Advertising communication has a unique character and different techniques are used
to draw the consumer's attention. The way in which the message is communicated in
the advertisement often contributes to the impact of the advertising message. In this
study the focus was specifically on the ways in which advertising language
communicates creatively. Furthermore, the manner in which visual signs echo the
linguistic signs and contributes to the construction of the marketing message is also
observed.
Figurative language and semiotic signs are some of the mechanisms copywriters use
to draw the consumer's attention. Literature that focuses on the linguistic and visual
analysis of advertising communication is limited. A variety of definitions for figurative
language exist in the literature, since different authors have different perspectives
given a particular data set and time frame. In this study creative signs used in
advertising (e.g. language play, rhetorical figures and semiotic signs) in order to
increase the impact of the advertisement, are studied from a Cognitive Semantic and
linguistic perspective
A qualitative investigation was launched in order to describe the character of the
manifestation of concepts in advertising communication. Based on the primary
objective of the study, to give an overview of the manifestation of creative concepts in
South African print advertising communication, the secondary objectives were
identified. These objectives were to explain the definition and nature of terms such as
language play (idiomatic expressions, personification, and wordplay), rhetorical
figures of speech (comparisons, analogies and metaphor) and semiotic signs
(indexes, icons and symbols). South African print advertisements were used as data
set. A further objective was to obtain an overview of the gains and risks in the use of
these attention drawing mechanisms in the interest of training linguistics and
copywriting students. In this study two main categories were identified, namely figurative language and
semiotic signs. Figurative language were divided into two categories, namely
language play and rhetorical figures. The category, language play, focuses
specifically on the artistic nature or rather âcreative decorationâ of advertisements.
Idiomatic expressions (when the catâs away, the mice will play), personification
(âYour pepper will be so jealousâ) and wordplay (the Afrikaans word âleerâ can
refer to the ladder you climb, as well as the leather a shoe is made of) are
identified as three forms in language play.
Rhetorical figures were identified as second category within figurative language.
Rhetorical figures of speech include: similes (he is as slow as a tortoise), analogies
(an analogy between the organ, a kidney, and a coffee filter) and metaphors
(metaphor between coffee and perfume's durability and aroma).
The second main category distinguished in this study is semiotic signs. Semiotic
signs were divided into indexes (smoke indicating a fire), icons (a passport full of
stamps, indicating a real passport) and symbols (an apple as a symbol of
seduction).
Based on the literature study and the data set, it is clear that creative signs used in
advertising communication contribute to keeping the reader's attention longer.
Creative signs are often an intellectual game to be unravelled by the reader, in order
to identify the intended marketing message. Furthermore, more than one message is
often communicated through the use of creative language and visual signs, thus
giving the copywriter the ability to say more with less (words and images). From this
study, it is clear that the use of figurative language and semiotic signs should ideally
focus on the brand name, marketing message or characteristic of the product to
actually be relevant to the marketing message; otherwise it remains just a useless
decoration in the advertisement.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-08072014-095259 |
| Date | 07 August 2014 |
| Creators | Lubbe, Elmarie |
| Contributors | Dr N Bosman, Prof A van Niekerk |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08072014-095259/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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