A Study Of Language Of Advertisement

2.0  REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE  
In this literature review, an attempt is made to review the literature on advertisement proper and the linguistic devices used in advertising.  Advertising as an academic discipline has no generally accepted definition. Many have defined it in different ways according to the purposes of their studies. To the economist, advertising is a force affecting the allocation of resources in an industrialized economy. For the sociologist, advertising is a means of exercising social control.  
According to Bovee and Arens (1994:7) “advertising is a deliberate management process of disseminating informative and persuasive messages through a paid non personal communication by an identified sponsor to a target mass of anonymous audience or individuals”. Advertising is about communication of information on products, services, ideas by an identified sponsor through the mass media to a target audience. Thus, the goals set for advertising are communication task to reach a defined audience to a given extent and during a given time period. Advertising therefore is any form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services.  

Crystal (1995:175) states that “it is any of the various methods used by a company to increase the sales of its products or services or to promote a brand name. Advertising is also used by organizations and individuals to communicate an idea or image to recruit staff, to publicize an event or to locate an item or commodity”.  According to Nwosu (1990:289) “advertising is mass communication which is aimed at helping to sell goods, services, ideas, person and institutions or organizations. It is therefore a vital tool of promotions and marketing which are very essential for economic and broad national development”.
The above definitions point to the fact that advertising is the transfer of information about products, ideas, services and so forth, from an advertiser to the public via a medium. It is expected that once the members of the public decode the advertiser’s message, they will believe in a desired way. Advertisements are seen or heard in our bedrooms, sitting rooms, at motor parks, at market places, on the high ways, in the streets and in fact, almost everywhere. Okigbo (1990:25) says that “it has been observed that anyone living and working in any modern society today is under the influence of advertising. Everybody and for most of our lives we see and hear many advertisements”.

Rossiter (1987:4) sees advertising as “a process of relatively indirect persuasion based on information about product benefits which is designed to create favourable mental impression that turns the mind towards purchase”. Considering Rossiter’s view, the target of an advertisement is to make sales and what it is selling are the products. Hence, the success of any piece of advertisement is measured in terms of how many converts it was able to make to the product and to the sales record of the product. Ordinarily, if an advertiser uses words or expressions that are based purely on their basic dictionary meaning, there would be no effect created and the people would still see the product just as they have always seen it. There is no doubt therefore, that their feelings towards the product might remain unchanged, hence the aim of such an advertisement would be defeated.

According to Rossiter (1987) advertisement carries information about the benefits of a product. It is this information that the advertisement tries to package in emotive and meaningful expressions. It is worthy of note that  even though the advertiser uses persuasive words to convince his audience, the persuasion is not direct. Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) (2002:4) says “advertising is a form of communication through media about products, services or ideas paid for by an identified sponsor”.  Fayoyin (1994:36) claims that “advertising is calculated to move products and stimulate the use of services by consumers. It attracts attention, creates desire, inspires conviction and finally provokes action”. The thing that creates these effects on the audience is the choice of words and the skill with which the advertiser puts these words together. Advertising is viewed from different angles. It is seen as a communication process, marketing process, economic and social process, public relation process or an information and persuasion process. It is now left for an advertiser to creatively produce his advertisement and jingles bearing these processes in mind. Advertising is the dissemination of sales message through purchased time and space (Fletcher 1979:91).

A sales message is one that intends to sell, what it is selling may be a product, service, idea or cause. Whichever it is, the message tries to present a view point favourable to the product, service, idea or cause and is so understood by the target audience. The sales may simply be to imbue them with a favourable predisposition, disposition and opinion. Advertising serves to move prospects through the levels of unawareness to awareness, to comprehension, to conviction and then action.
According to Jacob (2003:113) advertising refers to the techniques and practices used to bring products, services, opinions or causes to public notice for the purpose of persuading the public to respond in a certain way toward what is advertised. Most advertising involves promoting goods which are for sale. But similar methods are used to encourage people to drive safely, to support various charities or to vote for political candidates, among many other examples. Norma (1993:148) describes advertising as a collective term for public announcement designed to promote the sale of specific commodities or services. Thus, advertising is a form of mass selling, employed when the use of direct person- to-person selling is impractical or simply inefficient.
It is to be distinguished from other activities intended to persuade the public, such as propaganda, publicity and public relations.  Shally -Jensen (2004:174) posits that advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of products, services or ideas by an identifiable individual or organization. The products advertised may be as varied as tooth paste and automobiles, and the services may range from laundries to travel agencies. The ideas advertised may involve contributing to a mental health agency, voting for a certain candidate, or going to church on Sunday. In each case, the advertisement points out qualities of the product, the services, or the idea that would make it attractive to the persons the advertiser wishes to influence.
Ranson (1997:111) says that an advertisement is a message printed in a newspaper or magazine, broadcast on radio or television, sent to individuals through the mails or disseminated in some other fashion that attempts to persuade readers or listeners to buy a particular product favour a particular organization or agree with a particular idea. It is paid for by the advertiser and may be prepared either by the advertiser or more commonly by a professional advertising agency. Law and Dixon (1970:90) consider advertising as a branch of business concerned with selling goods and services. However such simple description can cover all its activities. It is also used for recruitment purposes, for informing people of things wanted as well as things to be sold, for publicizing charities and making other announcements that are not commercial, churches, government and political parties all make use of advertising.