Студопедия — Section One – Advertisements and Commercials
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Section One – Advertisements and Commercials






 

Theoretical Background

 

Advertising has become an integral part of our present-day life. From everywhere around us, advertisements of diverse types attack our privacy.

Defined very generally, advertising is ‘the business of encouraging people to buy goods by means of advertisements’ [Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 1992:15]. In a contemporary world there exist various types of advertising. Commercial consumer advertising is directed towards a mass audience with the aim of promoting sales of individual products or services. Industrial or trade advertising seeks to promote products/services produced or rendered by a particular company to other firms. The prestige advertising aims to promote the name and the positive image of a specific company rather than products or services, while the so-called classified advertising deals with want ads and house sales.

Advertising messages can be distributed via a variety of communication channels. From this perspective it seems reasonable to distinguish such forms of advertising as print advertising, Internet advertising, direct mail advertising, radio advertising, TV advertising, etc. [for more details see Фещенко 2003]. Advertisements on television and radio are technically known as commercials.

Advertisements are specific text types used for advertising products and services have been discussed at length in many publications. Recent studies have for the most part analyzed advertising discourse [Лейчик 2006; Cook 2001], stylistic features [Курганова 2004; Galperin 1981], structural peculiarities [Фещенко 2003], writing techniques and strategies [Алексеева 2004; Зарецкая 2004; Чернышова 2008; Crystal 1998], metaphors [Кушнерук 2007], manipulation strategies [Аникин 2008; Попова 2005; Чумичева 2009], gender peculiarities [Гампер 2009] and cultural differences of advertising texts [Братчикова, Лизина 2002; Тер-Минасова 2007]. Investigations were carried out in a variety of domains ranging from food product and motor car ads [Соловьева 2002; Усачева 2004; Шаззо 2008] to ads produced for the promotion of books and mobile communications [Кириленко 2004; Леонтьева 1994]. In general, most studies were based on printed advertising texts, although several papers were aimed at reviewing specific features of advertising messages placed by companies at their corporate websites [Егорова 2008].

It should be emphasized that commercial advertisements are usually organized in accordance with the so-called AIDA principle and must attract the Attention of the prospective buyer, maintain his or her Interest, create a Desire, and get him or her into Action. Commercial advertisements have a fixed compositional structure and include the following components:

1. the slogan – a striking and easily remembered phrase used to make a specific ad more impressive and memorable. The basic purpose of an advertising slogan is to attract the reader’s attention to the advertisement of a particular company. For example: A Korea Banking Hercules – The Citizens National Bank. It is interesting to note that many slogans are based on stylistic devices. For instance, alliteration can help the slogan achieve the strong beating rhythm needed to make it a repeatable sentence - the Allied Irish Bank: Britain’s best business bank;

2. the advertising message itself which either suggests reasonable motives for a purchase or appeals to emotions of an addressee. The appeal to make a purchase may be either direct or implicit [Cook 2001];

3. the feedback section aimed at building up contacts with the prospective customers (e.g. For more information do not hesitate to contact us at tel. (043) 366-567);

4. contact details, including phone and fax numbers, e-mail and corporate web-site particulars.

Advertising texts are constructed on ‘a problem – solution’ relation. In particular, this scenario is regularly exploited by financial advertisers. For example: If you need money (a problem!) we are here to provide you with a loan or a credit card (a solution!).

Many advertisements refer to the reader with the second person pronoun ‘you’ in order to shorten the distance between the product or the producer and consumers. The use of possessive pronoun ‘your’ is also a common strategy in English-language ads and commercials allowing the advertiser to build up a close relationship with prospective consumers. The cultivation of a personal relationship is enhanced by the advertiser’s anaphoric use of ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’. The communicative strategy of personalization enables the advertiser to create an atmosphere of solidarity or intimacy whereby the reader seems to be advised by a friend [Grabovski 2007; Painter 2001]. For example: If you’re considering new business in Indonesia, you’ll want the counsel of a bank that really knows the country.

The language of advertising is generally laudatory, positive and unreserved. Advertisers try to emphasize the uniqueness of a product [Crystal 1998]. The best advertisers prefer to communicate with the target audience in the customer’s language rather than in the industry’s language. To spend money on advertising that customers do not understand makes no sense whatsoever. Stark, basic, understandable communications are especially important in financial services advertising as an antidote to the growing complexity of these services [Donnelly, Berry, Thompson 1985].

