Analysis of Doublespeak in Beauty Treatment Products Advertisements.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .........................................................
Background of the Study .....................................................................
Statement of the Problem ....................................................................
Purpose of the Study ...........................................................................
Methods of Research ...........................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ..................................................................
1
1
4
5
5
5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................... 6
CHAPTER THREE: DISCUSSION ON THE DOUBLESPEAK ............ 10
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ........................................................... 27
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... 32
APPENDIX .................................................................................................... 37
ii
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya mengkaji penggunaan doublespeak dalam
iklan produk perawatan muka dan rambut. Doublespeak merupakan suatu kata
yang muncul seolah-olah menjanjikan sesuatu, tetapi ketika dianalisis lebih dalam,
kata-kata tersebut tidak memiliki makna yang spesifik, dan kadang-kadang kata
tersebut tidak memiliki makna apapun. Doublespeak dalam periklanan terdiri atas
puffing word, parity claim, weasel word, unfinished word, dan up to claim.
Salah satu fitur yang saya peroleh dalam kajian doublespeak iklan ini
adalah bahwa penggunaan weasel word paling sering digunakan oleh pengiklan
karena merupakan suatu cara yang paling mudah dan praktis untuk menarik
perhatian para pembeli. Salah satu temuan lainnya adalah penggunaan unfinished
word lebih banyak dibandingkan parity claim, karena jika semua pengiklan
menggunakan parity claim, secara otomatis tidak ada keunikan dari setiap produk.
Pengguna doublespeak biasanya sangat teliti dalam menggunakan
bahasa dalam iklan mereka, hingga kadang-kadang orang-orang malahan tidak
menyadari adanya penggunaan doublespeak dalam suatu iklan
iii
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APPENDICES
DATA 1
DATA 2
37
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DATA 3
DATA 4
38
Maranatha Christian University
DATA 5
DATA 6
39
Maranatha Christian University
DATA 7
DATA 8
40
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
We cannot deny the fact that human beings are social beings. Therefore,
no human beings can live alone in this world without interacting with others. We
can see this fact through our daily life; such as if there is no farmers, we will not
be able to eat rice or even vegetables. If there is no advertiser, we will not know
when a company creates new products. That is why interaction between human
beings are very crucial
One form of interaction is exchanging information, which is commonly
known as communication. A communication is considered successful if the
information is conveyed correctly by whatever means necessary.
Sometimes, the information receivers do not really understand what the
information is; consequently, they will come up with their own interpretations. As
the advertisers know this fact, they will intentionally make blurred information to
cover up the fact and lead the public (the audience) to believe what they want the
1
consumers to believe for the advertisers’ own sake. In other words, they try to
mislead the public.
Communication is not only used in daily conversation, but also in
advertisements, military, business, education, or even politics. However, the
language used to communicate in one field might be different from that in other
fields. For example, the word “court”. According to Oxford Dictionary, the
meaning of court in the field of law is “the people in a court, especially those
who make decisions, such as the judge and jury.” (“court,” def. 1a) While if a
sportsman says: “Gathered in the court!”, the word court means “a place where
games such as tennis are played” (“court,” def. 1c)
People use language as a tool to achieve their goals. One of the
methods is doublespeak. Doublespeak does not occur because of slip of the
tongue or done inadvertently, but it is deliberately invented in a very conscious
mind. Doublespeak is language that pretends to communicate but in fact not, it
is language that is deliberately invented to disguise the actual meaning of a word.
The use of doublespeak is to mislead, distort, and corrupt the human mind (Lutz
2).
Nowadays, doublespeak has become very common, but many people
still fail to notice it. The worst is that even though people notice the use of
doublespeak, they do not react or even protest to it. Some examples of
doublespeak that exist in our daily life are "doing business" instead of “going to
the bathroom”, "lose your breakfast/lunch/dinner" instead of “throwing up”.
These words may be considered humorous and harmless. However, if the
2
sentence “I am sorry for the negative patient care outcome” instead of “ I am
sorry
that
the
patient
died”,
or
“you
are
telling
categorical
inaccuracy or terminological inexactitude” instead of “you are telling a lie”, we
may understand doublespeak as trying to avoid responsibility, making the
offensive seem tolerable, the bad appear good, and which seems to communicate
with people while in fact it does not (Lutz 20).
