning resources. The objective of this research is to analyze the multimodality of the "Garnier Sakura White" television ads and determine the meaning that the producers intend to convey through this advertising image. This research analyzes it using multimodal discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis is required to delve deeper into the meaning or message to be conveyed through an advertisement. The research methods used in this research is descriptive research with qualitative methods. The result of this research show that the Garnier Sakura White advertisement contains a multimodal semiotic system. Linguistics and non-linguistics features both have mutually sustainable meanings, and each multimodal semiotic system is closely connected to produce advertising meaning and semiotics. Also, the message or purpose of this advertisement is quite comprehensive and easily understood by the audience.

Examining the Discourse of Perfume Advertisements: An Analysis of the Verbal and the Visual

Journal of NELTA, 2015

In the world that promotes consumerism, companies are in a competition to produce a variety of commodities and to convert people into consumers of their products whether they need them or not. The abundance of consumer products is promoted through advertisements. These advertisements persuade the common people to become consumers for which they use a variety of strategies, the most common being the use of problem-solution format in language and an effective use of the verbal and the non-verbal. This paper focuses on investigating the verbal and the non-verbal aspects of the text to examine how ideological constructs function in the discourse of advertisingthrough the use of hegemony. A perfume advertisement has been selected for a detailed analysis of the verbal and the visual elements to illustrate how advertisers commonly attempt to transmit some underlying, yet unasserted, meanings to unsuspecting readers who may understand the intentions of the advertisers i.e. to promote consumption but may not understand that the aim is achieved by generally promoting cultural stereotypes which work towards the disadvantage of one social group vis-à-vis the other especially the one that the advertisement is addressed to. The tool for the analysis of the advertisement is Fairclough's model of critical discourse analysis (CDA) that uses the analysis of the verbal and the visual to reveal ideological underpinnings. CDA also has pedagogical implications for instance the language used for describing products, if analysed critically by language learners, helps them to unfold the hidden meanings as is illustrated through the analysis.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Linguistic Features of Billboards

Global Social Sciences Review, 2021

The present research, "A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Linguistic Features of Billboards", has been accomplished in order to make a comprehensive analysis of the fact how advertising is manipulating and altering the basic philosophies, dogmas, creeds and ideologies of the common people. Advertising is a vast field, and it has influenced the lives of all of us in the last decades. Keeping this factor in view, the researcher has made an attempt to uncover those aspects which remain hidden in the glamorous and eye-catching commercials which contribute to the capitalist's efforts to make maximum profit by thrusting his products on the customers. The researcher has done the linguistic analysis by using Norman Fairclough's model of Critical Discourse Analysis (1993) of the billboard advertisements. The researcher has analyzed the language and images used on the billboards and had made an attempt to find out the basic notions for which these linguistic expressions ha...

Critical Discourse Analysis in Social Media Ads: Starbucks

Anatolian Journal of Language and Education, 2023

Today, many advertisements are presented in various media such as printed or social media with interesting, creative, attractive and persuasive appearances. In these advertisements, the common use of verbal and non-verbal signs and the development of conspicuous language phenomena have made it necessary to explore the advertising discourse and analyze the desired message. For this purpose, in this study, four different English advertisements of Starbucks, a very popular coffee brand, were examined from the perspective of ‘‘Critical Discourse Analysis’’. This study mainly focuses on how the use of language and visual design in the advertisements of the relevant brand affects customers. To analyze the effects of linguistic and visual elements on the preferability of products, qualitative research was conducted on four different Starbucks advertisements in Turkish and English, adopting Fairclough's (1992) Critical Discourse Analysis framework. The obtained data were analyzed by making a thematic analysis. The findings showed that the brand uses a variety of strategies to influence customers’ perceptions, with relevant social media advertisements using approaches such as ‘seasonal drinks’ and ‘individuality’ to encourage the purchase of products. As a result, it can be stated that Critical Discourse Analysis is an effective approach that allows the methods of influencing people in creating meaning and the examination of these effects in different social contexts.

Visual Rhetoric of Advertisement and its Mesmerising Impact on Consumerism

Culture is "ordinary" and is simply "the way of life'. If we try to define the culture of the "India today" we cannot turn a deaf ear to the consumerist culture of our country. Advertisements and shopping had penetrated deep into the mind of Indian people, thereby controlling and influencing their way of life, enough to change their outlook towards modern culture. Advertisements are luring people into buying things, out of their interest rather than necessity. In other words, consumption is taken for granted to maintain comfort in life. Copywriters are in search of new vistas and avenues and are leaving no stone unturned to launch their product pleasingly luring. In this endeavour, they eloquently play with human sentiments, emotions and intellect and create a very persuasive verbal and visual rhetoric to inculcate a consumerist culture in the masses. Advertisement, as a popular visual rhetoric, conveys information about a product or service in general and subtly it creates, perpetuates transfer and manipulates culture or way of life of people. The visual rhetoric of some selected advertisements as the pivotal, this study, tries to analyse how meaning is encoded and decoded to create a visual impact in the audience to bring about a desired response towards the product or service in the light of visual semiotics. It also focuses on the positive and negative effects on culture which is subtly communicated through the visual rhetoric.

A Discourse Analysis of Thematic Advertisement

Advertising exists in numerous forms and is one of the major forces that helps to improve the standard of living around the world. In most of them, language is of crucial importance. Words in advertisements are carefully crafted to meet particular needs such as commercial and social functions. Together, these functions have made advertising become indispensable in the modern world. However, there is a very limited number of studies examine how companies embedded the social service messages and their products in advertisements. This paper presents a discourse study on the print advertisements of a particular theme in Malaysia, that is, Malaysia Day, for social and commercial functions by a telecommunication company. Through linguistic features and semiotic approach (i.e. sense-making), the study revealed that the soft-sell advertisements employed a combination of the four language styles to reflect the norms and values of Malaysia’s multiracial society. Besides language styles, some of the advertisements also included a number of semiotics such as the distinctive unity symbol, the national flag, landscape and historical building to represent the unity of the multiracial Malaysia’s population.

HOW THE 2018 INDOMIE GORENG ADVERTISEMENT PORTRAYS POSITIVE IMAGE TOWARDS CUSTOMERS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

This study examined the 2018 Indomie Goreng advertisement from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) point of view. It focused mainly on how the advertisement created a positive image about the product towards the costumers that actually manipulates the fact that the food actually contains unhealthy ingredients that may harm consumers. The analysis conducted in this study adapted Fairclough's three-dimensional framework and was elaborated with Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). This helped the researchers find out the social wrong in the advertisement and analyze it by supplying linguistic evidences from the advertisement itself, seen through Halliday's SFL in seeing language metafunctions. The result of this study revealed that Indomie as the advertiser and as the one in power portrays a false positive image towards the consumers, which is hidden behind the positive image, through the help of SFL proposed by Halliday. In the analysis, the transitivity seen through the mental and material processes were taken into account. Then, the analysis was also enriched with the explanation on the fact that the advertiser carefully chose the words seen through positive polarity applied. After that, seeing how the messages in the advertisement was also a prominent thing to conduct. Seeing it that was done by the choice of Theme and Rheme, which one became the Theme and the other became the Rheme. Besides evidences from the point of view of language, the influence of the celebrity endorser in the advertisement was also seen important to be a key factor in delivering the positive image intended to manipulate the fact that the food is unhealthy. The celebrity endorsed as the model in the advertisement was the trending topic of society due to his positive image in mass media. Thus, at the end of the analysis, it can be inferred that language, through the careful choice of words and representation through a celebrity endorser, can be a powerful tool to influence others even what is shared is not the truth.