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The Language of Advertising People, who use language to arrest attention, communicate instantly, arouse desire and create need, anticipation and excitement are copy writers for advertising . Advertising has become one of the world's largest most profitable businesses.

Advertisers use Text types or Genres that: Coax, Entice, Induce, Deceive, Beguile and Persuade ADVERTISING - WHAT IS IT? Definitions: George Orwell: the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket. Stephen Laycock: "the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

Characteristics of Persuasive language:

Emotive language coloured and biased language with affected and associated meanings: new, free, wanted, sensational Abstract words - beauty, delicious, satisfying, they invest their products with significance or symbolism beyond themselves; aristocratic elegance, sportsmanship, good health or sexual attractiveness. Catchy Phrases language to arrest your attention; to lure you in, to seduce, to communicate instantly, briefly, concisely with impact. Poetic, Glamorised or Euphemistic Language They ransack the language for words and phrases and plagiarise poetry unashamedly. They choose glossy, glamorous flowing language that lulls or hypnotises you, dulling your intellect. Sound effects: alliteration, assonance and rhyme and rhythm Imperative Mood - The language urges, orders or commands you to act in an assertive aggressive enterprising manner. Use of the Second Person - You are being addressed, targeted, made to feel special. You are induced to treat/indulge yourself because you deserve it to arouse self-interest. They speak directly to the reader. Abuse of Language - Advertisers can be very dishonest in how they use language. Without resorting to outright lies, they attempt to make gilt seem gold, the shoddy silk; to cheat us legally. Frequent use of Adjectives - a predominance of superlatives; best, freshest, cleanest, brightest, biggest, most real, special, crisp wonderful.. Repetition - easy to read, and help to fix the product in the receivers mind. Brand names are repeated ad nauseum as are catchy phrases and jingles. Neologisms - new words are coined every year; unzip a banana, temptational, bubbly, minty, tangy, chewy, chunky, crackly, crispy, flaky, meaty, nutty, silky and spicy are some of the newly coined adjectives. Many compound words such as: mirror finish, longer-lasting, smoother-handling, have been introduced by the advertising industry.

Humour softens us up for the soft sell. Structures: (Scaffolding) Four ingredients of successful ads: attention, interest, desire and action (AIDA). Attention: Eye-catching layout, striking features to make people take notice. Clear concise expression short sentences and paragraphs. Captivating Graphics. Spectacular Layout easy to grasp. Interest to sustain interest, often targeted to a niche market. Desire - the ad will create or develop a need or desire for the product. (See below) Action - an urging for direct action with some incentives; gifts, limited time, special deals.. Usually in the second person with an imperative tone. Emotional abuse of the collective subconscious Psyche: Advertisers recognise that we all have fears, hopes, anxieties, aspirations, insecurities and dreams and rather than satisfy desires, not needs, they lull us into false illusions that these will be filled by consumerism. They exploit our psyche by appeals to: Status snob values: Top people read Spectrum, discerning people drink Baileys, discriminating tastes prefer King Island Cheese, the best homes exclusive Fear of non-conformity: bad breath, B.O., pejoratives, old-fashioned, negative associations. Security Get with the strength, a name you can trust, Est. 1870. Ease and Comfort - Relax, treat yourself, processed food, self indulgence. Authority - Doctors recommend, or horse trainers/dog trainers/racing car drivers or just famous people, athletes through either direct testimonial or by association linking the product with fame and prestige. Sex and provocative youth always a good approach designed to catch attention and associate with your product. Brand names: To establish these you must imbue them with epic qualities and have them branded into the psyches of your target (niche) audience. Symbol Manipulation: You invest objects with significance that transcend themselves through association: Though attractive, the links can be deceptive. Cigarettes to elegance, social acceptance, outdoor health scenes, Cars and sexy women, foods and heroic sporting achievements.. Impressive Layouts and Graphics with attention grabbing and subtle display and exploitation of colour.

Evaluation of Advertising:
E.S. Turner in The Shocking History of Advertising (1968) A bride is not a young woman on the edge of a great adventure; she is a conditioned consumer, who by buying the right cosmetics and the right brassiere has captured her man, and who, when she returns from her honeymoon, will go into the grocers and automatically recite those branded names that have been dinned into her ears for the last twenty years. Vance Palmer in The Hidden Persuaders, advances the possibility that the future citizen will be a helpless victim of campaigns of persuasion guided by mass psychoanalysis. Professor Marshall McLuhan:

Ours is the first age in which many thousands of the best trained individual minds have made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind. To get inside in order to manipulate, exploit, control is the object now. And to generate heat, not light, is the intention. We are bombarded with increasing amount of overt and covert (subliminal) advertising that could be considered aural and visual pollution. When advertising becomes so ubiquitous its invasive, intrusive presence can cause conditioned behaviour that may be psychologically damaging. What are the pros and cons? Advantages of Advertising Gives Public notice Information of specific details and latest products New innovative inventions Keeps us up to date Revenue for Media: Disadvantages of Advertising Persuades people to buy unnecessary products creating a consumerist consumptive society producing tons of waste material to be disposed of. Encourages built-in obsolescence. Promotes impulse buying

Without advertising we would not have Threat of withdrawal can give advertisers cheap newspapers, free radio and undue influence on media. television. Often promotes dangerous products: Market demand would shrink, jobs Fast cars disappear and prices of goods rise. Drugs, cigarettes Deodorants, Public and Civic Promotions Fast unhealthy foods Road safety Anti-Drug campaigns Safe sex AIDS Anti-smoking Drinking Appeals to self-interest/indulgence Canada has 2/3 of the worlds cleanest water and yet imports French bottled water from the most polluted continent in the world. Deceptive advertising can be confusing, making rational choice impossible