ADVERTISEMENT AS A LANGUAGE OF PERSUASION (A CASE STUDY OF EBONY MAGAZINE) (ENGLISH AND LINGUISTIC PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
ABSTRACT
In today’s media landscape where it’s very difficult to advertisement attitude and intentions and move them to next level of buying process, advertisers find it even more difficult and challenging to break through the clutter of competing advertisement. The advertising industry has experienced dynamic change over the last several decades. The changes have been good in terms of Technology advancement, Medium and more methods to attract consumers and on Creativity. This research is carried out on advertisement as a language of persuasion and has evaluated the influence of persuasive language on people. Also it has examined language as a strategy for marketing commodities and its effects on the consumers. Language as a medium of communication determines the success of the adverts and has a tool used to influence consumers to accept the advertised product. The research has to some extent looked at the linguistic components that make advertising successful and also informs better ways of drafting advertisement that enlighten consumers about their purchase. Also the research uses observation in gathering of its data; where it was gathered that appropriate use of language in advertisement can help to persuade consumer in the purchase of Ebony products. Given to these findings are appropriate recommendations made.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Language is a phenomenon that entails different definition depending on the individual reception of the concept. Language plays a vital role in or existence as human beings. The human existence is meaningless without language. It is therefore not surprising that language is said to be ubiquitous. It is part and parcel of the social man. Man use language to express his v as tied interest, aspiration and other social activities. Through language is not easy to define, many Linguists have given their various definitions for it according to Bloomfield:
Language is a code whereby ideas about the world are represented through conventional system of arbitrary signals for communication.
This assertion means that language is a system of words, which has meaning and enables man to communicate his views, ideas, feeling and perspective of the universe. Similarly, Hall defines Language as an institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral auditory symbols.
Central to the above definition, language is a system whereby man expresses his thoughts and feelings to his fellow man. It is then obvious that men use language to convince one another on issues which are of interest and benefit to them on daily basis. Language has a powerful influence on people and their behavior. It conveys specific message with the intention of influencing them. Brown and Yule say that language has transactional and interactive functions. The interactive function has an interpersonal relationship between the speaker and the hearer not only given information but building relationships. The transactional function of language deals with the use of language for business purposes, in that there is no relationship between the speaker and the hearer. Therefore it is focused on passing message across, which has to be accurate.
The above claims are not always true in the case of the language of advertising because it has a target to meet. It thereby has a convincing, that is to say advertising language may not always be correct in its uses. Its most important function is to communicate information in a manner to achieve a response. The language of advertising explains its position as a means to an end by the way it functions, namely to convince and to receive a response. Marketing and advertisement excel in the area of social influence. It informs people about availability of a particular product or service with the aim of making them respond by patronizing such products or services. Oxford English dictionary says,
Advertisement is a call to the attention of another to give him notice, to notify, admonish or impressive manner.
Advertising is seen here to have a convincing effect on the listener. That is, persuasive language must be uses to convince the listener into believing that nothing other than this particular product or service is better. This act therefore uses language as a device for persuasion.
This research intends to discuss the need for the language of persuasion in advertising. The research shall also analyze the linguistic components that make advertising persuasive and successful.
