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Advertising reaches people through varied types of mass communication. In everyday life, people come into contact with many different kinds of advertising. Printed ads are found in newspapers and magazines. Poster ads are laced in buses, undergrounds and trains. Advertising is a multimillion dollar industry and in many businesses sales volume depends on the amount of advertising done. In order to make my analysis, I have chosen Colgate toothpaste advertisements. They are part of different marketing campaigns that have appeared in the last years all around the world.
The corpus that have selected is made up by two clear groups: ads which include a text and image, ND ads which only include image. To analyze them, I will follow a multimedia approach for the first group and the perspective of cognitive semantics for the second group. 1. Brief information about Colgate. Colgate is a brand of dental hygiene products manufactured by Colgate- Palmolive, an American corporation which produces numerous household, health care and personal products. The Colgate brand carries toothpastes, mouthwashes, whitening kits, and other dental hygiene products.
The creation of the toothpaste goes back to 1 873 and at the beginning it was sold as an aromatic cream in jars. The increasing success of the product led to greater production and new innovations in packaging, and also increased advertising and marketing, both nationally and internationally. Colgate has long been the undisputed champion in the global market, the n. L toothpaste brand worldwide with market leadership in more than 170 countries and global sales of around $billion. The IIS remained its weak spot, the only significant market where it was forced to put up the n. Place (Crest is the leader of the sector). Colgate has advertised its products through numerous advertising campaigns targeting children as well as adults. An advertising company for Colgate toothpaste from the 1 sass used the slogan “It cleans your breath while it cleans you teeth”. From the ass’s onwards, the slogan was “The Colgate ring of confidence”. Moreover, Colgate also has a toothpaste and toothbrush mascot for children entertainment, “Doctor Rabbit”, which has been used in three tapes that teach about dental health and advertise toothpaste.
The use of language and images cannot be excluded from factors that cause the success or failure of any advertisement. Advertisers exploit language and visual images to attain their objectives. There is certain liberty to breach the rules of grammar plus using unfamiliar visuals in order to catch the attention of the viewer. This often causes interpretation difficulties and because of that, the advertisers need to ensure that the choice of the visual images must be easily comprehended by the viewer of the advertisement. C]Analysis 1 њ Concerning the verbal message we can distinguish: 1 .
The headline: “This child could grow up never knowing a cavity in her lifetime” It appears on the top, printed in bold type in order to attract the reader’s attention and interest. 2. The body copy: “And Colgate can help her o it. Only Colgate contains two mineral-building fluorides. Together they provide better Colgate cavity protection than even before. If your children visit their dentist twice a year and brush properly with Colgate everyday they could actually grow up never knowing a cavity in her lifetime” The language is simple, direct and connotative. It works as anchorage of the headline and the image.
By “anchorage” we mean that the text serves to focus on one of the multiple meanings that the image could have (the image could be used for a sun cream, for example). 3. The slogan: “Working with you for a cavity-free enervation” It is placed at the bottom near the image of the product. There are some stylistic features that we have to highlight: Use of initial capitalization (both in the heading and in the slogan): “This Child Could Grow Up Never Knowing A Cavity In Her Lifetime’ “Working With You For A Cavity- Free Generation” use of third person addressee: in her lifetime. “… Their dentist… ” ” . They could actually grow up… ” Use of unqualified comparison: they provide better Colgate cavity… ” Use of extreme words: “never”, “ever before”, “everyday” Referring to the lexical features it is important to mention: use of simple adjectives: “better Use of phrasal verbs: “grow up” Use of compounds: “mineral-building fluorides”, “cavity-free generation” The chosen sentences are descriptive (“…
Colgate contains two mineral-building fluorides”), and there is a conditional sentence too (“If your children visit their dentist јice a year and brush properly with Colgate everyday they could actually grow up never knowing a cavity in her lifetime”) Some of the rhetorical aspects that we can find in the advertisement are personification (“… Colgate can help… ” ) and repetition (“… Grow up never knowing a cavity in ere lifetime”- repeated both in the heading and in the text). Among the functions of the ad we can mention the one of informing and warning.
The aim of the image is primarily to get the audience attention. In this case we have the photo of a little girl wearing a sunhat and a dress. The background is white and the dress is white too. If we put together the image and the text we can see that the ad is not oriented to children but to parents. The chosen image is an appeal to some values such as protection of the weak ones (in this case the sunhat is a clear symbol) and happiness (the girl appears smiling cause she doses t have cavity problems). 0 ad 1 ad 2 ad 3 These three advertisements contain a similar structure and I’m going to analyze them following a multiplicity perspective. Concerning the verbal message we can see that the three ads have: 1) The headline: Written in bold and bigger font type to attract the readers attention Ad 1 : “Mesmerism with the brightest smile” (Placed in the middle down part) Ad 2: “Be the centre of attraction with a perfect smile” (Placed in the top part) Ad 3: “Be the star wherever you go” (Placed in the top part) 2) The body copy: “Its not all about the dressing and make up.
Your teeth play a big part in a glowing smile. With Colgate toothpaste, you can rest assure that you will get the results that you desire, the brightest smile for your dinner date (ODL) / the perfect smile for your perfect date (Ads 2 and 3}’ To entice the reader, the first sentence is like a headline (“It’s not all about the dressing and make up”). It makes the customer feel interested about the product. The rest of the text is written in a descriptive fashion (It’s like a story with a happy ending).
