The Use of Idioms in Advertisement Taglines To Reveal The Message of The Advertisements.
ABSTRACT
Dalam skipsi saya yang berjudul The Use of Idioms in
Advertisement Taglines to Reveal the Message of the Advertisements, saya
membahas peribahasa yang berhubungan dengan ungkapan yang terdapat
pada tagline iklan di majalah-majalah wanita. Pada judul iklan di majalah
wanita banyak sekali terdapat peribahasa yang berhubungan ungkapan
dalam berbagai variasi. Peribahasa yang berhubungan dengan ungkapan
adalah suatu kombinasi dari kata–kata yang mempunyai arti yang berbeda
daripada arti dari tiap kata-kata yang sebenarnya.
Ada berbagai macam tujuan penggunaan kata pada judul iklan di
majalah wanita: memberikan hiburan kepada para pembaca, menarik minat
para pembaca agar mereka menangkap pesan dari iklan tersebut, dan
memberikan kata kunci secara tidak langsung mengenai tujuan dan pesan
iklan tersebut.
Beberapa peribahasa yang berhubungan dengan ungkapan pada
beberapa judul iklan di majalah tidak dapat membuat para pembaca
mengerti pesan daripada iklan tersebut. Hal tersebut dikarenakan
kurangnya ilustrasi gambar dan informasi yang terdapat pada iklan
tersebut.
i
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................... i
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study .................................................................
Statement of the Problem ................................................................
Purpose of the Study .......................................................................
Methods of Research .......................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ..............................................................
1
4
4
5
5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ......................... 6
CHAPTER THREE: THE USE OF IDIOMS IN
ADVERTISEMENT TAGLINES TO REVEAL THE MESSAGE
OF THE ADVERTISEMENTS ............................................................... 10
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ....................................................... 26
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................... 30
APPENDICES:
Questionnaires result ....................................................................... 31
ii
Maranatha Christian University
No
Tagline
1
2
Time to make wave
at the office
The time of our
lives
4
* The peak of condition of someone who
has joined the slimming program and feels
happy and proud of the result (16
participants).
* A promise that every woman who join
this program and succeed in getting the
perfect figure will fell that she is the most
beautiful woman in the world (4
participants).
* The advertisement of sofa that makes
people feel comfortable and make them enjoy
the time with their family (12 participants).
* create our own style of furniture that will
make them more satisfied and they will not
interfere by anyone or anything (8
participants).
* Nobody can disturb us when we are
spending our time with our family by
sitting in Natuzzi furniture (8
participants).
* We can create our own furniture and
feel relaxed and comfortable in sitting in
Natuzzi furniture (12 participants).
* A product of watch which can make
someone who wears it do a crazy thing (7
participants).
* A woman who wants to switch on the
sprinkler and bring a buoy (5 participants).
* A woman is really bored with the situation
at her office so she did a crazy thing to make
something different (8 participants).
* We can do everything we want without
thinking about our surroundings (11
participants).
* Life so hard, Swatch can make our life
colourful (1participants).
* By using this watch we can create a wild
imagination (8 participants).
* Happiness coming from spending time
with our family or friends (15 participants).
* The advertisement about a product of
beverage that can make our lunch more
memorable (3 participants).
* There is a family or friends who enjoy their
lunch in an out door restaurant (2
participants).
* A moment for people to spend their
time with their families or friends and feel
the new experience by Trafalgar travel
agency (12 participants).
* The time for people to explore Europe
and create an unforgettable moment in the
rest of our life (8 participants).
31
Maranatha Christian University
3
Relax in a world of
your own
* Someone who has joined this program
will feel satisfied and confident. (16
participants).
* There is a happy woman who has good
looks who is standing in the peak of
mountain (4 participants).
What do you think is the message of
advertisement after knowing the
meaning of idiom?
APPENDIX: Questionnaire Results
Look and feel top of
the world this
Christmas!
What do you think is the message of
advertisement before knowing the
meaning of idiom?
Tagline
No
5
All in one! Luscious Lipstick
colors and fresh gloss shine
A lipstick which contains substance that
will make the lipstick shiny and has
luscious colours (10 participants).
The lipstick will make every woman’s lips
look more shiny andd the colour is sweet
and soft (10 participants).