The vocabulary of English ads is vivid and concrete. I.R. Galperin states that the vocabulary tends to be neutral with here and there a sprinkling of emotionally colored words or phrases used to attract the reader’s attention [for more details see Гальперин 1981]. These special attention-getting devices include:

- superlative adjectives which emphasize the uniqueness of a particular product (e.g. the strongest international balance sheet, the most profitable private banking institution, the highest international standards of speed, accuracy and discretion, the very highest standards of confidentiality and trust, etc.) and various intensifiers like very, extremely and exceptionally (e.g. Vladi Private Islands has been the top-selling company for island sales and rentals since 1975. It has the largest archive worldwide with more than 12000 files of islands explorations collected over 30 years and has sold over 2000 islands);

- Commercial ads abound in hyperbolic adjectives like great, grandiose and excellent and in epithets like fresh, delicious, beautiful, ideal, excellent, unforgettable, first-class, etc. (e.g. For more than 20 years The United States Hot Air Balloon Team, led by veteran Stan Hess, has provided first-class adventure for travelers throughout the United States, Europe and Asia). In his famous study on English-language advertising G.N. Leech managed to make up a list of twenty most frequent adjectives employed by people in the advertising profession. This list includes such common adjectives as new, good/better/best, free, fresh, full, wonderful, special, fine, big, great, real, easy and rich, to name a few [Leech 1966];

- intensifying prefixes, such as ultra-, super-, extra-, hyper- (e.g. supernatural, ultrashining, etc.);

- words, such as ‘every’ and ‘always’, are often used in ads and commercials to stress the universal application of a particular product (e.g. Always Coca-Cola);

- words and phrases marked by emotional coloring (an expert, a master, top, leading, an outstanding track record, an exceptional service, etc.), metaphorical and figurative expressions (eating sunshines – cereals, smiling color – hair shampoo);

- foreign words are used in ads and commercials to emphasize the origin of the product or exclusiveness of the product in relation to a particular country. For instance, a French word ‘crème’ ’ evokes the impression of world-class French cosmetics in an advertising slogan La crème de la crème of lipcolour;

- novel compound words (e.g. top-quality, all-purpose, on-line, etc.);

- specially coined words which constitute, probably, the most noticeable feature of advertising language. Many instances of this kind can be found in Russian advertising texts: ПОРА ПЕЖО НИТЬ! (реклама автомобиля «Пежо»); Хватит мечтать, пора ОБ LADA ТЬ! (реклама автомобиля «Лада»);

- intertextual elements and allusion to some other texts (e.g. “ To be in Florida in winter or not to be in Florida in winter?” is an allusion to Shakespeare’s famous piece from Hamlet “To be or not to be? That is the question”. The advertising slogan “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play” is an allusion to a well-known English proverb “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”).

Syntactical structures which aim at attaching additional emotional coloring to advertising texts range from parallel constructions and stylistic inversion to elliptical and imperative constructions. Parallel constructions are termed as two or more neighboring sentences or parts of a single sentence marked by the identical syntactical pattern. Yu.M. Skrebnev states that the stylistic device of parallelism is suitable for performing a variety of functions, such as a rhythmic and melodic unification of adjacent sentences, a logical stress on a certain repeated element, etc. [Skrebnev 1994]. Parallel constructions are rather favored by contemporary copywriters. For example: Reporting on new ideas, shaping our everyday world.

The device of stylistic inversion aims to attach an additional emotional or expressive coloring to the surface meaning of the utterance by exploiting a non-standard arrangement of words in a sentence [Арнольд 2005; Galperin 1981]. The inverted word-order can enable a copywriter to emphasize a key word by placing it into a very prominent first position in the utterance. For example: Essential is an expert, committed partner. The word ‘essential’ in the above sentence sounds very strong and emphatic due to its unusual position in the sentence where the predicative stands before the link-verb and both are placed before the subject.

Elliptical constructions which are also regularly found in advertising texts are used as imitations of oral speech with a view to make advertising slogans and texts more dynamic and expressive and to support a conversationalization strategy employed by the advertiser. For example: In the world of financial consulting there are a lot of players. But few masters.

