TEXT TYPE: Advertisement

A notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service,

experience or event or publicizing a job vacancy.

Example: "advertisements for soft drinks"

Writers Purpose:
Advertising includes oral, written, or audiovisual message addressed to the people
for the purpose of informing and influencing them to buy the products or to act
favorably towards an idea or institution

Context: Advertisement is delivered to its intended audience through the various

media, including online platforms, newspapers, magazines, television, radio,
billboards, and direct mail.

More recently, two more media have been added: e-mails and websites.

Advertising media: "newspapers, magazines (consumer magazines, business

publications, farm publications, professional journals), television, radio, direct
mail, outdoor media (signs, posters, painted bulletins, electric displays), transit
media (car cards, outside displays, station posters)

Features/ Conventions/ Strategies:

1. Capable of Holding the Reader’s Attention:

The following methods may be undertaken to hold the attention of the reader:
(a) Headlines (Navigational Feature): should be properly worded and attractive. It
should be short and easy for the reader to remember.
(b) Use of pictures and sketches should be in direct relation to the product to be
advertised. A good sketch and drawing will be greatly helpful in explaining the
product. (Graphology)

(c) Attractive border may be inserted around the advertisement copy in order to
distinguish it from other advertisements. Underlining the key words and leaving
blank space at the bottom of the copy are also helpful in drawing the reader’s
attention. (Graphology)

(d) Quoting the price of the product in the advertisement copy is also helpful in
holding the attention of a reader. This would be more helpful if the price of the
commodity is low. (Factual Details: InformativeWriting)

(3) Effective slogans can be used to give suggestions to the people. (Persuasive
Strategy)

Slogan: a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising.

For example, in case of camp Cola, it is written in the advertisement copy that ‘life
is full of camp cola times’, similarly in case of State Bank of India, it is
advertised, ‘protect your future with State Bank of India’. All these slogans
have suggestive value. Suggestions may also be given with the help of certain
pictures in the advertisement copy.

(4) Conviction Value (Use of Convincing arguments)

The advertisement copy shall be able to have ever lasting impression on the reader,
if the suggestions are backed by convincing arguments. The reader should not have
any doubt on the quality of the product. An appeal with regard to outstanding
features of the product/experience must be made. It should be stated in simple
language so that the reader could understand easily. In case of Forhan’s tooth
paste, ‘it is ideal for the gums’ and protects your teeth’ some organisations assure
‘money back guarantee’ to convince the people with regard to quality of the
products.

(5) Educational and Informative Writing:

The advertisement copy should tell the people about the use and operation of a
product. It should also impart new uses of a product with which the people are not
familiar. An advertisement containing information with regard to use, sources from
where the product can be obtained, price and services available along with the
product is greatly helpful in enhancing the demand and enlarging the sales.

For example, in case of Hawkin’s pressure cooker a booklet is also given to the
buyer containing methods of preparing various vegetables, soups and puddings etc.
with the help of the cooker. Similarly in case of a refrigerator, a booklet containing
various directions with regard to proper use and preservation of the refrigerator are
given.

(6) Memorising Value:

The advertisement copy should be prepared in such a manner that a reader gets
ever lasting impression about the product. It can be successfully created by
repeating the advertisement time and again. Repetition projects the permanent
image about the product on the reader’s mind.

Trademarks and brand names can be used successfully for achieving this end.
Dalda, Thums-up, Bournvita and Surf have successfully achieved memorising
value. The names of these products are very common among the people.


Features of the advertisement style

It is universally believed that an advertisement should catch a person's attention

and quickly create a memorable impression. In what follows, we shall discuss
the possible ways to do it.

1. Concision. The first principle may be put on the top of the list is the KISS
principle--Keep it Short and Sweet (Guo, 1992). 'Short' can be replaced with
words like 'concise' or 'brief' or 'terse' or 'succinct' or 'pithy,' while the word
'sweet' is somewhat ambiguous. Put in another way, it means "hit the nail on
the head" with as fewer words as possible.

Examples are many, all following this principle: Choose once and choose for good
(durables); Give Timex to all, and to all a good time (wrist watch); Nokia--
Connecting People (mobile phone); Fresh up with Seven-up (soft drink); Let's
make things brighter (lighting appliances); Ask for More (More as a brand name
of cigarette designed for female consumers). (SLOGANS)

2. Clarity. Clarity means 'clear expressions' and 'avoiding ambiguity,' for

which purposes it uses concrete words more than abstract ones, thus
achieving a kind of directness and straightforwardness.

'No Smoking Except in Designated Areas'; 'Keep Clear of the Edges'; 'Recycle
Your Rubbish; It's a Resource'; 'We have but only one Earth'. (SLOGANS)

Another creative example of clarity reads: 'Death from car accidents: 370, Death
from smoking-related causes: 6,027, Quit now before it kills you.' Here the
numbers tell the whole story. (Factual clear language)

3. Comparative and Superlative Constructions. It goes without saying that only

by comparing and contrasting can consumers make the decision which product is
of better quality and more satisfactory. They naturally would choose the best.
Sometimes advertisers make tactful use of certain expressions to produce the
desired effect. 'We are not the best; we are better' is a witty slogan to imply that
the company is not satisfied and complacent with the 'now' but aims at the 'future,'
i.e., persistent improvement and progress.
4. Neologism. It refers to a new word, term, or expression newly created or an old
word with new meanings. Neologism is a useful way to generate novelty. For
example the slogan of a delivery firm "We are at e-speed', with some
creativeness is based on the context that e-mail, e-commerce, etc. were coined
and used in the like manner. It should be better than the ordinary expressions
'fast speed' or 'rapid speed'. Similarly 'It helps to get rid of your odor, so people
won't move away from you' with 'It's good at de-odoring, so people will stay
around' for a deodorant product. The attractiveness of the Neologism lies in its
novelty and multiplicity of meanings.

