Дипломная работа: The online advertising and its use in the World Wide Web
The thesis focuses on the problem of implication in the discourse of commercial English advertising. In this study under implication is understood a special way of expressing information that does not receive direct verbalization and is indicated by explicit verbal and nonverbal elements – markers. The explication of implicit information is achieved through additional mental operations. Evaluations and associations in the advertising discourse fall under the category of implicit information. The investigation has proved that implication is a distinguishing feature of the advertising discourse, tracked on the discourse, lexical, grammatical and nonverbal levels. The presence of implication is conditioned by the type of discourse, its parameters, aims and tasks of its sender. The status of implication in the advertising discourse is explained by its contradictory nature. On the one hand, implication complicates and hinders the processing and decoding of information, requires additional mental efforts of addressee, and, on the other hand, encourages addressee to take a more active part in the communication. Among the factors which stipulate implication in the advertising discourse are the principle of language economy, originality and expressiveness of language forms, tendency towards colloquialization of the advertising language, strengthening of illocutionary force. It has been shown that explicit presentation of information tends to be obtrusive whereas implicit way foresees drawing the addressee into more intensive decoding of information, increases attractiveness of advertising and its effects on the addressee. The structure of the cognitive model of the advertising discourse consists of motives and inducements and can be explicit or implicit. The implication of the inducement helps sender to avoid being categorical. The discourse of advertising is characterized by complex intentions. The indication of implication is realized by different types of discourse, lexical, grammatical and nonverbal markers. The decisive role in explication of implicit information belongs to the cognitive meaning of the advertising discourse. The implicit information, which is marked by explicit verbal and nonverbal means is part of the cognitive model, evaluation component, pragmatic meaning of text and word. The representation of the cognitive model can be complete or partial, which depends on the explicit or implicit rendering of its parts. The investigation has proved that it is partial representation of the cognitive model that dominates in the discourse of commercial English advertising.[5, p.234]
The category of evaluation, obligatory in the advertising discourse, is reflected in lexis, being part of the connotative component. The evaluation, which is present in the motive of the cognitive model, implies inducement, confirming its status of the regulator of the addressee’s behaviour. The evaluation in the discourse of commercial advertising is polyreferential. Among lexical markers of implicit information are place names, particles such as only, even, finally, at last, dates, the definite article, foreign words, quotations, comparative constructions. Imperative illocutionary force in the discourse of commercial advertising is realized by various grammatical markers, which mitigate the categorical modality of the text, create an impression of the sender’s non-engagement. Among grammatical markers stands out a group of questions, which within the advertising discourse loses its primary function, acquiring the meaning of inducement. Text of advertising is a bilingual unit, in which language and paralanguage fulfill one communicative task. Implicit information is marked by nonverbal means, namely illustrations, pictorial tropes, colour, underlining, kinds and size of type. Besides its attractiveness and psychological effect, colour is a marker of implicit information, which communicates to the addressee information about products and their high quality. Among paragraphic markers of implicit information underlining is applied to the most important elements of the text. Different styles of types were registered as nonverbal markers if implicit information about products advertised in the text. [11, p.58-60]
1.3 Types of persuasion in the everyday life
Persuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding people and oneself toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means. It is a strategy of problem-solving relying on "appeals" rather than coercion. According to Aristotle, "Rhetoric is the art of discovering, in a particular case, the available means of persuasion."
Everyday we are confronted by persuasion. Food makers want us to buy their newest products, while movie studios want us to go see the latest blockbusters. Because persuasion is such a pervasive component of our lives, it is easy to overlook how we are influenced by outside sources. [27]
1.3.1 Persuasion Techniques
Due to the usefulness of influence, persuasion techniques have been studied and observed since ancient times, but social psychologists began formally studying these techniques early in the 20th-century. The goal of persuasion is to convince the target to internalize the persuasive argument and adopt this new attitude as a part of their core belief system.
These are just a few of highly effective techniques of persuasion. Other methods include the use of rewards, punishments, positive or negative expertise, moral appeal, and many others.
1. Create a Need
One method of persuasion involves creating a need or an appealing a previously exiting need. This type of persuasion appeals to a person’s fundamental needs for shelter, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization.
2. Appeal to Social Needs
Another very effective persuasive method appeals to the need to be popular, prestigious, or similar to others. Television commercials provide many example of this type of persuasion, where viewers are encouraged to purchase items so they can be like everyone else or be like a well-known or well-respected person. Television advertisements are a huge source of exposure to persuasion considering that some estimates claim that the average American watches between 1,500 to 2,000 hours of television every year.
3. Use Loaded Words and Images
Persuasion also often makes use of loaded words and images. Advertisers are well aware of the power of positive words, which is why so many advertisers utilize phrases such as "New and Improved" or "All Natural.