Imperatives as a stylistic device help copywriters create an atmosphere of emotional suspense in the advertising text and visualize the described situation by producing the effect of presence. For example: Step abroad World Yacht, New York’s premiere dining cruise. Indulge in outstanding cuisine, receive attentive and gracious service from our international stuff, and marvel at the dazzling city views.... Sip on champagne while your journey takes you down the Hudson River, around the tip of Manhattan and up the East River.

Other prominent syntactical devices used in English ads and commercials are listed below:

- a stylistic device of repetition aims to place a logical stress on a particular key-word of two or more sentences in a row (e.g. Europay provides a full range of payment services. … Europay provides a single technical infrastructure which delivers all Europay services through one system);

- parcelling constructions which allow copywriters to emphasize each segment of a sentence due to a very peculiar punctuation model (e.g. Schneider is a manufacturer focused on electrical equipment, control equipment and automation. With four world brands: Merlin Gerin, Modicon, Square D and Telemecanique. And over 60,000 specialists in 130 countries, with one objective in mind: to meet your needs. Every day. Safely. Economically. Efficiently.);

- a wide occurrence of exclamatory sentences, especially in ads and commercials aimed at female audiences (e.g. Crystal lipcolour. It’s music for your lips!);

- inexplicit grammatical constructions which give an air of vagueness to the claims for the product (e.g. X costs less than what?); X gets clothes cleaner (than what?). Similar examples can be easily found in ads and commercials - Ford has a better idea – FORD MOTOR COMPANY; Get more – T-Mobile; If you ask us, it just tastes better – Burger King [for more details see Аникин 2008];

- Rhetorical questions which assume only one possible answer are used to attract attention of potential customers by mentioning the matter that concerns them most of all. Questions are also resorted to by a copywriter to promote closer contact with the audience (e.g. Developing your activities in Central and Eastern Europe? Have you driven a Ford lately?). Sometimes questions are selected by an advertiser to make up a backbone of a particular ad. A good example of this kind can be found in [Шутова 2003]. The advertisement of a well-known car producer runs as follows:

 

Will you turn the corner? Or keep heading down the same road?

Will you go the next mile? Or be content to travel in the same circles?

Today technology is pressing on.

Aren’t you just a little curious what’s over the next hill?

What’s new in your world?

This advertisement is full of questions and such syntactical organization of the text seems to make the ad more dynamic and expressive;

- holophrastic constructions which help the advertiser express a complex of

ideas in a single word (e.g. a ‘special-services-provided-by-special-people’ boutique, a live-work-shop-play-and-also-do-your-banking card, services for ‘I-am-an-individual’ clients);

- creative utterances constructed by a copywriter to attract the reader’s

attention (e.g. Of course, when it comes to your questions, you’ll find our ears positively elephantine; ‘To manage 3,000 rooms, you undoubtedly need a good many vacuum-cleaners but also a highly imaginative and innovative bank’).

All the above-mentioned stylistic devices are coupled with special graphical means, such as words in bold type or iconic signs which also help advertisers make their ads original and memorable. For example: Welcome to the world of Sony: music, movies, TV, games and electronics; Let’s combine our talent$. Commercial ads are increasingly accompanied by visual images such as photographs and drawings. Advertising texts make use of a number of different modes (words in headlines; images and the written texts themselves) to form a composite whole and are therefore referred to as multimodal texts [for more details see Анисимова 2003; Полубиченко, Донская 2007; Cook 2001; Stenglin, Iedema 2001]. Other examples of multimodal texts include newspaper and magazine articles, operating manuals, film reviews, tourist brochures, cooking recipes and all sorts of reports.

Suggested Topics for Discussion

1. What can you say about the compositional structure of English commercials advertisements?

2. What can you say about the lexical items used in English commercial advertisements?

3. What can you say about syntactical peculiarities of English commercial advertisements?

4. Why are English commercial advertisements referred to as multimodal texts?

 

Translation Practice

Text 1 – An Advertisement of a Dining Cruise

 

Step aboard World Yacht, New York’s premiere dining cruise. Indulge in outstanding cuisine, receive attentive and gracious service from our international staff, and marvel at the dazzling city views. New American cuisine with a French influence serves as the basis for World Yacht’s seasonal four-course menu, accompanied by a carefully selected list of wines and cocktails. Sip on champagne while your journey takes you down the Hudson River. Sail under the Brooklyn Bridge and marvel at the close-up views of the majestic Statue of Liberty. World Yacht … is the best way to see New York.