As it happened in the previous analysis the language is simple and direct, serving s anchorage of the headline and the image. 3) The slogan: None of the three advertisements contain a slogan. They just have the Colgate icon placed at the bottom right of the image. There are some stylistic features that we have to highlight: Use of second person addressee ” your teeth… ” You can rest.. ” “… Your perfect date. ” Use of imperative sentences: Ad 1: “Mesmerism with the brightest smile” Ad 2: “Be the centre of attraction with a perfect smile” Ad 3: “Be the star wherever you go” Use of simple tenses: “… Our teeth play a big part… ” “… You can rest assure… ” ” you will get the results… Use of the active voice Referring to the lexical features, it is important to mention Use of simple adjectives: “perfect”, “big”, “brightest” The chosen sentences are descriptive (“Your teeth play a big part in a glowing smile”), imperatives (“Be the star wherever you go”) and burblers ( “… The brightest smile for your dinner date”). Some of the rhetorical aspects that we can find in the advertisement are: Repetition: “… Refers smile for your perfect date” Hyperbole: “Be the star wherever you go”, “Mesmerism with the brightest smile” The aim of the image is to catch our attention and in order to do so hey use an unreal shining smile. The three chosen images are very similar: they all share the same characters and the same protagonists but in three different situations. In the first image the main couple seems to be having dinner in a restaurant. In the second picture they are having a walk and in the last one they are dancing at a party.
In the three images we can see that only the girl who uses Colgate is smiling, while the rest of the people are looking at her because of her “glowing smile”. Some of the values that we can find in these ads are sensuality and self confidence. Canonicals This advertisement belongs to a campaign by Colgate launched in 2009. Concerning the verbal message we can see that the advertising has: 1) The headline: “Strength starts with healthy foundations” It is written in capital letters to attract the readers attention. It appears below the first image and serves as a kind of introduction of the product. ) The body copy: “Much like healthy soil is essential to supporting a healthy tree, healthy gums are the foundation for healthy teeth. That’s why Colgate Total’s superior protection goes beyond teeth. It’s the only tooth paste clinically proven to protect not only your teeth but also your gums from bacterial plaque for a full 12 HOURS” The language is simple, direct and connotative, working as an anchorage of the headline of the headline and the two pictures (the tree and the tooth). It appears at the bottom part Of the image with a red background (color retreated to Colgate brand) 3) The slogan: “Superior protection for teeth and gums”.
It is placed below the second image written in capital letters. There are some stylistic features that we have to highlight: Full use of capitalization (both in the headline and in the slogan): “Strength starts with healthy foundations” Superior protection for teeth and gums” Use of second person addressee: “… Your teeth but also your gums” use of unqualified comparison: “That’s why Colgate Total’s superior protection goes beyond teeth” Use of simple adjectives: “healthy”, “superior” Use of simple present tense.
Use of metaphors: foundations for healthy teeth” Simile: “Much like healthy soil is essential to supporting a healthy tree, healthy gums are the foundation for healthy teeth”. The chosen sentences are descriptive (“Much like healthy soil is essential to supporting a healthy tree, healthy gums are the foundation for healthy teeth”) Some of the rhetorical aspects that we can find in the advertisement are personification (“… Colgate Total’s superior protection goes beyond teeth”), and repetition (“healthy soil”, “healthy tree”, “healthy teeth”).
Among the functions of the ad it is important to highlight the one of informing about the importance of having healthy gums. In order to do so, the advertiser creates a relation about the importance that roots and soil have for the life of a tree and the role of gums for a healthy tooth. The chosen images appeal to some values such as strength, stability and healthy. 3. Part Two: Cognitive semantics urge number of metaphors are created in order to denote a special positive value or to suggest various meaning associations which are basically positive.
Advertisers achieve their goals by emphasizing certain values through the manipulation of language. Metaphor has been portrayed as an expression which describes a person or an object in a literary way”. This traditional way of defining metaphors has been used for centuries, but it has been modified when Alaska & Johnson introduces a different approach to understanding and categorizing metaphors with their theory of “conceptual metaphor”. According to Alaska and Johnson, conceptual metaphors penetrate our understanding of the world around us.
Metaphors are present in everyday speech, in every language and are culture specific. This perspective maintains that one conceptual domain is comprehended via another conceptual domain, and it is expressed as: DOMAIN A DOMAIN B Source domain Target domain (abstract) (concrete) In order to analyze the advertisements, I will focus on the following cognitive elements: a) Structural metaphors. They make use of the structure of the source domain to enable the speaker to understand the target. B) Orientation metaphors.
These metaphors do not structure one concept in terms of another, but instead organize a whole system of concepts with respect to the other. Most of them have to do with spatial orientation. C) Metonymy. This has to do with the substitution of the name on one thing for that of another. This substituted name may be an attribute of that other thing or be closely associated with it. D) Image schemas. They are recurring structures within our cognitive processes which establish patterns of understanding and reasoning. They are formed by Our bodily interaction, from linguistic experience and from historical context.