Download Session Thirteen Concluding Remarks About Advertising Language

Session Thirteen
Concluding Remarks About
Advertising Language
Today in China, while our economic structu
is shifting from the entirely planned economy
to the socialist market system, advertising is
becoming more and more active and sophisti
cated. In 1992, China’s advertising expenditu
reached $862 million, among the fastest grow
countries in Asia. Now with China’s entry into
WTO, this expenditure figure will undoubtedly
rise up, which will support the view that adver
sing is an indispensable means for providing
the information that all market-oriented industrialized societies need for economies to functio
efficiently.
And as English is one of the most widely
used languages in the world, it is necessary t
study and analyze the language features of
English advertising. Current advertisements
reflect radical changes in the technology, media, the social and economic relations, the
sense of personal and group identity. For the
insight they provide the nature of these chang
and for the way they prepare us for further
changes to come. It is a particular valuable
field of study.
It goes without saying that research into th
language of English advertising is both
interesting and rewarding. To achieve this
awareness, we should not only have a good
understanding of the language of English ad
vertising, but also know its influence on the
English language, its trend and existing problems.
A. Influence on English Language
One obvious influence of English advertisi
on the English language lies in the fact that
English advertising contributes a lot of new
words to the vocabulary stock of modern Eng
Some products or services are so popular tha
they have significantly changed people’s life
patterns. Their brand names, product names
or words appearing in their advertisements
enter the lexical items instead of being the
privilege of English advertising. For example
the word “mackintosh” originally was the bran
name of a raincoat. It was named after its inventor, Charles Mackintosh. However, in mod
English, it almost becomes the substitute for
any raincoat. The association between the
brand name and the product has been cut off
In this category we also can include “jacuzzi”
the brand name of a bathing service; “crock
pot”, the brand name of an electric cooker;
“aspirin”, the brand name of a medicine treating headache; “xerox”, the brand name of
photo copier ; ” “biro”, the brand name of a
ball-pen.
The other type of words contributing to the
English language are the advertising coinage
whose abundance is one of the lexical featur
of English advertising. The most typical exam
ple is the word “pinta” in the advertising slog
of British milk: “Drinka pinta milka day”, whic
is mentioned in the second chapter. This slogan acquired its popularity immediately after
its appearance and became a household wo
And later the coined word “pinta” became the
substitute for “milk”, and many people would
use “pinta” rather than “milk”, although the
latter are also found in everyday usage. The
other advertising coinages coming into the
common core of the English language include: cellophane, escalator, travolator, etc.
All of these words contributed by English
advertising are used by modern English spea
kers so commonly that even lexicographers
have to include them in the dictionary as lexical entries. In this way, their “legal” status in
the English language has been confirmed.
Some of them become so common and even
get derivatives, such as “escalatory” from
“escalator”, “xerography” from “xerox”, etc.
There’s a paradox about such words, especially those words from brand names. Advertisers always want consumers to notice their
advertisements and remember the advertised
products longer so they make great endeavo
to create eye-catching and easy-to-remembe
brand names. Nevertheless, with the popula
ty of the products, some brand names turn o
to be common words and lose their originalit
as advertising coinages. But, on the other ha
advertisers often have to apply for patent rig
to protect their privilege of using brand name
and prevent competitors from taking advantage of their inventions. For example, in orde
to protect its privilege of the word “Xerox”,
the company’s legal adviser even warns the
but to say “I’ll make a duplicate for you on the
xerox copier”. However, the extensive utilizationof the promoted product usually makes
such efforts end in vain. At last, these brand
names will inevitably become common words
of the English language in general and are
used by the public to refer to types of product
So when they create some extraordinary bran
names, advertisers have to face the reality th
one day they will lose their privilege of such
brand names. This is the price they have to
pay for the popularity of their products. Anoth
main influence on English advertising is socalled movement of “colloquialisation”, which
is also a main contribution of English advertising to the English language.
