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  3. How Advertisement Is DoneThe language of the advertiser

How Advertisement Is DoneThe language of the advertiser

游客2024-02-22  26
问题                      How Advertisement Is Done
The language of the advertiser
    When we choose a word we do more than give information; we also express out feelings about what ever we’ re describing. Words point to facts but often link these to attitudes at the same time; they can also affect the beliefs and attitudes of other people.
     These two remarks are much the same--or are they? What’ s the speaker’ s feeling towards the same dog in each case? And how would the different descriptions affect the listeners?
Here comes that pet.
Here comes that dog.
    The fact that words can work like this is important and valuable, for it adds a richness to our communication with one another. Advertisers make use of it in a number of ways.
Brand names
    The manufacturer needs a name that will do more than just label: he wants a name that brings suit able associations as well--the ideas that the word brings to the mind will help sell the product.
    If all were available at the same price, which coat or suit would you choose from this range of shades--Dark Tan, Brown, Mud Brown?
    Which of these shades of eye-show--Black Diamond, Black, Coaldust?
Key words
    Because words have these associations, the advertiser is very careful about the way he describes his product and what it will do. Almost every advertisement has certain key words(sometimes, but not al ways, in bold or large letters, or beginning with a capital letter)that are intended to be persuasive, while at the same time appearing to be informative. It’ s difficult enough simply to describe what a thing is and how it works, especially in a few words, but the writers who write for the advertisements also try to include feelings, associations and attitudes.
    Some words seem to have been so successful in selling that the advertisers use them almost as if they were magic key to a certain sale. How often, for instance, have you come across the word "golden" in advertisements?
Association of ideas
    One thing reminds us of another -- especially if we often see them together. These reminders(called "associations")are sometimes more imaginary than real: for many people a robin suggests Christmas, for others silver candlesticks suggest wealth.
    The tricks of the advertising business we have so far described are all examples of the advertiser encouraging us to associate products with those things he thinks we really want -- a good job, nice clothes, a sport car, a beautiful girlfriend -- perhaps most of all a feeling of importance. The "image’ of a product is based on these associations, and the advertiser often creates a "good image" by showing us some one who uses his product and who leads the kind of life we should like to lead. We buy not just the product but the sense of importance that goes with it. We drink Coca-Cola not just for the taste, but because we would like to be thought of as being as gay as the energetic people who drink it in the ads.
How scientific is the science?
    In this age of moon flights, heart transplants and wonder drags, we are all impressed by science. If an advertiser links his claim with a scientific fact, there is even a chance we can be blinded by science. The question is simply whether the impressive air of the new discovery or the "man-made miracle" is being used to help or just to deceive us.
"The camera never lies"
    Maybe we can’ t always believe what we’ re told, but surely we must accept what we’ re actually shown. The trouble is that when we look at the photograph we don’ t know how the photograph was taken, or even what was actually photographed.
    Is that delicious-looking whipped cream really cream, or plastic froth?
    Is that marvelous gloss a sheet of glass?
    Are the colours in fact so glowing or has a special effect been used?
    It’ s often difficult to tell, but you can sometimes spot the photographic tricks if you look carefully enough.
Guilty?
    Another method of persuasion is to call up guilty feelings, for example to imply that any mother who really loves her children uses a certain product. If Mrs. Gray does not use it , she might start to think of herself as a bad mother who does not love her family. So she might go and buy that particular product, rather than go on feeling guilty.
"Before and after"
    Some products are advertised as having a remarkable and immediate effect. We are shown the situation before using the product and this is contrasted with the situation that follows its use. Have you noticed anything about these advertisements? Taking a tablet for a headache in such advertisements can have truly remarkable results. For not only has the headache gone, the person concerned has often had a new hair-do, acquired a new set of clothes and sometimes even moved into a more modem, better furnished house. What splendid value for a few pence!
Experts?
    We are often encouraged to believe nowadays that, because someone has been successful in one field, he should be regarded as an authority in other fields. How tree is this likely to be?
    The advertiser knows that there are certain people whom we admire because they are famous sportsmen, actors or singers, and he believes that if we discover that a certain well-known personality uses his product, we will want to use it too. This is why so many advertisements feature famous people. But does a man who is a famous sportsman know more about these things than anyone else? And does he even use the product he praises?
    The next time you see any advertisements which feature well-known people, consider in which of them you think the person concerned ’should be regarded as an authority and those where he clearly is not.
"Keeping up with the Joneses"
    Another way in which an advertiser may try to make us want his product is by suggesting that most people, or the "best" people, already use it and that we will no doubt want to follow them.
    How important is this when you think about it? No one likes to be inferior to others, but are we really inferior just because we have not got all the things others have?
    Furthermore, do we really want to be like other people? Is it really desirable to behave just like others?
Repetition
    If you keep talking about something for long enough, finally people will pay attention to you. How many advertisements have you seen that are based on this rule?
    If we hear the name of a product many times a day, we are much more likely to find that this is the name that comes into our head when the shopkeeper asks "What brand?" We usually like to choose things for ourselves, but if the advertiser plants a name in our heads in this way, he has helped to make the choice for us.
Are you an unpaid advertiser?
    One of the ways in which an advertiser can make sure that the name of his product is heard by people far more often than he can afford to have it advertised on television, is to write a jingle or slogan that people, especially children, will sing and repeat. In this way, some advertising slogans have become part of everyday speech and we repeat them without realizing that we are unpaid advertisers. For instance, the word "Pinta" was coined in 1959 when the slogan first appeared. Since then we have seen a number of variations, always based on the "Pinta"; the Pinta girl, the Pinta man, Pinta-Power, Winta Pinta, all try to persuade us to drink more milk. Have they succeeded with you?
Spotting the tactics
    We’ ye looked at a number of the techniques which admen use to increase the attractiveness of their products: the careful choice of brand, name, and the words used to describe the product; the way of life with which it is associated in the advert; the suggestion that a family is not really a, happy one without it; the "before-and-after" method; the advice from a famous person; repetition; the suggestion that the product has noble or scientific connections; and jingles. Usually any single advert will use a combination of these methods.
    Go through any magazine and try and pick out those adverts which rely very much on one of the above approaches. [br] If the advertiser plants a name in our heads by repeating it, he has helped to ______ for us.
选项
答案 make the choice
解析 由原文“Repetition”最后一句得知空格处应为“make the choice”。
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