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Advertising is part of our life.
Language in English Advertising is
the cream of the English language.
广告，商战中的新潮！
广告语，打开消费者钱包的金钥匙！
记住，推销商品的同时也在推销自己！
学会做广告，也就学到了做生意的精髓！
学会推销自己，这是出人头地的捷径——
这也是广告！
把柔媚浇在身上。（香浴乳）
魅力之吻！（梦丹娜唇膏）
温柔多情的夜，甜蜜温馨的梦。（兰薇儿睡衣）
含羞带怯试新衣，活泼俏丽展新姿。（服装）
把“新鲜”直接拉出来。（台湾电冰箱）
There are two things that last longer than time.
Love is one of them.
It is a win, win situation.
New fragrance. New classic.
Live. Laugh. Love.
广告英语课件
Power Point Texts
in Advertising English
谭卫国
Session One Introduction
In modern society, with the help of mass media,
advertising has entered into every aspect of human life. Every day, people are exposed to a large
number of advertisements no matter whether they
like them or not. But what is advertising? What ar
the objectives of advertising? What elements doe
an advertisement consist of? How are advertisements classified? And what significance does a st
of advertising possess? These are the questions
which we must have a good idea before we proce
to explore the language features or characteristic
English advertising.
1.1 Definition of Advertising
In English, the word “advertise” has its origin in
“advertere” in Latin, meaning “to inform somebody of something”, “to bring into notice” or “to
draw attention to something”, etc. Abert Lasker,
father of modern advertising, said that advertising
was“salesmanship in print”(赵静，1992：302).
This definition was given a long time before the
advent of radio and television. In the past, the nature and scope of advertising were considerably
different from those today. The definition indicates
that the ultimate objective of advertising is to sell.
Obviously，it is not an all-round definition, for it
can not cover all advertisements.
Definitions of advertising are many and
varied. An advertisement may be defined
as a public notice ‘designed to spread information with a view to promoting the sales
of marketable goods and services’ (Harris
and Heldon, 1962:40), or defined as a vital
marketing tool as well as a powerful communication force. It is the action of calling
something to people’s attention especially
by a paid announcement. Advertising contains messages designed to make known
what we have to sell or what we have to
Also, advertising can be defined as a kind
of paid, non-personal communication through
various mass media by business firms, nonprofit organizations, and individuals who are
in some way identified in the message and
who hope to inform or persuade members of
a particular audience (Bolen, 1984:9). Ameri
can Marketing Association (AMA)(赵静，199
：1) defines advertising as the non-personal
communication of information usually paid fo
and persuasive in nature about products,
services, or ideas by identified sponsors
Although advertising can be defined in
many different ways, the essential points
concerning its definition may be summarized
as follows: Advertising is a kind of extensi
communication of information usually hig
paid for and strongly persuasive by natur
Advertising contains messages or pieces
information about marketable products an
services, or ideas, norms and values. Adv
tising messages are designed particularly
ingeniously and meticulously, which are m
public or to particular groups of people, w
a view to promoting the sales of the good
and services concerned, or to spreading
ideas, norms and values. Contemporary a
vertising is so commonly ubiquitous and so
widely influential that it is considered to be
part of modern life. If the definitions of adver
tising are too vague and abstract to comprehend, a few words about its functions will pro
bably help to clarify this crucial term. Broadly
speaking, advertisements have at least one
of two functions: informing or persuading,
Informative advertisements inform “ customers about goods, services, or ideas and
then tell how to get them by means of an
identified sponsor” (Bolen, 1984:6). An advertisement of this type supplies basic, factual information and sometimes shows a
photo or an illustration of the product/service
to give the target audience a better view
about the advertised product. Persuasive
advertisements are the instruments used
by advertisers “who have defined their target audiences and determined the effect
persuade the potential customers to buy the
new product (Bolen, 1984 :6). The persuasive
function is not only limited to attracting the po
tential customers into buying a certain commo
dity, but also including the selling of services,
ideas, norms and values.