* The product for make up which gives an
instant effect and spread easily (10)
* It is a product which is very light and
easily spread ion the face (10 participants).
For those caused by teenager,
you are on your own
The mother is angry to her daughter because
her daughter is rebellious. They believe it is
the effect of the symptoms of menopause (20
participants).
Every mother must find their own solution
to reduce the symptoms of menopause and
nobody can help to solve it (20
participants).
Time to tighten your belt
* The woman shows that her slim figure very
slim and she is happy about it (10
participants).
* The woman is proud of her slim body (10
participants).
* It is easy to be slim by using this product
from Garnier. You have to be slim in order
to become sexy without cellulite and get
people’s attention (20 participants).
6
32
Maranatha Christian University
8
The lipstick combines colour and water so it
makes the lips look shiny (20 participants).
What do you think is the message of
advertisement after knowing the
meaning of the proverb idiom?
* Every woman will feel happy if they have
smooth facial skin (10 participants).
* An advertisement of foundation for make
up that easy to use and makes the face look
smooth and pretty (10 participants).
Airbrush perfection in a flash
7
What do you think is the message of
advertisement before knowing the meaning
of the proverb idiom?
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The word advertising sounds familiar to modern readers nowadays. We
can find advertising around us, such as on the radio, TV, magazines or even in the
billboards on the streets. It makes us realize that advertising has become an
important part of our life. The aim of advertising is to let the readers know what
product they need. The work of advertising agency itself is to produce an
advertisement.
Albert Lasher, who has been called the father of modern advertising in
Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty’s Advertising Principles and Practice said,
“Advertising is salesmanship in print” (Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty 5), which
means advertising is a skill in persuading people to buy things through the media.
What albert Lasher said might be true because many people nowadays buy a
product based on what they see and hear in advertisements or commercials.
According to Rein in his book The Language of Advertising and
Merchandising in English, there are two kinds of advertisement media. They are
Maranatha Christian University
2
print media and broadcast media. Print media is advertisements in
magazines and newspapers. They pay more attention to text to get the consumers’
attention. However, broadcast media is advertisements through television and
radio. They pay more attention to sounds and dialogs (Rein 6).
In this thesis, I analyze the tagline of the advertisement in print media,
especially magazine advertisements. A tagline is a slogan which is easy to
remember and express a product of company descriptively used in marketing
products and advertising. Taglines can make or break a product in advertising. It
is usually included in commercials and print advertisement, and sometimes on the
product packaging as well. The advertisers will make their tagline of
advertisement as interesting as possible. A tagline is said to be good if it stays on
the consumer’s mind for years. In making a tagline, several consulting company
created special tagline for their clients company. Once a company has a tagline,
consumers
will
always
think
about
that
company
(http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-tagline.htm).
I found that an advertisement tagline which uses an idiom is unique.
Advertisers who sometimes play with the language to illustrate their products or
services and the use of idioms is a way of catching the readers’ attention. To
understand the meaning of an idiom, people should know the meaning of the
whole phrase because if the phrase is seperated word by word it will have a
different meaning.
Therefore, in this study I intend to find out the use of idioms in the
advertisement taglines to reveal the message of the advertisement. I choose this
Maranatha Christian University
3
topic because I would like to find out the idioms in an advertisement tagline and
what the readers’ perceive in understanding the use of idioms in tagline of
advertisements and the content of the advertisements.
The data for the thesis was taken from the printed advertisements found in
several women magazines: Cosmopolitan, Her World, The Australian Women’s
Weekly, The Singapore Women’s Weekly, and Mary Claire. I chose this
magazines because there are many interesting advertisement tagline which contain
idiomatic meaning.
In gathering the data of this thesis, I gave the questionnares to ten men and
ten women to represent the readers to help me analyze the meaning of tagline of
the advertisement. I chose the third and fourth grade students of English
Departement in Maranatha Christian University because they have already learnt
about idiom than student in first and second grade.
The significance of my thesis is to show the readers how the advertisers
create the tagline of the advertisement which uses an idiom to attract the readers’
attention. By reading my thesis, hopefully, the readers can get the content by
oberving the advertisements only. The idiom in the tagline of advertisement is
effective if the tagline of advertisements help the readers understand the
advertisements.