In this thesis, I choose beauty treatment products advertisements as
my data. The reason why I choose this data source is that nowadays people,
especially women use beauty products to look beautiful and attractive. Women
will spend money to buy a particular product despite its high price. All they
want is a beautiful, young and attractive appearance. Sometimes, those desires
make them blind although they are well-educated people.
Since the demand for beauty products is getting higher, the producer
starts to produce many kinds of products to gain a lot of financial profits. This
issue has caused the competition among companies to become even tighter. In
order to exist in the marketing world, the advertisers must make their product
more attractive and more unique than other products. One of the ways is using
doublespeak in their advertisements.
According to Lutz, there are five kinds of doublespeak used by
advertisers to advertise some particular products, namely “puffing”, “the rule of
parity”, “weasel words”, “up to claim”, and “unfinished words.”
The significance of this thesis is that people will be aware of the
words used in particular products. People are expected to know the actual
3
meaning of those particular words, and moreover they should not let themselves
be misled. They should not let their eyes blinded by their temporary desires. In
other words, they should be aware of those advertisements using doublespeak.
(728 words)
Statement of the Problem
The problems in this study are formulated as follows:
1. What type(s) of doublespeak is/are applied?
2. How does the doublespeak mislead the readers?
Purpose of the Study
Following the statement of the problem, the purposes of this study are:
1. To classify the type(s) of doublespeak found in the data.
2. To find out how doublespeak misleads the readers.
Method of Research
I searched for the data from the Internet in the form of advertisements.
The steps are as follows: selecting, listing, and analyzing the data, then
concluding the analysis. Some theories from the textbooks and the Internet are
used to analyze the data. Finally, I write the thesis.
4
Organization of the Thesis
The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is Introduction,
which consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose
of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two
is Theoretical Framework. Chapter Three presents the data analysis. Chapter
Four states the Conclusion of the analysis. Finally, Bibliography and Appendix
are placed at the end of the thesis.
5
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I would like to state some concluding remarks based on
the analysis of doublespeak in beauty treatment products advertisements that I
have found on the Internet.
I conclude that doublespeak can be easily found in almost every
advertisement. This point can be seen in Chapter Three, where relatively a great
amount of doublespeak in advertisements is analyzed. The presence of
doublespeak in advertisements has become so common, but there are still many
people who do not protest against it at all. From the 8 data that I have found on
the Internet, the kinds of doublespeak used in advertisment are weasel words,
parity products, and unfinished words. There are 32 weasel words, 2 unfinished
words and 1 parity product.
The most commonly used of doublespeak in advertisements is weasel
words. The use of weasel word in cosmetic products, especially skin protection
products is quite effective. The consumers, especially women, try as many ways
as they can to stay beautiful, attractive and young. The most common words used
27
Maranatha Christian University
in advertisements are control, tone, soften, enhance, and 100% oil-free. Women
can easily be attracted by those words, as they will have to face skin aging
problems as they grow older. Since most women are afraid of becoming ugly,
they will try anything that they can, so that their skin will always stay good and
healthy despite their age. For most women, the most important thing is they can
stay young, beautiful and attractive. In fact, as age increases our skin will
change because the cells in our skin have started to die due to the ultraviolet
light, pollution, and many more. There is not a thing or even a product that can
stop the aging process. Those cosmetics that we can see now are only to slow
down the aging process, which all women are afraid of. There are some words
that seem to make a claim, but in fact the word does not have any meaning, or
we can say it as an empty word; for example, the word control. When
advertisers claim that their products “control anti aging”, we have to know that
control means “to stop spreading or getting worse” (“control,” def. 2c). Yet,
most people would think that their products would control the aging problem,
while in fact what the advertisers mean is only to prevent the aging problem
from getting worse. That is why, the word control does not claim anything at all.
It is just put in the advertisement to attract the consumers.
The second most commonly used of doublespeak is unfinished words.
The use of unfinished word in advertisement gives some information, but they
do not give any detailed information about the product. This fact can be seen
from the cosmetic advertisement tagline, such as “brighter, smoother, and firmer.”
We need to think whether after using the product, our skin will be brighter,
smoother, and firmer than what. It can be bright, smooth, and firm as a baby’s
28
Maranatha Christian University
skin or even a young adult’s skin. This interpretation will depend on the personal
judgement; therefore, the advertisers will try to defend themselves if the
consumers find out that the claim does not fulfil their hope. Hence, we can
conclude that unfinished word is easier to attract consumers to buy their
products.
