Download Office: Main Building, Room 108/2

BTAN27015BA
THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING
Time: Tuesday 16.00-17.40
Venue: TBA
Instructor: Csató Péter ([email protected])
Office: Main Building, Room 108/2
Office hours: Monday 10.00-11.00; Tuesday 14.00-15.00
In this course we will be taking a close look at the linguistic/cultural features of various advertisements (including
billboard ads, classified ads, television commercials, banner ads and spam mail) that are closely related to the
specific functions advertising texts need to serve in order to be successful (e.g. attention value, memorability,
readability, selling power, etc.). As part of the course requirement students will be asked to perform a full critical
analysis of a number of advertisements of their choice as well as come up with a (make-believe) advertising project
of their own.
REQUIREMENTS
Regular class attendance
Regular attendance is required: more than three absences will result in “no grade” for the course.
Analysis of an advertisement
By the end of the semester, you will need to submit a written analysis (1000-1500 words in length) of an
advertisement of your choice, which you will analyze in detail in terms of any of the aspects (one or several) we will
have discussed in the course of the semester, such as rhetoric, cultural context, stereotyping, gender, etc. The
medium (textual/printed or electronic/visual) and age of the advertisement is up to your choice. Date of submission
to be announced.
Pitching an advertising project (presentation)
You will be asked to prepare a presentation of approximately 15 minutes in which you will have to “pitch” an
advertising project for any kind of product (existing or imaginary) to your peers. It means that you are not asked
merely to prepare an advertisement for the product, but also to explain why the given advertisement/commercial will
work, why it is the best way to advertise the product, and what would be the best way to run an advertising
campaign. In short, you will be asked both to come up with the idea of an advertisement of any available media and
be able to analyze it. The presentations will take place in the final three classes of the semester.
SCHEDULE
Week 1: Orientation
Week 2: The history of advertising
Week 3: Consumerism and the media
Week 4: The rhetoric of advertising
Week 5: Stereotypes
Week 6: Gender in advertising 1
Week 7: Gender in advertising 2
Week 8: Consultation Week – No Class
Week 9: Creativity in advertising: what makes the consumers tick?
Week 10: Advertising and postmodernism
Week 11: The semiotics of advertising: how to read advertisements?
Week 12: Presentations
Week 13: Presentations
Week 14: Presentations
Week 15: Closing
Recommended reading
BOWLBY, Rachel: Shopping with Freud. London: Routledge, 1993.
COOK, Guy: The discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge, 1992.
FREITAS, Elsa Simões Lucas: Taboo in Advertising. Amsterdam: Johns Benjamins, 2008.
GODDARD, Angela: The Language of Advertising. London: Routledge, 1998.
SINCLAIR, John: Images Incorporated: Advertising as Industry and Ideology. London: Routledge, 2000.
WILLIAMSON, Judith: Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising. London:
Marion Boyars, 1994.