'Americanly,' for instance, may mean democracy in a political context,

assimilation in a cultural context, and preponderance in a technical context. So it is
advisable for advertisers to utilize such a device if they wish to attract their
customers.

5. Repetition. It is usually used for reinforced meaning and effect, which can still
be further divided into two cases: repetition of the same words and words of the
same semantic field. 'Faster, higher, stronger' is a handy example in question.
As the Olympiad slogan it advocates sportsmanship and competitive skills that all
people aspire to in sports. The same technique in a commercial advertisement
writing should be similarly helpful and useful.

6. Non-sophistication. By non-sophistication it is meant that advertisement style

more often than not avoids technical terms, so it can also be termed as non-
technicality. The reason for this is simple because advertisement for the major part
is intended for 'men in the street' (layman) rather than professionals.

Technical terms are seldom used in advertisements, even if the product is

sophisticated. For a cosmetic store the slogan ought to be rendered in non-
sophisticated words but as simple and clear as 'We make your face shine' rather
than the former verbose introduction of the abstruse technical formula of the
product.

Non-sophistication can also mean short and concise.

Non-sophistication is also manifested in simple syntax, which refers to simple

sentence structures. It is rather uncommon to find complex sentences in
advertising, namely, coordinated, subordinated sentences and parataxis
(juxtaposition), which are usually used for argument and logical presentation.
Advertisement aims to persuade, not to argue. And persuasion seems to be done
in this style in the simplest way possible. The examples presented above share one
important feature--simple syntax.

7. Promise function. The 'promises' feature belongs to a different category. It

stresses a functional point of view. For example 'We connect everything
smoothly for you or we connect you with the world' as the slogan of a Chinese
communications service corporation entitled 'Unicom.

Commercial advertisements make promises, among other things, related to

either their services or the quality of their products, as opposed to public
advertisements, which seem to be marked with a purpose of promotion of public
consciousness.

'We have but one earth' is a public advertisement calling attention to protect
mother earth; 'Water is getting scarcer, and water is our life' is another case in
point. Unlike this line of persuasion, commercial advertisements make promises.

8. Rhetorical devices. Advertisement style is full of rhetorical devices (or

traditionally figures of speech). Rhetorical devices never fail to create aesthetic
pleasure in the audience while simultaneously they catch their attention and force
themselves into memory. Figures of speech, to provide an all-inclusive list, are as
follows:

simile, metaphor, analogy, personification, hyperbole, understatement,

euphemism, metonymy, synecdoche, antonomasia, pun, syllepsis, zeugma, irony,
innuendo, sarcasm, paradox, oxymoron, antithesis, epigram, climax, anti-climax,
apostrophe, transferred epithet, alliteration, and onomatopoeia (Bai & Shi,
2002).

Of course no advertisement uses all devices listed here. 'Gillette Sensor--the

ONLY razor that senses and adjusts to the individual needs of your face'; this is a
hyperbole in that it stresses ONLY. It, of course, is by no means the only razor that
does so but it does not do too much harm to brag a little bit to attract attention.

'Drive with care if you care about life,' 'Don't drive your life away when you
are driving,' and 'Limit your speed, or limit your life' (Liao, 2001); these are
convincing examples of how puns are cleverly employed. They seem to be more
interesting than the direct warning: 'Drive carefully--the life you save may be
your own,' although the latter one is no less clear, short and forceful.
Rhetorical devices are to be plentifully applied. 'A life as long as Heaven and
Earth' (diamond ring) and 'The light is so strong that it burns' (car headlights)
are two examples using hyperbole

'Life is a journey. Travel it well' (airline) is a metaphor

'When you come, you are a guest of ours; when you leave, we are friends of yours'
(hotel) is a good example of parallelism

'We take no pride in prejudice' (service) is an interesting instance of witty parody

'Unrivaled quality, unbeatable prices, and unreserved service' (department store) is

a forceful climax

'Guaranteed repair, replacement or refund' (retail store) is an alliteration

'If you leave Managing Money (name of a firm) alone, money will manage to
leave you alone' is a pun (Ding, 2004).

The above points (1) and (2) can be labeled as belonging to the category of text
features; (4) and (5) can be put under the general category of lexical features; (3)
and (6) under the category of grammatical features; (7) in the category of
functional feature; and (8) traditionally in the category of rhetoric feature.
EXAMINER REPORTS JUNE 2023 11

1. Naming the service

2. Outlining what was involved
3. Use of factual data to persuade
4. Employing a catchy heading (rhetorical questions, alliteration)
5. Subheadings
6. Bullet points
7. Lists
8. Call to action

Call to action (CTA) is a marketing term for any text designed to prompt an immediate response or
encourage an immediate sale.

What is a call to action example?

“Buy Now” or “Download Now” are typical examples of simple calls to action. But a CTA
can run longer, too, such as “Subscribe today so you'll never miss a post.” The
possibilities are endless.