Another linguist Bolen defines advertising as a “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.” (Carter, Ronald and Goddard, Angela, Reah Danuta et al. Working with Texts. London: Routledge,1997)
If the definitions of advertising were too vague and abstract to comprehend, a few words of its function would help to clarify this crucial term. Broadly speaking, advertisements have at least one of two functions: informing or persuading, although overlap may often take place in one single piece. The trick here is that an informative advertisement informs “the customer about goods, services, or ideas and then tells how to get them means of an identified sponsor” (Bolen 6). Examples of informative advertisements are not a few, ranging from flyers to insertions in magazine and newspapers, all of that aim to advertise new products/services or special prices on certain products/services. This type of advertisement gives basic, factual information and sometimes shows a photos or an illustration of the product/service to give the target audience a better view about the advertised product.
Persuasive advertisements are thus the instruments used by advertisers “who have defined their target audiences and determined the effect they hope to achieve through persuasive advertisements in the media” (Bolen 9). And a persuasive advertisement should try to persuade the potential customers to buy the new product. (Bolen 6) The persuasive function is not only limited to attracting the potential customer into buying a certain object, but also including the selling of services, ideas, norms and values.
To summarize, we would get the idea that firstly advertising is a communication process. Secondly, at least a medium is used. Thirdly, this communication process has a definite purpose to convince the target audience. The above three characteristics suggest advertising is closely connected with the society, employing its media, interconnecting with its people and guiding their buying habit. Also in achieving the advertising effect, the advertising language should be vivid and attractive, whose linguistic characteristics would be covered in the Chapter 3.
Chapter 2 Theoretical Background
2.1 Advertisement
2.1.1 Definition and Goal
Advertising is the paid, impersonal communication of information about products or ideas by an identified sponsor through mass media in an effort to persuade or influence behavior. Not all advertising is alike. Advertisements differ depending on who the message is intended for, where the advertisement is shown, which media are used, and what the advertiser wants to accomplish.(see Table 2.1)
Table 2.1
Advertising can be classified in four ways: by target, geographic area, media used, and purpose.
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