The most rarely use type of doublespeak is parity claims. We know
that parity product is just the same product but with different branding, so there
is no difference between one product and the others, except for the brand. If all
the products use the same claim, such as parity claims, the consumers will not
be interested because there is no specialty about the product with different
branding. Moreover, in the advertising world, if all the advertisers use the same
claim, the consumers will not be attracted to buy the products. If some
companies invent new products, they would not gain any profits, because there
is nothing special about their products. Therefore, the consumers will keep on
using certain products that they have so far used. That is why, the use of parity
product has become rare, as it cannot attract the consumers much.
When the advertisers want to highlight the quality of a product, the
effective one is using weasel word. It is known that quality is about the content
of the product. If the advertisers use parity product in their advertisement, the
consumers will not buy their products. On the other hand, if the advertisers use
weasel words, such as “the combination of trace elements and minerals”, the
consumers will be attractred as they know that if the product contains certain
substance, it will give a significant effect after using it. Even if we analyze the
words deeply, we still do not know what kind of trace elements and minerals
29
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that have been added into the product. Thus, not everyone will think about the
trace elements and minerals that the products contain. They just think that the
product can give a significant effect because of the content.
If the advertisers want to highlight the durability of their products, the
most effective way is to use parity claims. It can be seen from the example of
parity claims, such as “the most effective” or “the best one.” If the advertisers
do not use parity claim as I have mentioned earlier, the consumers will not buy
their products because the consumers prefer some products which truly promise
something. When we analyze the words deeply, “the most” or “the best” actually
means “equal to.” Thus, it still makes sense as no company will sell failed
products. If they sell failed products, automatically their company’s image will
be ruined. Therefore, we can conlude that all companies will sell the best
products that they have, but the durability of the products is more and less the
same as others.
If we analyze other products, such as Vaseline or Olay, they also use
doublespeak, as without doublespeak their advertisements will be plain and
boring. The most commonly doublespeak is weasel word, as it attracts the
consumers. The word seems to claim something, yet if we analyze it deeply it
does not claim anything at all. Therefore, weasel word is considered the most
eye catching word as the advertisers do not have to give detailed proof in their
products. Moreover, the consumers will not bring a dictionary when they go
shopping.
The use of doublespeak in beauty treatment products does not always
present something untrue. As the demand of effectiveness of the products is
30
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different from one person to another, each consumer might make their own
interpretation. That is why, before buying certain products, we have to be aware
of what the words mean. We cannot impose our interpretation with others, as
everyone has their own opinion. The only thing that we can do is by using our
language awareness. The more aware we are about the real meaning of a word,
the smaller the chance for us to be misled by the word. As a result, we can still
tolerate the use of doublespeak in advertisements.
(1,183 words)
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Texts
AMBI. Advertisement. SHOPAMBI.COM. SureSource LLC, 2009. Web. 3 Sept.
2013.
Clear Ultra Shea Butter Conditioner. Advertisement. Clearhaircare,com. Unilevel,
2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Clinique. Advertisement. The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Aug.
2013. Web. 14 Sept. 2013.
Fairtone Skin Whitening Pills. Advertisement. : Amazon.co.uk: Health & Beauty.
N.p., 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 19 May 2013.
Garnier. Advertisement. Chick Advisor. Chick Advisor Inc., 2006-2013. Web. 19
May 2013.
Oil-Free
Acne
Stress
Control.
Advertisement. Neutrogena.
Neutrogena
Corporation, 2 Jan. 2013. Web. 19 May 2013.
Repechage. Advertisement. Repechage. Sarkli/Repechage LTD, n.d. Web. 18 Feb.
2014
32
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Vitamin C Serum. Advertisement. Mario Badescu Skin Care. Mario Badescu
Corporation, 2010. Web. 19 May 2013.
References
“Anti.” Def. 3. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Attractive.” Def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Concentration.” Def. 4. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed.
2010. Print.
“Control.” Def. 2c. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Court.” Def. 1a. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Court.” Def. 1c. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Creamy.” def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Deep.” def. 1a. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Different.” def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Dramatic.” def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
33
Maranatha Christian University
Print.
“Effective.” Def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Enhance.” def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Even.” def. 2a. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Firm.” Def. 2a. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Highly.” Def. 2. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Hydrate.” def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Ideal.” Def. 1a. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Instantly.” def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Less,” Def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Moisturize.” def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Naturally.” def. 2. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“New.” Def. 1e. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Original.” Def. 1b. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
34
Maranatha Christian University
Print.