1.2 Elements of Advertising
An advertisement is composed of differen
components, which are either verbal or nonverbal. The verbal components consist of the
headline, sub-headline, the body copy, trademark (including brand name, corporate or sto
However, an advertisement has no need to
include all the normal elements. Sometimes
some elements are sufficient. The following
elements are discussed, not because they
are more important, but because language
features in such elements are more conspicuous and much easier to be noticed by the
general public. David Ogilvy, a famous Australian advertiser, pointed out, “ On the average five times as many people read the he
line as read the body copy. The headline is
with eighty cents of an advertising dollar.
in the headline, you’ve wasted 80 percent of
your money” (赵静，1992：13). So, the head
line should attract the readers’ attention, mak
them read the body copy, show the benefit of
the product and arouse readers’ desire to tak
buying action. The purpose of the sub-headlin
is to make the transition from headline to bod
copy. Some headlines need no sub-headlines
The body copy tells the complete sales story.
The purpose of the body copy is to provide
clarification of the headline and proof of
claims, to point out other competitive advantages, in short, to give the prospective reason
implicit as well as explicit, for action desired.
A trademark is a sign used by an enterprise
or an industry to distinguish quality, specifications and nature of the product they produce,
process and sell. The name of a trademark
often appears in the headline. The slogan has
some similarities with the headline. In fact,
many slogans are developed from some successful headlines. Slogans are standard state
ments for sales people and company employ
1” explicitly states that the company makes
high-quality products. The main purposes of
slogans are to provide continuity for a campaign and to express a key theme or idea
with concise and memorable words. Some
slogans seem to be old friends of readers
and become sparks of recognition on consumers’ minds, which create favorable impressions of the products or enterprises on
the readers’ minds, so they are regarded as
immense treasures for enterprises. Slogans
Please observe the following slogans:
(1) Fresh up with seven-up. (Seven-Up1)
(2) Quality never goes out of style. (Levi’s2)
(3) Cleans your breath while it cleans your
teeth.
(Colgate3)
(4) Things go better with Coca-Cola.
(Coca-Cola4)
(5) You’ll feel good about it.
(Water pik Lipstic5)
(6) In touch with the world. (Toshiba6)
The above advertising slogans accompanied
by the respective famous brands either direc
ly or indirectly tell us about the advantages o
benefits or peculiar functions of the advertise
products. They are informative, persuasive a
likely to result in positive responses and to
create good images of both the products and
the manufacturers.
1.3 Classification of Advertising
Advertising can be classified into different
types in view of target audience, geographic
non-product, commercial or non-commer
cial, primary demand or selective deman
direct action or indirect action), but all in
all, advertising can be divided into two
types: commercial and noncommercial
advertising. Commercial advertising, which
promotes goods, services or ideas for a business with the expectation of making a profit,
falls into three types. The first type is commer
cial consumer advertising, advertising directe
towards a massive audience to promote sales
the television commercials. The second type
is known as prestige or goodwill advertising,
where firms advertise not a commodity or a
service, but rather a name or an image. This
type of advertising aims at creating long-term
goodwill with the public rather than at an imm
diate increase in sales (Torben V. & Kim S. 19
85：1) The third type is industrial or trade ad
tising, where a firm advertises its products or
services to other firms. Industrial or trade advertising is most likely to be found in speciali-
Noncommercial advertising is sponsored by
charitable institutions, civic groups, or religiou
and political organizations. The general purpose of noncommercial advertising is to infor
people and persuade them to accept a particular idea, cause, or philosophy being advertised. ‘As examples of noncommercial advertising one may mention communication from
government agencies to citizens like the British metrication campaign, or appeals from
various associations and societies, whether
their purposes are charity or political propa-
Advertising, in its narrow sense, only refers
to commercial advertising. When we talk
about advertising, we generally mean commercial advertising. According to the various
media adopted, advertising can be classified
as follows: press advertising, including advertisements on newspapers and magazines, ra
dio advertising, television advertising, direct
mail advertising, including sales letters, postcards, catalogues, leaflets and folders and
others employing the newest communication
techniques such as advertisements conveyed
through telex, fax and computer(潘向光，199
6：119-141). Here, press advertising is mainly
described, while other kinds of advertising are
given due consideration in the discussion.
1.4 Objectives of Advertising
The objectives of advertising are various.
Association of National Advertisement (ANA
interprets its objectives as awareness, comprehension, conviction and action (ACCA).
