ADVERTISING ENGLISH: AN ELT APPROACH

Osmania Journal of English Studies, Vol. 26, 1990.

ADVERTISING ENGLISH: AN ELT AFPROACH

T. Vinoda

If the aim of teaching literature is the study of the communica¬tive potential of the literary language and of the manner in which this potential is realised in literary language as opposed to the conventional discourse, the English teacher must adopt a stylistic approach. Very often the English teacher resorts to paraphrasing the literary text to his students in order to overcome its linguistic difficulties thereby treating it as a source of information; the focus is seldom on the uniqueness of the literary use of the language. This is probably the reason why an overwhelming majority of students who major in literature do not show sensitivity either in their use of English or in their appreciation of it. The stylistic approach to teaching literature would warrant that the English teacher first develop materials that would introduce learners to the limited low-key literary uses before launching them on the classics. With a view to sensitising students to some literary uses, this paper presents stylistic description of such uses in a few adver¬tising copies
When one thinks of it, the mode of discourse employed by the copywriter is not very dissimilar to that of the poet in some limited ways. The similarities are to be observed mostly in regard to attitudinising and persuasive techniques used by him. This paper focuses on some of these techniques taking familiar examples from the advertising copies commonly found in many commercial journals. For an English teacher faced with insensitive and indifferent students this paper has an immediate pedagogic value in that the stylistic analysis presented here helps him tune in the students to a variety of creative uses of the language.
A word of caution: most people have a patronising attitude towards the copywriter, regarding him as a failed writer. But they overlook the fact that copywriting has provided the necessary training ground to some great prose stylists like F. Scott Fitzgerald. In our times the advertising English has acquired a high degree of sophistication, worthy of attention by the most cultivated minds.
It may at first be noted that the advertising copy generally refers to the words in print or broadcast advertising, but as a comprehensive label when it is used collectively it includes the art work, illustration and the general layout besides the words in the body text. This paper, however, devotes itself to a discussion of the linguistic strategies in some advertising copies. The advertising copy might look like so much salestalk, but their persuasive and attitudinising techniques often succeed with their prospects (or else, they wouldn't be in business). And interestingly enough most of these techniques are borrowed from the literary discourse.
In selling his wares the copywriter must make his salestalk arresting and engaging. Since his survival depends on it, he will use every imaginable deviant use of the language to catch the attention of his prospects. Since literature by definition flourishes on deviant use, the copywriter makes copious use of the li1terary devices in this advertsing copy. Alliteration, assonace, concatenation, etc. are some stylistic devices we frequently come across in his copies:
a. A simple sweep and swab routine
b. Silken and super-smooth. Subtle and sophisticated
c. Shoes in subtle, startling, scintillating shades
d. The no-nonsense, no-nuisance automotive battery
e. Yours to relish, rewind, review and retain
f. Say goodbye to boring flooring
Among other stylistic devices popular with the copywriters are intensification through reiteration, doublings, intense co-ordinat¬ion, epizeuxis, couplings, etc. : a. The big, big taste of energy!
b. Yes, Asian paints has been chosen for more homes than any other paint every year, year after year since 1967.
c. For the whitest white that stays white. Nerolac Ultra White Synthetic Enamel.
d. It's not for her or her. it's for you.
e. Swissair Excursion Fare. Less is more and more and more.
f. There're so, so many Rasna flavours I'd like to try! I wish summer will just go on and on.
g. The milky milk biscuit
h. Friends get friendlier wth Fruitbits.
i. It's a battery that will bowl you over. Over and over again. j. Srnart looking walls for smart thinking people.
The principle of opposition as a stylistic device comes in handy to the copywriter to approach the more discerning urban buyer with a titillating and yet factual copy that relies on contrast for its effect. This device also helps the copywriter to put into prominence one particular quality of his product in contrast to others:
a. It's soft, but it's no softie.
b. Cool refreshing drinks on a warm summer day.
c. Tomorrow's most celebrated watch today.
d. Its a sweeter life without sugar!
e. Your executives can now fly to work. At ground level.
The preponderance of compounds, phrasal compounds, string compounds, doublings and multiple adjectives in the advertising copies explain the strange need of the copywriter to turn plain descriptive English into hyphenated hyperbole. The use of these also have the effect of precision, clarity and compactness of the ideas expressed while giving impression of several things happening simultaneously:
a. Non-remote model, full-function remote control, Zero-defect, hi-impact, anti-glare, stand-by facility.
b. The roll-out, lay-flat, stay-flat floor.
c. For that special "mummy's-made-them" taste. That special home-made taste.
d. Farm-fresh, freezer-fresh, oven-fresh and corn-on ¬the-cob-fresh.
Over the years the Indian context has produced a brand of Indian English which inescapably mixes the native words with the English. The copywriter is aware that the use of the native words in his English copy has the kind of immediacy of appeal as the use of pure English wouldn't have. Straining after such emotive effect on his prospects the copywriter has been using single loan¬words, compound words and noun phrases that are essentially loan-shifts. In this category of usage are also found blends and hybrid formations:
a. rangoli, shehnai, sindur, mehendi, bahu, pallu, odhni, pusti, dahi, lassi,. kheer,halwa, biwi.
b. shahi gulab, kool khus, kala khatta, kesar elaichi, rasgollas, gulabjamuns, dudhwala
c. amrakhand (amras+shrikhand)
d. kuchcha road, lajawab cheese, mughal cuisine
e. Musti ka Aalam-Parag zarda (though not frequent, the loan-shifts of structure words are also used by the copywriter)
The English language as it is spoken in India has developed characteristics which are totally absent in its written variety (which is still very similar to the British English). The shrewd copywriter succeeds in touching a deep chord of his prospects by presenting his copy in the new variety of spoken Indian English that is at once intimate and pleasantly recognisable by the educaed classes in India. The thermoware copy uses this strategy most endearingly:

