18 4
Slogans Slogans are also called as themelines or taglines. Slogans have two basic
purposes: to provide continuity to a series of ads in a campaign and to reduce an advertising message strategy to brief, repeatable, and memorable positioning
statement. 5
Seals, Logos, and Signatures A seal is awarded only when a product meets standard established by a
particular organization. Logotypes or logos and signature cuts or sig cuts are special design of the advertiser’s company or product name. They appear in all
company ads and, like trademarks, give the product individuality and provide quick recognition at the point of purchase.
3. Advertising Language
In printed advertising, language is the powerful gun to shoot the target of the advertisements. “Advertising is a business in which language is to persuade
people to do things andor believe things. Language plays a crucial role in advertising. In the case of print advertising, we find both graphic and linguistic
messages Mc Manis, Stollenwerk, Zheng-Sheng, 1988: 209.” In order to shoot its target, the copywriters use their creativity and imagination to create the
message with the language. Graydon 2003: 41 mentions that language can be very persuasive. He
2003: 41 also says that “when commercials or advertisements do use words, they’re carefully chosen.” He mentions that based on a research, advertisements
19 featuring words such as New, Quick, Improved, Now, Amazing, Suddenly, Easy,
Introducing are especially effective at attracting our attention and selling us
products. Goddard 2002: 74 adds that “vocabulary is carefully chosen to promote positive association in the minds of the target audience.”
There are some other important points in writing effective copy for print advertising that are offered by Arens 2006: 422.
a. Write short sentences. Use easy, familiar words and themes people
understand. b.
Avoiding bragging and boasting. Write from the reader’s point of view, not your own. Avoid “we,” “us,” and “our.”
c. Use vivid language. Use lots of verbs and adverbs.
d. Stick to the present tense and active voice. It is crisper. Avoid the past tense
and passive voice. Exceptions should be deliberate, for special effect. e.
Use personal pronouns. Remember, you are talking to just one person, so talk as you would to a friend. Use “you” and “your” whenever appropriate.
f. Use contractions. They are fast, personal, and natural. People talk in
contractions. g.
Do not over punctuate. It kills copy flow. Excessive commas are the chief culprits.
Another linguist, White 1988: 79-81, mentions some rules in writing a copy in print advertising that could support Arens’ strategies. First, copywriters
should put “key” words in headlines. Some words appeared more often than any others in ad headlines. Those words are new, save, win, best, gain, buy, now, try.
20 Second, we should keep the headline short. A headline is largely a device to put
part of the message across and lure the reader into reading the rest. Goddard 2002: 5 calls advertising as the act of communication.
Additionally, he 2005: 9 mentions that “the whole aim of the copywriters is to get us to register their communication either for purpose of immediate action or to
make us more favourably disposed in general terms to the advertised product or service.” Print advertising always contains written texts. Goddard 2002: 37
argues that written text is more impersonal, less expressive emotionally and less individualized. He 2002: 24-127 points out some features of the language in
advertising. They are: a.
Narrative point of view The way in which the language of a text sets up a relationship between the
person who appears to be addressing us the narrator and the person being addressed the narratee. The narrator may use first person pronouns ‘I’ or ‘we’,
in which case the relationship may appear close and more personal than if third person address is used the pronouns ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, which can often sound more
removed and distant. b.
Intertextuality It refers to the way one text can point to or base itself on another. For
example, an advertisement which stated ‘To be in Florida in winter, or not to be in Florida in winter’ would contain an intertextual reference to a key speech in
Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
21 c.
Deictics Deictics are reference terms such as ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘those’, ‘it’, ‘here’, and
‘there’, which indicate items in the immediate context. d.
Comparative reference Comparative reference establishes a reference which is about making a
comparison of some sort. For example, ‘Her car is newer than yours’ links the two cars on the comparative basis of ‘newness’. Comparative reference can also
feature in expressions of superlative excellence. e.
Pun Pun is a comic play on words as a result of a word having more than one
meaning or two words with different meanings have the same sound.
4. Marketing Process and Advertising