I intend to analyze the idiom of taglines of advertisements based on
linguistic theories. I use the theory of meanings of sentence or words, called
Semantics. Besides, I use the theory of idiom as the main theory in this thesis.
Maranatha Christian University
4
Statement of the Problem
In this thesis I would like to discuss the following problems:
1. How does the readers perceive the advertisements before knowing the
meaning of the idioms?
2. How does the readers perceive the advertisements after knowing the
meaning of the idioms?
3. How does the reader’s understanding of the idioms help the readers
understand the message of the advertisements better?
Purpose of the Study
1. To know how the readers perceive the advertisements before knowing the
meaning of the idioms.
2. To know how the readers perceive the advertisements after knowing the
meaning of the idioms.
3. To know how the reader’s understanding of the idioms help the readers
understand the message of the advertisements better.
Method of Research
I used five steps in gathering the data. First, I found and collected some
advertisement taglines in some women’s magazines. Second, I chose some
Maranatha Christian University
5
advertisement taglines which contain idiom. Third, I asked the subjects to fulfill
the questionnare which consists of the demographics information and some
questions related to the tagline of the advertisements. Fourth, I analyzed the
questionnaires. Last, I found out the meaning of the idiom related to the message
of the advertisement.
Organization of the Thesis
Chapter One the Introduction, which consists of Background of the Study,
Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Reseach, and
Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains the theories which are used to
analyze the data. Chapter Three is the analysis of the data. Chapter Four is the
conclusion of the analysis. The next part is the Bibliography, which consists of the
references used and the last is the Appendices, which consist of the questionnaires
for the readers and the advertisements.
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
Having analyzed the data of my thesis, in this chapter I would like to draw
some conclusion. There are a lot of advertisement taglines in women magazines
which contain a variety of idioms.
For this thesis, I choose to analyze “Her World” magazine, a woman
magazine in Singapore, which uses English as its medium. In this women
magazine, there are a lot of advertisements and the taglines of the advertisements
which contain idioms. Most women often look at the advertisement to look for
new products or information.
As I mentioned above, the taglines of the advertisements in “Her World”
magazine that I use contain idioms. An idiom is an idiom which has another
information, message or a deeper meaning in each of a tagline of advertisement.
Some of the idioms in the taglines of the advertisements are significant, as
they help the readers to understand the message of the advertisements. The idiom
in the tagline of an advertisement can give a clue to the readers about the message
of the advertisement. In relation to my research, I am of the opinion that the
Maranatha Christian University
27
taglines of advertisements with idioms is said to be significant in revealing
the message of the advertisement if it is relevant with the picture of the
advertisement as well as in the additional information in the advertisement itself.
Sometimes the readers do not understand and are made confused in understanding
the message of an advertisement. This happens because the tagline of the
advertisement containing the idiom does not have any relevance with the picture
of the advertisement.
What is more, after analyzing the idioms in “Her World” advertisement
taglines, I find that some of the idioms in the tagline of the advertisements have
no significance or just have little significance in relation to the message of the
advertisement. The purpose of the idioms in the taglines of the advertisements
which have no or just little significance in relation to the message of the
advertisement is merely for attract the readers. In other words, the idioms are used
with no purpose at all.
The proverb idioms which have no significance in relation to the message
of the advertisement can result in misunderstanding and misinterpretation in the
reader’s part. The readers may also get the wrong expectations in terms of what
the advertisement will be about because the idiom in the tagline is not related to
the message of the advertisement. This can be seen in advertisement 5, which is
an advertisement of a lipstick. The proverb idiom used is all in one. After
analyzing the advertisement, I am convinced that the idiom has no significance
with the message of the advertisement.
After analyzing the taglines of the advertisements, I would like to say that
Maranatha Christian University
28
the idiom in the tagline of the advertisements are very various. The advertiser of
the tagline of the advertisement are very creative in finding some idioms which
can be reflected in the picture of the advertisement.
The idiom in the tagline of the advertisements also makes the reader aware
of other messages or a deeper meaning in the advertisements. Besides, the idiom
in the tagline of the advertisements makes the reader use more creative
imagination to guess what the advertisements want to reveal.