(Source: Offers to Premium MasterCard Cardholders 2007)

 

Comprehension Questions

1. What is the best dining cruise in New York?

Practical Assignments

Exercise 1. Analyze types of stylistic devices used in the text and suggest ways of rendering the text into Russian.

Exercise 2. Explain how the self-presentation strategy of the advertiser is realized in the above advertisement.

Exercise 3. Read and translate the text.

 

Text 2 – An Advertisement of a Restaurant

 

Cala Restaurante is located on the ocean’s edge in the historic and fashionable Barranco district of Lima, Peru. A lively first-floor bar offers a variety of cocktails, plus tasty seafood appetizers such as popcorn shrimps and irresistible spicy shellfish. The restaurant located upstairs boasts attentive service and a varied menu including seafood, as well as duck, lamb, and pasta offerings. Desserts are truly tempting, and the selection of wines is carefully coordinated with the menu. Views of the sea enhance this fine dining experience.

(Source: Offers to Premium MasterCard Cardholders 2007)

Comprehension Questions

1. Where is Cala Restaurante located at?

Practical Assignments

Exercise 1. Analyze types of stylistic devices used in the text and suggest ways of rendering the text into Russian.

Exercise 2. Explain how a positive image of Cala Restaurante is created in the above advertisement.

Exercise 3. Read and translate the text.

 

Text 3 - Want To Unlock Some Doors in Indonesia?

 

We have the keys. In fact, we’ve been helping international business with trade financing for nearly two decades. Bringing together major companies from around the world, providing accurate, up-to-date information and maintaining the very highest standards of confidentiality and trust.

If you’re considering new business in Indonesia, you’ll want the counsel of a bank that really knows the country. A bank with a truly global reach. With branches in eighteen cities across Indonesia plus links to correspondent banks in 67 countries around the world.

You simply couldn’t choose a better banking partner in Indonesia than Bank Niaga – a strong internationally-minded bank with the keys to those doors. Call up today!

(Source: The Banker, No. 807/1993)

Comprehension Questions

1. Why is the Bank Niaga the best banking partner in Indonesia?

Practical Assignments

Exercise 1. Analyze types of stylistic devices used in the text and suggest ways of rendering the text into Russian.

Exercise 2. What is the slogan of this advertisement? Does it sound as attention-getting and memorable?

Exercise 3. Explain what linguistic means are employed in the above advertisement to shorten a distance between the advertiser and prospective customers.

Exercise 4. Read and translate the text.

 

Text 4 - We Oil the Wheels of Siberia

 

The West-Siberian Commercial Bank was transformed into the Joint-Stock Commercial Bank from the former state-governed PROMSTROIBANK in November 1990.

The Bank’s shareholders include the largest Siberian state enterprises namely, URENGOYGAZPROM, YAMBURGGAZDOBYCHA, NIZHNEVARTOVSKNEFTEGAZ, NADYMGAZPROM, TYUMENSNABCOMPANY, along with the TOBOLSK PETROCHEMICAL INTEGRATED WORKS. The shareholders are also involved in building companies and various business projects in the Tyumen Region, Russia’s basic oil and gas province.

The West-Siberian Commercial Bank has 28 branches in Siberia which provide high-quality financial services for 55,000 customers. At present, more than 1,200 employees work at the head office and its branches. The Bank’s Authorized Capital now stands at 1 billion rubles, so far the Bank’s assets and credits have reached 270 and 56 billion rubles, respectively.

The West-Siberian Commercial Bank is now heavily involved in international banking, and it deals directly with correspondent banks from Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Great Britain and the USA.

The Bank has already gained wide experience in financing the major Siberian projects in power engineering, the oil and gas industry and other Russian key industries. It has also set up the financing of the SAMOTLOR, URENGOY, YAMBURG, MEDVEZHYE oil and gas fields, the construction of power stations, pipelines and other industrial projects of the Tyumen Oil and Gas Complex.

Today, the West-Siberian Commercial Bank is conducting the current share issuing campaign in order to increase its Authorized Capital to 5 billion roubles.