The examples above are just a few of the many persuasion techniques described by social psychologists. Look for examples of persuasion in your daily experience. An interesting experiment is to view a half-hour of a random television program and note every instance of persuasive advertising. The amount of persuasive techniques used in such a brief period of time can be astonishing. [30, p.10-12]
1.3.2 Methods of persuasion
Persuasion methods are also sometimes referred to as persuasion tactics or persuasion strategies.According to Robert Cialdini in his book on persuasion, he defined six "weapons of influence":
Reciprocity - People tend to return a favor. Thus, the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing and advertising. In his conferences, he often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid to Mexico just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia suffering from a crippling famine and civil war at the time. Ethiopia had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1937.
Commitment and Consistency - Once people commit to what they think is right, orally or in writing, they are more likely to honor that commitment, even if the original incentive or motivation is subsequently removed. For example, in car sales, suddenly raising the price at the last moment works because the buyer has already decided to buy. See cognitive dissonance.
Social Proof - People will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one experiment, one or more confederates would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into the sky to see what they were seeing. At one point this experiment aborted, as so many people were looking up that they stopped traffic. See confirmity, and the Asch conformity experiments.
Authority - People will tend to obey authority figures, even if they are asked to perform objectionable acts. Cialdini cites incidents, such as the Milgram experiments in the early 1960s.
Liking - People are easily persuaded by other people whom they like. Cialdini cites the marketing of Tupperware in what might now be called viral marketing. People were more likely to buy if they liked the person selling it to them. Some of the many biases favoring more attractive people are discussed, but generally more aesthetically pleasing people tend to use this influence excellently over others.
Scarcity - Perceived scarcity will generate demand. For example, saying offers are available for a "limited time only" encourages sales. Propaganda is also closely related to Persuasion. It's a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. The most effective propaganda is often completely truthful, but some propaganda presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience. The term 'propaganda' first appeared in 1622 when Pope Gregory XV established the Sacred Congregation for Propagating the Faith. Propaganda was then as now about convincing large numbers of people about the veracity of a given set of ideas. Propaganda is as old as people, politics and religion. [27]
advertisement verbal banner website
2. The characteristic features of the advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to help sell products and services. Typically it communicates a message including the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer. However, advertising does typically attempt to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [15, p.100]
Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinvention of the "brand image". For these purposes, advertisements sometimes embed their persuasive message with factual information. There are many media used to deliver these messages, including traditional media such as television, radio, cinema, magazines, newspapers, video games, the carrier bags, billboards, mail or post and Internet marketing. Today, new media such as digital signage is growing as a major new mass media. Advertising is often placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization.
Organizations that frequently spend large sums of money on advertising that sells what is not, strictly speaking, a product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations, and military recruiters. Non-profit organizations are not typical advertising clients, and may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as public service announcements.
Money spent on advertising has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2008, spending on advertising has been estimated at over $150 billion in the United States and $385 billion worldwide, and the latter to exceed $450 billion by 2010.
While advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth, it is not without social costs. Unsolicited Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become so prevalent as to have become a major nuisance to users of these services, as well as being a financial burden on internet service providers. Advertising is increasingly invading public spaces, such as schools, which some critics argue is a form of child exploitation. In addition, advertising frequently uses psychological pressure (for example, appealing to feelings of inadequacy) on the intended consumer, which may be harmful. [21, p. 355-356]
2.1 The influence of advertising
After watching a part of the movie thank you for smoking, it seemed like all that the producer cares about is that his product is sold no matter how unhealthy the product is. I think that advertising influences a lot of people. In fact, advertising does more than influence people’s taste, it controls our desires. People that watch a commercial, for example, want to look like that person in the advertisement; here is where advertising starts to influence people in a negative way. We usually see very thin models, for example, in most of the ads and commercials. This basically says that skinny is beautiful, or at least that is the message that it is sending to young girls, which is why we see so many girls with eating disorders today. It was all over the tabloids when Tyra Banks and Britney Spears didn’t look as thin as they were before. Basically those tabloids were saying that they are now ugly because they are not thin which makes young girls want to be thin. People, especially the young ones, are under a lot of pressure. They want to look "cool" and beautiful and I think that what they see in advertisement is what they sometimes want to become which is why they go out and buy that product. There is a proactive commercial where Jessica Simpson’s skin looks absolutely flawless. Girls that see that commercial want her skin so they go and buy proactive. I actually asked my cousin, she is a dermatologist and she said that it doesn’t work all the time, some people really like it some people hate it. Sometimes advertisers make false statements and hope that the people would not know better or wouldn’t want to find out and just go and buy the product. For example, the food pictures that we saw in class. In the ad they look very good but in reality they are not half as good. However, advertising could also have a positive influence on people. A commercial that talks about how bad smoking is for you, could influence people to stop smoking. Sometimes, even if people know what is good and bad for them, they don’t realize it until someone tells them what is good and what is bad. Whether you like it or not, at some point advertisements will influence you in a good or bad way, it is up to you to decide. [28, p.40-42]