The use of the idiom in “Her World” advertisement taglines can be for
entertainment purposes only. This can give some enjoyment to the readers when
reading the tagline of the advertisement. However, the taglines of the
advertisements containing idioms may also make the readers confused and curious
to know what the meaning of idiom.
The use of the idioms in advertisement taglines which can give some ideas
and clues to the readers also make me realize that the readers really need to know
which part of the tagline is an idiom. In addition, they also need to know the
meaning of the idiom in order to have better understanding of the advertisement.
In the writing process analyzing the thesis, I distributed questionnaires to
some of the students of Maranatha Christian University. During the data
compilation, I found that the readers must know the meaning of the idiom in order
to understand what the advertiser wants to reveal. If they are only to see the
picture of the advertisement without knowing the tagline of the advertisement
containing the idiom, they will not catch the complete message of the
Maranatha Christian University
29
advertisement. They will only focus on the picture of the advertisement which can
mislead them.
For those who want to choose a similiar topic for their thesis, they can
choose other approaches to analyze idioms. They can analyze the use of idiom in
men magazines or broadcast media.
Finally, I conclude that a tagline of the advertisement containing an idiom
is made not only to attract the readers, but it is also one of the important things in
understanding the message of the advertisement. Another important thing is that
the proverb idioms can give additional effects on the readers. It can drive the
reader to look for the product being advertised.
Maranatha Christian University
30
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources
Hornby, A.S. Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1995.
Makkai, A. Idiom Structure in English. Hague-Paris: Mouton, 1972.
Mclay, V. Idiom at Work: Selection from Idioms I. England: Commercial Colour
Press, 1987.
Well, Burnett, & Morriarty. Advertising Principles and Practice. New York:
Macmillan Publishing Company, 1978.
Internet Sources
Idiomconnection.com. 2008. Idiomconnection. 16 November 2008
.
Wikipedia.com. 2008. Type of meanings. 18 November 2008
Wisegeek.com. 2008. Wisegeek. 19 November 2008
.
Data Sources
Her World. “The million dollar issue.”Dec 2000. Singapore: Times Printers Pte
Ltd.
Her World. “50&Fabulous!” May 2002. Singapore: Times Printers Pte Ltd.
Her World. “Bold & beautiful” September 2006. Singapore: Times Printed Pte
Ltd.
Maranatha Christian University
Dalam skipsi saya yang berjudul The Use of Idioms in
Advertisement Taglines to Reveal the Message of the Advertisements, saya
membahas peribahasa yang berhubungan dengan ungkapan yang terdapat
pada tagline iklan di majalah-majalah wanita. Pada judul iklan di majalah
wanita banyak sekali terdapat peribahasa yang berhubungan ungkapan
dalam berbagai variasi. Peribahasa yang berhubungan dengan ungkapan
adalah suatu kombinasi dari kata–kata yang mempunyai arti yang berbeda
daripada arti dari tiap kata-kata yang sebenarnya.
Ada berbagai macam tujuan penggunaan kata pada judul iklan di
majalah wanita: memberikan hiburan kepada para pembaca, menarik minat
para pembaca agar mereka menangkap pesan dari iklan tersebut, dan
memberikan kata kunci secara tidak langsung mengenai tujuan dan pesan
iklan tersebut.
Beberapa peribahasa yang berhubungan dengan ungkapan pada
beberapa judul iklan di majalah tidak dapat membuat para pembaca
mengerti pesan daripada iklan tersebut. Hal tersebut dikarenakan
kurangnya ilustrasi gambar dan informasi yang terdapat pada iklan
tersebut.
i
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................... i
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study .................................................................
Statement of the Problem ................................................................
Purpose of the Study .......................................................................
Methods of Research .......................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ..............................................................
1
4
4
5
5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ......................... 6
CHAPTER THREE: THE USE OF IDIOMS IN
ADVERTISEMENT TAGLINES TO REVEAL THE MESSAGE
OF THE ADVERTISEMENTS ............................................................... 10
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ....................................................... 26
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................... 30
APPENDICES:
Questionnaires result ....................................................................... 31
ii
Maranatha Christian University
No
Tagline
1
2
Time to make wave
at the office
The time of our
lives
4
* The peak of condition of someone who
has joined the slimming program and feels
happy and proud of the result (16
participants).
