U N I T module 1 3 ADVERTISING LANGUAGE FEATURES This Unit is about the characteristics of the advertising language and how an advertising text deals with a wide range of subject matters but also conforms to a number of stylistic and lexico-grammatical patterns. A. ADVERTISING TEXTS An advertisement is designed mainly to attract your attention, not to make you learn something. Indeed some products are advertised with zero wording. Some of the most successful advertising slogans are the result of many hours of creative endeavour. The professionals in charge of writing ads are called copywriters. They are very aware of how communication works and manipulate language to create devices which produce catchy slogans. The quality paper The Independent on Sunday considers advertising text sufficiently interesting to run a weekly column reviewing the best ads . While the message may be simple, it is likely to contain, for example, some forms of mnemonic pattern provided by phonological equivalences, such as alliteration, onomatopoeia or striking repetition. Alliteration is the use of the same sound at the beginning of several words that are close together. Onomatopoeia is a term used to evoke with words sounds that are similar to the noises that the words try to reproduce, such as arf, arf. The importance of rhetorical figures in advertising such as hyperbole (used especially in compounds with prefixes such as ultra, super), metaphor, simile, idiom, metomym, pun, as well as the already mentioned alliteration is obvious by analysing any ads you look at. Read the following examples: 1. Guinness is good for you. 2. The United Colours of Benetton. 3. Bavaria. Out of the blue. 4. La più amata dagli italiani. GLOSSARY aware, awareness: consapevole, consapevolezza catchy: orecchiabile clause: frase, proposizione copywriter: copywriter (chi scrive tutti i testi e gli slogan) device: accorgimento, stratagemma endeavour: impegno to exploit: sfruttare 30 hyperbole: iperbole, esagerazione idiom: espressione idiomatica in charge: responsabile likely: probabile metaphor: metafora metomym: metonimia phrase: espressione professional: professionista pun: gioco di parole (ossia un espressione con più significati) quality paper: giornale di qualità, quotidiano autorevole simile: similitudine shared: condiviso striking: suggestivo, sensazionale stretch: serie suddenly: improvvisamente widespread: diffuso