Advertising has been in the vanguard of th
tendency, which has gained impetus in the
20th century particularly through the develop
ment of the popular press and radio and tele
vision broadcasting. Together with the overwhelming popularity of advertising, English
advertising with the public-colloquial style,
produces much influence on the English
language as a whole. English advertising
contributes a great deal to the movement
of “colloquialisation” and is partly responsible for the rise of the public-colloquial
style.( 方薇， 1997:7 )
At present, colloquialism seems to be the
general trend. For instance, if we compare
contemporary prose with that of the 19th cen
tury, we will find that prose today is generally
simpler, easier and livelier. When we apprec
ate modern prose, we should pay tribute to
English advertising. It is partly through the
influence of English advertising that modern
users of the English language acquire the
public-colloquial style for public communicatio
The influence of English advertising justifies
the relationship between a language and its
users: people create a language form as desired; this form, in turn affects people’s conce
tion of the language as a whole.
B. Trend of English Advertising
When describing a product’s qualities, adver
Tisers prefer a “sincere” suggestion rather
than an explicit declaration. These advertisers act as multi-sensory authors who use
a style of literary deceptiveness for commercial purposes. Through weak implications,
advertisers aim to influence and direct consumer’s behavior based on advertising language that is very secretly constructed. Adve
tisers control inference possibilities by both
demarcating message parameters and by
skillfully accessing audience prior knowledge
Message recipients are then more likely to
construct inferences that have a limited substantiated base.
One trend of English advertising, as many
linguists have feared, is that the advertising
language becomes elusive and manipulative.
Authors like Aldous Huxley and E.B. White
have warned of its manipulative nature. As
Barbara Stern aptly rationalizes, the deceptiv
nature of advertising language lies in the fact
that it frequently uses poetic license to say
one thing and mean another, borrowing litera
tactics to convey messages by means other
than or in addition to the words ( Charles A.
O’Neill , 1986:72 ).
The other trend of English advertising is: the
language is getting oral and the grammar is
getting simpler. All these changes, if careless
ly used, may easily lead to ambiguity and mi
understanding, which affects the product’s
image negatively. The most authoritative crit
of advertising is the Journalist Edwin Newma
In his book Strictly Speaking, he worries that
the careless utilization of language might
some day threaten the survival of the English
(Charles A O’Neill, 1986:127).
Now let’s see the following example.
“Tired of cleaning yourself ? Let me do it.”
This is an ad of a company that provides
all kinds of services to family like cleaning
windows, carpets, etc. But from its sentence
structure, it is obviously misleading and even
ridiculous to the readers. If “yourself” is used
as an object, “cleaning yourself” simply mean
taking a shower or a bath. As a consequence
the whole sentence means: if you are tired o
taking a bath, our company will do this for
you. But if the sentence order is like this:
“yourself tired of cleaning ? Let me do it. ”
This meaning is what the company really
intends to convey to the customer.
The above-mentioned sentence is a typical example of ambiguity caused by words,
conjunctions, and modifications. If we don’t
pay much attention to this tendency, it will
lead to vagueness in expression, leading the
consumers to misunderstanding.
The language of advertising appeals to ou
emotional needs under the skillful craftsman
ship of the copywriter. At the same time,
language is always changing. So is the langu
in advertising. Charles A.’ Oneill (1986:117
states: over the years the texture of advertisi
Language has frequently changed. Styles an
creative concepts come and go. But there ar
at least four distinct general characteristics o
the language of advertising that make it diffe
from otherlanguages.
1. The language of advertising is edited
and purposeful.
2. The language of advertising is rich and
arresting: it is specifically intended to
attract and hold our attention.
3. The language of advertising involves us
in effect, we complete the advertising
message.
4. The language of advertising holds no
secrets from us; it is a simple language
In summary, though some of the language
characteristics of English advertising are developing to the linguist’s worry and dismay,
its propaganda and practical roles still canno