* A promise that every woman who join
this program and succeed in getting the
perfect figure will fell that she is the most
beautiful woman in the world (4
participants).
* The advertisement of sofa that makes
people feel comfortable and make them enjoy
the time with their family (12 participants).
* create our own style of furniture that will
make them more satisfied and they will not
interfere by anyone or anything (8
participants).
* Nobody can disturb us when we are
spending our time with our family by
sitting in Natuzzi furniture (8
participants).
* We can create our own furniture and
feel relaxed and comfortable in sitting in
Natuzzi furniture (12 participants).
* A product of watch which can make
someone who wears it do a crazy thing (7
participants).
* A woman who wants to switch on the
sprinkler and bring a buoy (5 participants).
* A woman is really bored with the situation
at her office so she did a crazy thing to make
something different (8 participants).
* We can do everything we want without
thinking about our surroundings (11
participants).
* Life so hard, Swatch can make our life
colourful (1participants).
* By using this watch we can create a wild
imagination (8 participants).
* Happiness coming from spending time
with our family or friends (15 participants).
* The advertisement about a product of
beverage that can make our lunch more
memorable (3 participants).
* There is a family or friends who enjoy their
lunch in an out door restaurant (2
participants).
* A moment for people to spend their
time with their families or friends and feel
the new experience by Trafalgar travel
agency (12 participants).
* The time for people to explore Europe
and create an unforgettable moment in the
rest of our life (8 participants).
31
Maranatha Christian University
3
Relax in a world of
your own
* Someone who has joined this program
will feel satisfied and confident. (16
participants).
* There is a happy woman who has good
looks who is standing in the peak of
mountain (4 participants).
What do you think is the message of
advertisement after knowing the
meaning of idiom?
APPENDIX: Questionnaire Results
Look and feel top of
the world this
Christmas!
What do you think is the message of
advertisement before knowing the
meaning of idiom?
Tagline
No
5
All in one! Luscious Lipstick
colors and fresh gloss shine
A lipstick which contains substance that
will make the lipstick shiny and has
luscious colours (10 participants).
The lipstick will make every woman’s lips
look more shiny andd the colour is sweet
and soft (10 participants).
* The product for make up which gives an
instant effect and spread easily (10)
* It is a product which is very light and
easily spread ion the face (10 participants).
For those caused by teenager,
you are on your own
The mother is angry to her daughter because
her daughter is rebellious. They believe it is
the effect of the symptoms of menopause (20
participants).
Every mother must find their own solution
to reduce the symptoms of menopause and
nobody can help to solve it (20
participants).
Time to tighten your belt
* The woman shows that her slim figure very
slim and she is happy about it (10
participants).
* The woman is proud of her slim body (10
participants).
* It is easy to be slim by using this product
from Garnier. You have to be slim in order
to become sexy without cellulite and get
people’s attention (20 participants).
6
32
Maranatha Christian University
8
The lipstick combines colour and water so it
makes the lips look shiny (20 participants).
What do you think is the message of
advertisement after knowing the
meaning of the proverb idiom?
* Every woman will feel happy if they have
smooth facial skin (10 participants).
* An advertisement of foundation for make
up that easy to use and makes the face look
smooth and pretty (10 participants).
Airbrush perfection in a flash
7
What do you think is the message of
advertisement before knowing the meaning
of the proverb idiom?
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The word advertising sounds familiar to modern readers nowadays. We
can find advertising around us, such as on the radio, TV, magazines or even in the
billboards on the streets. It makes us realize that advertising has become an
important part of our life. The aim of advertising is to let the readers know what
product they need. The work of advertising agency itself is to produce an
advertisement.
Albert Lasher, who has been called the father of modern advertising in
Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty’s Advertising Principles and Practice said,
“Advertising is salesmanship in print” (Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty 5), which
means advertising is a skill in persuading people to buy things through the media.
What albert Lasher said might be true because many people nowadays buy a
product based on what they see and hear in advertisements or commercials.
According to Rein in his book The Language of Advertising and
Merchandising in English, there are two kinds of advertisement media. They are
Maranatha Christian University
2
print media and broadcast media. Print media is advertisements in
magazines and newspapers. They pay more attention to text to get the consumers’
attention. However, broadcast media is advertisements through television and
radio. They pay more attention to sounds and dialogs (Rein 6).
