Figure 4.2 The Syntactic Features of Magnum Advertisements
Figure 4.2 showed that Magnum advertisements lacked some syntactic features, such as ambiguity, simple and colloquial language, and syntactic
parallelism. Magnum advertisements only had 39 of the whole syntactic features.
a. Short Sentence
A short sentence is easier to understand for the audience because they sometimes only hear or do not really listen carefully to the utterances spoken by
the speakers in the advertisements. Therefore, a short sentence will be more efficient to grab the audienc
e‟s attention to the advertised product. A short sentence usually indicates the use of simple sentence, not compound sentence
even complex sentence. A simple sentence is the preferable pattern on delivering the advertisement message to the audience.
20 40
60 80
100 80
70 40
100
30 10
60
P er
ce nta
g e
The Syntactic Features
Short Sentence Long Noun Phrase
Ambiguity Use of Imperative
Simple and Colloquial Language Present Tense
Syntactic Parallelism Association
Ellipsis Incomplete Sentence
There were eight Magnum advertisements which had this feature. What the speakers said was very brief but clear. All actors and actresses stated very
short sentences. In Magnum advertisement in 1994, a woman said, “Nothing
compares to Magnum.” That sentence only had a subject, a verb, and an object and could be identified as a short sentence.
Two Magnum advertisements which did not had short sentences were Magnum Classic advertisement and Selecta Magnum advertisement. The narrator
in Magnum Classic advertisement uttered a compound sentence by using the conjunction
when.
Selecta Magnum advertisement did not have sentence because there were only some phrases to describe Magnum.
b. Long Noun Phrase
Grey 2008 states that a long noun phrase requires at least three words or two independent phrases. A long noun phrase has the function to convince the
consumers that the advertised product has many specialties which are offered. That long noun phrase can briefly describe the advertised product by using some
adjectives in an interesting way. There were 70 of Magnum advertisements which had long noun phrases
in their utterances. They consisted of three words in the majority. In Selecta Magnum advertisement, there were two long noun phrases,
international ice cream sensation
and
thick rich Belgium chocolate
. Most of the long noun phrases in Magnum advertisements described how the ice cream was, how the chocolate
quality was, and how the pleasure the consumers would get when they were eating Magnum.
c. Ambiguity