“Potent.” Def. 2. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Power.” Def. 1j. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Reduce.” Def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Relax.” Def. 3. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Relieve,” def. 2. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Soft,” def. 3. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Soften.” def. 1. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Tone.” Def. 1e. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Treat,” def. 1c. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Ultra.” Def. 2. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
"Get the Skinny on Skin Disorders." Healthlines RSS News. Katherine
Brind'Amour, 20 Aug. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
"Pragmatics." Pragmatics. Andrew Moore, 2001. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.
Lutz, William. Doublespeak From “Revenue Enhancement” to “Terminal Living”
35
Maranatha Christian University
How Government, Business, Advertiser, and Other Use Language to
Deceive You. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th Edition. Modern Language
Assosiation. New York: The Modern Language Association of America,
2009. Print.
Your Guide to Bibliographic Citation: MLA Style. Rev. The Library. Oshawa:
Durham College and University of Ottawa Institude of Technology, 2011.
PDF. 30 June 2011.
36
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .........................................................
Background of the Study .....................................................................
Statement of the Problem ....................................................................
Purpose of the Study ...........................................................................
Methods of Research ...........................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ..................................................................
1
1
4
5
5
5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................... 6
CHAPTER THREE: DISCUSSION ON THE DOUBLESPEAK ............ 10
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ........................................................... 27
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... 32
APPENDIX .................................................................................................... 37
ii
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya mengkaji penggunaan doublespeak dalam
iklan produk perawatan muka dan rambut. Doublespeak merupakan suatu kata
yang muncul seolah-olah menjanjikan sesuatu, tetapi ketika dianalisis lebih dalam,
kata-kata tersebut tidak memiliki makna yang spesifik, dan kadang-kadang kata
tersebut tidak memiliki makna apapun. Doublespeak dalam periklanan terdiri atas
puffing word, parity claim, weasel word, unfinished word, dan up to claim.
Salah satu fitur yang saya peroleh dalam kajian doublespeak iklan ini
adalah bahwa penggunaan weasel word paling sering digunakan oleh pengiklan
karena merupakan suatu cara yang paling mudah dan praktis untuk menarik
perhatian para pembeli. Salah satu temuan lainnya adalah penggunaan unfinished
word lebih banyak dibandingkan parity claim, karena jika semua pengiklan
menggunakan parity claim, secara otomatis tidak ada keunikan dari setiap produk.
Pengguna doublespeak biasanya sangat teliti dalam menggunakan
bahasa dalam iklan mereka, hingga kadang-kadang orang-orang malahan tidak
menyadari adanya penggunaan doublespeak dalam suatu iklan
iii
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
DATA 1
DATA 2
37
Maranatha Christian University
DATA 3
DATA 4
38
Maranatha Christian University
DATA 5
DATA 6
39
Maranatha Christian University
DATA 7
DATA 8
40
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
We cannot deny the fact that human beings are social beings. Therefore,
no human beings can live alone in this world without interacting with others. We
can see this fact through our daily life; such as if there is no farmers, we will not
be able to eat rice or even vegetables. If there is no advertiser, we will not know
when a company creates new products. That is why interaction between human
beings are very crucial
One form of interaction is exchanging information, which is commonly
known as communication. A communication is considered successful if the
information is conveyed correctly by whatever means necessary.
Sometimes, the information receivers do not really understand what the
information is; consequently, they will come up with their own interpretations. As
the advertisers know this fact, they will intentionally make blurred information to
cover up the fact and lead the public (the audience) to believe what they want the
1
consumers to believe for the advertisers’ own sake. In other words, they try to
mislead the public.
Communication is not only used in daily conversation, but also in
advertisements, military, business, education, or even politics. However, the
language used to communicate in one field might be different from that in other
fields. For example, the word “court”. According to Oxford Dictionary, the
meaning of court in the field of law is “the people in a court, especially those
who make decisions, such as the judge and jury.” (“court,” def. 1a) While if a
sportsman says: “Gathered in the court!”, the word court means “a place where
games such as tennis are played” (“court,” def. 1c)
People use language as a tool to achieve their goals. One of the
methods is doublespeak. Doublespeak does not occur because of slip of the
tongue or done inadvertently, but it is deliberately invented in a very conscious
mind. Doublespeak is language that pretends to communicate but in fact not, it
is language that is deliberately invented to disguise the actual meaning of a word.