In this thesis, I analyze the tagline of the advertisement in print media,
especially magazine advertisements. A tagline is a slogan which is easy to
remember and express a product of company descriptively used in marketing
products and advertising. Taglines can make or break a product in advertising. It
is usually included in commercials and print advertisement, and sometimes on the
product packaging as well. The advertisers will make their tagline of
advertisement as interesting as possible. A tagline is said to be good if it stays on
the consumer’s mind for years. In making a tagline, several consulting company
created special tagline for their clients company. Once a company has a tagline,
consumers
will
always
think
about
that
company
(http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-tagline.htm).
I found that an advertisement tagline which uses an idiom is unique.
Advertisers who sometimes play with the language to illustrate their products or
services and the use of idioms is a way of catching the readers’ attention. To
understand the meaning of an idiom, people should know the meaning of the
whole phrase because if the phrase is seperated word by word it will have a
different meaning.
Therefore, in this study I intend to find out the use of idioms in the
advertisement taglines to reveal the message of the advertisement. I choose this
Maranatha Christian University
3
topic because I would like to find out the idioms in an advertisement tagline and
what the readers’ perceive in understanding the use of idioms in tagline of
advertisements and the content of the advertisements.
The data for the thesis was taken from the printed advertisements found in
several women magazines: Cosmopolitan, Her World, The Australian Women’s
Weekly, The Singapore Women’s Weekly, and Mary Claire. I chose this
magazines because there are many interesting advertisement tagline which contain
idiomatic meaning.
In gathering the data of this thesis, I gave the questionnares to ten men and
ten women to represent the readers to help me analyze the meaning of tagline of
the advertisement. I chose the third and fourth grade students of English
Departement in Maranatha Christian University because they have already learnt
about idiom than student in first and second grade.
The significance of my thesis is to show the readers how the advertisers
create the tagline of the advertisement which uses an idiom to attract the readers’
attention. By reading my thesis, hopefully, the readers can get the content by
oberving the advertisements only. The idiom in the tagline of advertisement is
effective if the tagline of advertisements help the readers understand the
advertisements.
I intend to analyze the idiom of taglines of advertisements based on
linguistic theories. I use the theory of meanings of sentence or words, called
Semantics. Besides, I use the theory of idiom as the main theory in this thesis.
Maranatha Christian University
4
Statement of the Problem
In this thesis I would like to discuss the following problems:
1. How does the readers perceive the advertisements before knowing the
meaning of the idioms?
2. How does the readers perceive the advertisements after knowing the
meaning of the idioms?
3. How does the reader’s understanding of the idioms help the readers
understand the message of the advertisements better?
Purpose of the Study
1. To know how the readers perceive the advertisements before knowing the
meaning of the idioms.
2. To know how the readers perceive the advertisements after knowing the
meaning of the idioms.
3. To know how the reader’s understanding of the idioms help the readers
understand the message of the advertisements better.
Method of Research
I used five steps in gathering the data. First, I found and collected some
advertisement taglines in some women’s magazines. Second, I chose some
Maranatha Christian University
5
advertisement taglines which contain idiom. Third, I asked the subjects to fulfill
the questionnare which consists of the demographics information and some
questions related to the tagline of the advertisements. Fourth, I analyzed the
questionnaires. Last, I found out the meaning of the idiom related to the message
of the advertisement.
Organization of the Thesis
Chapter One the Introduction, which consists of Background of the Study,
Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Reseach, and
Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains the theories which are used to
analyze the data. Chapter Three is the analysis of the data. Chapter Four is the
conclusion of the analysis. The next part is the Bibliography, which consists of the
references used and the last is the Appendices, which consist of the questionnaires
for the readers and the advertisements.
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
Having analyzed the data of my thesis, in this chapter I would like to draw
some conclusion. There are a lot of advertisement taglines in women magazines
which contain a variety of idioms.
For this thesis, I choose to analyze “Her World” magazine, a woman
magazine in Singapore, which uses English as its medium. In this women
magazine, there are a lot of advertisements and the taglines of the advertisements
which contain idioms. Most women often look at the advertisement to look for
new products or information.