Firstly, advertisements should draw attention
from the audience; secondly, they should
show and prove the advantages of the adver
tised products or services; thirdly, they shoul
arouse interest of potential customers or clie
and stimulate strong desires in them; finally,
they should encourage potential consumers
to take action. However, most of us agree
that the principal objective of advertising is to
sell products. But unlike salesmen who sell
goods in face-to-face or even voice-to-voice
situations, advertisers communicate certain
messages to particular groups of people who
may or may not be known, and who may be
close or at a distance. Therefore, advertising
is a specialized form of communication. In or-
people and to influence their choices and
buying decisions. Therefore, the message
contained in any advertisement must be absolutely clear or easy to comprehend, and
the means of conveying the message must
be effective so that the receiver may believe
and understand the message properly and
take specific action to obtain the product or
service.
Specifically, an advertisement is designed
a candidate, to raise money for charity, or to
publicize union or management positions in
a strike. Although it has various purposes,
advertising, on most occasions, is for the
marketing of goods and services. Regardless
of its specific purposes, all advertising has
two common threads: a marketing foundation
and persuasive communication. With the development of world economy, a global econo
my, once only the subject of theoretical speculation, has now become a reality. Advertising has become a global form of communi-
Foreign economic relations and trade in China, guided by the policy of reform and opening to the outside world, have been developing rapidly with great achievements. Since
China joined the World Trade Organization,
more and more foreign products have been
coming into China, while more and more Chi
nese products have been going to the global
markets. Advertising is primarily concerned
with building brand awareness and preference---both communication functions.
1.5 Research Achievements on English
Advertising Language
As far as we know, some books and paper
concerning English advertising have been pu
lished at home and abroad. Professor Huang
Guowen wrote and published an academic
book entitled Analyses of Advertising Texts
(2000), which is the most influential in China.
English In Advertising by Geoffrey N. Leech,
which appeared in Britain in 1966, lays the
foundation for exploration of the language of
English advertising. Advertising As Communi
of advertising, the effects of advertising as a
major form of communication, etc. The Language of Television Advertising by an American writer named Michael L. Geis explores
the linguistic features and non-verbal understanding of television advertising. The Language of Advertising by Torben Vestergaard
and Kim SchrØder, which was first published
in 1985, is mainly concerned with the languag
features and communication functions of advertising, etc. One of the most influential book
with the most basic units---sounds and letters
then goes on to the words, and the associations the words have and ways they are inter
preted. He also analyses different types and
structures of sentences in advertising. The
above-mentioned works discuss language
characteristics of English advertising from
different angles, each of them emphasizing
some particular aspects or a type of advertising in English.
1.6 Significance of Studying
English Advertising Language
Nowadays, English has become an interna
tional language, and advertising in English is
growing increasingly influential throughout the
world. English advertising greatly influences
our thoughts, feelings and outlooks and of co
urse our lives. Since advertising in English oc
cupies such an important position in modern
society, we need to be aware of how it operat
how it sells goods and services, how it perpe
tuates images and values, and moreover, how
In modern society, English advertising has
gradually formed its own unique characteristics and has also shaped an independent styl
throughout history of development. The language of English advertising is simple and
direct, distinct from the characteristics of other discourses. Therefore, an analysis of the
linguistic features of English advertising is
worthwhile. In addition, with the development
of global economy, more and more foreign
products are pouring into Chinese markets an
competing with the homemade products,
while Chinese products are increasingly
flowing abroad. Under such international
economic circumstances, a study of the
linguistic features of English advertising is
of great significance. If we have a good
command of the language characteristics
of English advertising, we will be able to
appreciate, assess and write English advertising, which will promote our cooperation
and exchange with foreign countries, faci-
and benefit the development of our economy and world economy.
The language of English advertising possesses many linguistic features. This study
briefly deals with the most common linguistic characteristics of English advertising text
particularly of press advertisements in Engli
They include three categories: characteristic
of wording, syntactical features and rhetorical devices. In other words, characteristics
of wording, syntactical features and rhetorical devices are discussed respectively.
Now try to answer the following questions
based on this part.
1. How do you define advertising?
2. What functions does advertising
possess?
3. How is advertising classified?
4. What elements constitute an English ad
5. What do you know about ad slogans?
6. What do you know about ad trademarks
7. What do you know about headlines and
bodycopies of English advertising?