The use of doublespeak is to mislead, distort, and corrupt the human mind (Lutz
2).
Nowadays, doublespeak has become very common, but many people
still fail to notice it. The worst is that even though people notice the use of
doublespeak, they do not react or even protest to it. Some examples of
doublespeak that exist in our daily life are "doing business" instead of “going to
the bathroom”, "lose your breakfast/lunch/dinner" instead of “throwing up”.
These words may be considered humorous and harmless. However, if the
2
sentence “I am sorry for the negative patient care outcome” instead of “ I am
sorry
that
the
patient
died”,
or
“you
are
telling
categorical
inaccuracy or terminological inexactitude” instead of “you are telling a lie”, we
may understand doublespeak as trying to avoid responsibility, making the
offensive seem tolerable, the bad appear good, and which seems to communicate
with people while in fact it does not (Lutz 20).
In this thesis, I choose beauty treatment products advertisements as
my data. The reason why I choose this data source is that nowadays people,
especially women use beauty products to look beautiful and attractive. Women
will spend money to buy a particular product despite its high price. All they
want is a beautiful, young and attractive appearance. Sometimes, those desires
make them blind although they are well-educated people.
Since the demand for beauty products is getting higher, the producer
starts to produce many kinds of products to gain a lot of financial profits. This
issue has caused the competition among companies to become even tighter. In
order to exist in the marketing world, the advertisers must make their product
more attractive and more unique than other products. One of the ways is using
doublespeak in their advertisements.
According to Lutz, there are five kinds of doublespeak used by
advertisers to advertise some particular products, namely “puffing”, “the rule of
parity”, “weasel words”, “up to claim”, and “unfinished words.”
The significance of this thesis is that people will be aware of the
words used in particular products. People are expected to know the actual
3
meaning of those particular words, and moreover they should not let themselves
be misled. They should not let their eyes blinded by their temporary desires. In
other words, they should be aware of those advertisements using doublespeak.
(728 words)
Statement of the Problem
The problems in this study are formulated as follows:
1. What type(s) of doublespeak is/are applied?
2. How does the doublespeak mislead the readers?
Purpose of the Study
Following the statement of the problem, the purposes of this study are:
1. To classify the type(s) of doublespeak found in the data.
2. To find out how doublespeak misleads the readers.
Method of Research
I searched for the data from the Internet in the form of advertisements.
The steps are as follows: selecting, listing, and analyzing the data, then
concluding the analysis. Some theories from the textbooks and the Internet are
used to analyze the data. Finally, I write the thesis.
4
Organization of the Thesis
The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is Introduction,
which consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose
of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two
is Theoretical Framework. Chapter Three presents the data analysis. Chapter
Four states the Conclusion of the analysis. Finally, Bibliography and Appendix
are placed at the end of the thesis.
5
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I would like to state some concluding remarks based on
the analysis of doublespeak in beauty treatment products advertisements that I
have found on the Internet.
I conclude that doublespeak can be easily found in almost every
advertisement. This point can be seen in Chapter Three, where relatively a great
amount of doublespeak in advertisements is analyzed. The presence of
doublespeak in advertisements has become so common, but there are still many
people who do not protest against it at all. From the 8 data that I have found on
the Internet, the kinds of doublespeak used in advertisment are weasel words,
parity products, and unfinished words. There are 32 weasel words, 2 unfinished
words and 1 parity product.
The most commonly used of doublespeak in advertisements is weasel
words. The use of weasel word in cosmetic products, especially skin protection
products is quite effective. The consumers, especially women, try as many ways
as they can to stay beautiful, attractive and young. The most common words used
27
Maranatha Christian University
in advertisements are control, tone, soften, enhance, and 100% oil-free. Women
can easily be attracted by those words, as they will have to face skin aging
problems as they grow older. Since most women are afraid of becoming ugly,
they will try anything that they can, so that their skin will always stay good and
healthy despite their age. For most women, the most important thing is they can
stay young, beautiful and attractive. In fact, as age increases our skin will
change because the cells in our skin have started to die due to the ultraviolet
light, pollution, and many more. There is not a thing or even a product that can
stop the aging process. Those cosmetics that we can see now are only to slow
down the aging process, which all women are afraid of. There are some words
that seem to make a claim, but in fact the word does not have any meaning, or
we can say it as an empty word; for example, the word control. When
advertisers claim that their products “control anti aging”, we have to know that
control means “to stop spreading or getting worse” (“control,” def. 2c). Yet,
most people would think that their products would control the aging problem,
while in fact what the advertisers mean is only to prevent the aging problem
from getting worse. That is why, the word control does not claim anything at all.