As I mentioned above, the taglines of the advertisements in “Her World”
magazine that I use contain idioms. An idiom is an idiom which has another
information, message or a deeper meaning in each of a tagline of advertisement.
Some of the idioms in the taglines of the advertisements are significant, as
they help the readers to understand the message of the advertisements. The idiom
in the tagline of an advertisement can give a clue to the readers about the message
of the advertisement. In relation to my research, I am of the opinion that the
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taglines of advertisements with idioms is said to be significant in revealing
the message of the advertisement if it is relevant with the picture of the
advertisement as well as in the additional information in the advertisement itself.
Sometimes the readers do not understand and are made confused in understanding
the message of an advertisement. This happens because the tagline of the
advertisement containing the idiom does not have any relevance with the picture
of the advertisement.
What is more, after analyzing the idioms in “Her World” advertisement
taglines, I find that some of the idioms in the tagline of the advertisements have
no significance or just have little significance in relation to the message of the
advertisement. The purpose of the idioms in the taglines of the advertisements
which have no or just little significance in relation to the message of the
advertisement is merely for attract the readers. In other words, the idioms are used
with no purpose at all.
The proverb idioms which have no significance in relation to the message
of the advertisement can result in misunderstanding and misinterpretation in the
reader’s part. The readers may also get the wrong expectations in terms of what
the advertisement will be about because the idiom in the tagline is not related to
the message of the advertisement. This can be seen in advertisement 5, which is
an advertisement of a lipstick. The proverb idiom used is all in one. After
analyzing the advertisement, I am convinced that the idiom has no significance
with the message of the advertisement.
After analyzing the taglines of the advertisements, I would like to say that
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the idiom in the tagline of the advertisements are very various. The advertiser of
the tagline of the advertisement are very creative in finding some idioms which
can be reflected in the picture of the advertisement.
The idiom in the tagline of the advertisements also makes the reader aware
of other messages or a deeper meaning in the advertisements. Besides, the idiom
in the tagline of the advertisements makes the reader use more creative
imagination to guess what the advertisements want to reveal.
The use of the idiom in “Her World” advertisement taglines can be for
entertainment purposes only. This can give some enjoyment to the readers when
reading the tagline of the advertisement. However, the taglines of the
advertisements containing idioms may also make the readers confused and curious
to know what the meaning of idiom.
The use of the idioms in advertisement taglines which can give some ideas
and clues to the readers also make me realize that the readers really need to know
which part of the tagline is an idiom. In addition, they also need to know the
meaning of the idiom in order to have better understanding of the advertisement.
In the writing process analyzing the thesis, I distributed questionnaires to
some of the students of Maranatha Christian University. During the data
compilation, I found that the readers must know the meaning of the idiom in order
to understand what the advertiser wants to reveal. If they are only to see the
picture of the advertisement without knowing the tagline of the advertisement
containing the idiom, they will not catch the complete message of the
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advertisement. They will only focus on the picture of the advertisement which can
mislead them.
For those who want to choose a similiar topic for their thesis, they can
choose other approaches to analyze idioms. They can analyze the use of idiom in
men magazines or broadcast media.
Finally, I conclude that a tagline of the advertisement containing an idiom
is made not only to attract the readers, but it is also one of the important things in
understanding the message of the advertisement. Another important thing is that
the proverb idioms can give additional effects on the readers. It can drive the
reader to look for the product being advertised.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources
Hornby, A.S. Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1995.
Makkai, A. Idiom Structure in English. Hague-Paris: Mouton, 1972.
Mclay, V. Idiom at Work: Selection from Idioms I. England: Commercial Colour
Press, 1987.
Well, Burnett, & Morriarty. Advertising Principles and Practice. New York:
Macmillan Publishing Company, 1978.
Internet Sources
Idiomconnection.com. 2008. Idiomconnection. 16 November 2008
.
Wikipedia.com. 2008. Type of meanings. 18 November 2008
Wisegeek.com. 2008. Wisegeek. 19 November 2008
.
Data Sources
Her World. “The million dollar issue.”Dec 2000. Singapore: Times Printers Pte
Ltd.
Her World. “50&Fabulous!” May 2002. Singapore: Times Printers Pte Ltd.
Her World. “Bold & beautiful” September 2006. Singapore: Times Printed Pte
Ltd.
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