(Source: Passport into New World)

 

Key Terms

authorized capital уставной капитал (банка, компании)

correspondent bank банк-корреспондент

credit кредит, заем (to extend ~ выдать кредит, to refuse smb. ~ отказать кому-л. в кредите, a bank ~ банковский кредит, a consumer ~ потребительский кредит, a government ~ правительственный кредит)

state-governed bank государственный банк

Word Combinations

to conduct a share-issuing campaign проводить компанию по выпуску собственных акций

to finance projects in power engineering финансировать проекты в области электроэнергетики

Comprehension Questions

1. When was the West-Siberian Commercial Bank established?

2. What is the advertising slogan of the West-Siberian Commercial Bank? What do you think about this advertising slogan?

3. What is the abbreviated name of the West-Siberian Commercial Bank?

4. Does the West-Siberian Commercial Bank conduct international banking transactions?

6. How many branches does the West-Siberian Commercial Bank have in Siberia?

Practical Assignments

Exercise 1. Give suitable Russian equivalents to the following phrases from the original text (other Russian key industries; to provide high-quality financial services; Russia’s basic oil and gas province; the Bank’s Authorized Capital now stands at 1 billion rubles; the construction of power stations and pipelines; we oil the wheels of Siberia).

Exercise 2. Find the passive forms in the text and translate them into Russian.

Exercise 3. Does the West-Siberian Commercial Bank rely on emotions or facts to attract new customers to the Bank? Prove your point of view.

Exercise 4. Read and translate the text.

 

Text 5 – A Specimen of a Job Advertisement

 

(1) We require an experienced financial consultant/manager to work with our multinational clients in searching highly-skilled specialists for their senior financial positions. (2) The successful candidate will have experience at a senior level with the Big Six or in industry. (3) An ability to communicate effectively at board level will be required. (4) This position will suit an experienced professional who prefers a consultancy role within a team environment.

Recruitment International is a market leader in Central Europe with aggressive expansion plans in place. The opportunities for advancement within the group are excellent. Experience in executive search and selection, whilst an advantage, is not essential as full training will be given.

Please send a detailed CV to Elwyn Williams, Group Managing Director at Recruitment International (fax 0042022051, e-mail [email protected]).

(Source: Business Central Europe, No.45/1997)

 

Key Terms

a detailed CV подробное резюме

financial consultant консультант по финансовым вопросам

executive search поиск работников руководящего звена

recruitment комплектование кадрами, подбор кадров

Word Combinations

to communicate effectively at board level умение эффективно строить отношения с менеджерами высшего звена

the Big Six “большая шестерка”: шесть крупнейших фирм мира, специализирующихся в области аудита и консалтинга (Arthur Andersen & Co., Coopers & Lybrand, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG Peat Marvick, Price Waterhouse & Co.)

 

Practical Assignments

Exercise 1. Which word fits each of the following definitions?

1. advancement having to do with managing and having

authority to carry out decisions

2. professional a person doing smth. as a full-time occupation

or for payment or to make a living

3. position promotion, preferment, improvement

4. executive place where smth. or smb. is or stands,

especially in relation to others

Exercise 2. Identify all business terms used in the text and give their Russian equivalents.

Exercise 3. Find a Latin expression in the text and give its Russian equivalent.

Exercise 4. What does the verb ‘will’ mean in sentences (2), (3), (4)? Translate these sentences into Russian.

Exercise 5. Read and translate the text.

 

Text 6 – A Specimen of a Job Advertisement

 

Please be informed that many job advertisements may contain a number of abbreviations. They are usually well understood in the profession. The abbreviations are intended to save money on the advertisement. In his book R. Haigh gives a specimen of a typical job advertisement for a general commercial lawyer which reads as follows:

 

Wanted 3 yrs + PQE gen comm practitioner. Caseload to include Co.-Co. com Prop & IRP. Large city centre practice. Must have own transport. Salary neg FT position, assistant with partner potential. Apply with CV to Mr. J.M. Stokes by 13/04/04. = Wanted a general commercial practitioner with more than three years of post-qualified experience. The caseload will include company commercial, commercial property, and intellectual property rights. Large city centre practice. Salary negotiable. A full-time position for an assistant lawyer with potential to become a partner. Apply with your Curriculum Vitae to Mr. J.M. Stokes by 13 April 2004.

(Source: Haigh R. Legal English)

 







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