It is just put in the advertisement to attract the consumers.
The second most commonly used of doublespeak is unfinished words.
The use of unfinished word in advertisement gives some information, but they
do not give any detailed information about the product. This fact can be seen
from the cosmetic advertisement tagline, such as “brighter, smoother, and firmer.”
We need to think whether after using the product, our skin will be brighter,
smoother, and firmer than what. It can be bright, smooth, and firm as a baby’s
28
Maranatha Christian University
skin or even a young adult’s skin. This interpretation will depend on the personal
judgement; therefore, the advertisers will try to defend themselves if the
consumers find out that the claim does not fulfil their hope. Hence, we can
conclude that unfinished word is easier to attract consumers to buy their
products.
The most rarely use type of doublespeak is parity claims. We know
that parity product is just the same product but with different branding, so there
is no difference between one product and the others, except for the brand. If all
the products use the same claim, such as parity claims, the consumers will not
be interested because there is no specialty about the product with different
branding. Moreover, in the advertising world, if all the advertisers use the same
claim, the consumers will not be attracted to buy the products. If some
companies invent new products, they would not gain any profits, because there
is nothing special about their products. Therefore, the consumers will keep on
using certain products that they have so far used. That is why, the use of parity
product has become rare, as it cannot attract the consumers much.
When the advertisers want to highlight the quality of a product, the
effective one is using weasel word. It is known that quality is about the content
of the product. If the advertisers use parity product in their advertisement, the
consumers will not buy their products. On the other hand, if the advertisers use
weasel words, such as “the combination of trace elements and minerals”, the
consumers will be attractred as they know that if the product contains certain
substance, it will give a significant effect after using it. Even if we analyze the
words deeply, we still do not know what kind of trace elements and minerals
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that have been added into the product. Thus, not everyone will think about the
trace elements and minerals that the products contain. They just think that the
product can give a significant effect because of the content.
If the advertisers want to highlight the durability of their products, the
most effective way is to use parity claims. It can be seen from the example of
parity claims, such as “the most effective” or “the best one.” If the advertisers
do not use parity claim as I have mentioned earlier, the consumers will not buy
their products because the consumers prefer some products which truly promise
something. When we analyze the words deeply, “the most” or “the best” actually
means “equal to.” Thus, it still makes sense as no company will sell failed
products. If they sell failed products, automatically their company’s image will
be ruined. Therefore, we can conlude that all companies will sell the best
products that they have, but the durability of the products is more and less the
same as others.
If we analyze other products, such as Vaseline or Olay, they also use
doublespeak, as without doublespeak their advertisements will be plain and
boring. The most commonly doublespeak is weasel word, as it attracts the
consumers. The word seems to claim something, yet if we analyze it deeply it
does not claim anything at all. Therefore, weasel word is considered the most
eye catching word as the advertisers do not have to give detailed proof in their
products. Moreover, the consumers will not bring a dictionary when they go
shopping.
The use of doublespeak in beauty treatment products does not always
present something untrue. As the demand of effectiveness of the products is
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different from one person to another, each consumer might make their own
interpretation. That is why, before buying certain products, we have to be aware
of what the words mean. We cannot impose our interpretation with others, as
everyone has their own opinion. The only thing that we can do is by using our
language awareness. The more aware we are about the real meaning of a word,
the smaller the chance for us to be misled by the word. As a result, we can still
tolerate the use of doublespeak in advertisements.
(1,183 words)
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Texts
AMBI. Advertisement. SHOPAMBI.COM. SureSource LLC, 2009. Web. 3 Sept.
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Fairtone Skin Whitening Pills. Advertisement. : Amazon.co.uk: Health & Beauty.
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Garnier. Advertisement. Chick Advisor. Chick Advisor Inc., 2006-2013. Web. 19
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Oil-Free
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Repechage. Advertisement. Repechage. Sarkli/Repechage LTD, n.d. Web. 18 Feb.
2014
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Vitamin C Serum. Advertisement. Mario Badescu Skin Care. Mario Badescu
Corporation, 2010. Web. 19 May 2013.
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