"I agree with my biwi on everything. Well, almost. For I realised, with holidays and travel round the corner, the Hylo would be ekdum invaluable. Who wants those hazaar journey hassles? ... And yes, the Hylo is going to be an asli investment and even come in everyday use around the house ... perfect for keeping anything hot-from cofee to tea, anything cold--from juices to lassis."

Here the copywriter simulates the close-to-heart day-to-day conversational style that instinctively interpolates expressions from the native language. In other words a judicious mixture of the colloquial English with Indian words does the trick here.
The copywriter uses allusions in a way that the educated common reader is able to derive pleasure in recognising the things alluded to while drawing his attention to the product advertised. In using this strategy, however, the copywriter is careful to make it easy for the prospect to recognise the things alluded to so that he would experience a joy in reading the copy through.
a. In these "Modern Times."
I'd love to be in your shoes (Cherry Blossom ad)
This ad goes with an illustration of Charles Chaplin (lest the consumer should miss the allusion) in his characteristic shoes. Being universally known the Chaplin connection is easily estab¬lished here and the consumer, of course, would derive bonus pleasure if he has known the film, "Modern Times." By the end of the copy the consumer would have discerned the idiomatic use of "shoes" as distinct from literal referent advertised here. A copy like this would also have the effect of flattering the consumer's intelligence and doing the work for the copywriter.
Similarly another copy alludes to the most familiar Keats line with "A thing of beauty is convenience forever." Yet another copy recalls Aldous Huxley's book with "At the touch of a key, a brave new world opens out before your child." Other copywriters seek to capture the imagination of their prospects by using idioms not in their idiomatic sense but in their composite literal sense.
a. How does the underworld keep its cool and confidence (Anukool underwears)
b. We have got the whole world at your feet (North Star Shoes)
c. Some gifts are closest to the heart (Bridalform bra)
d. You have got to begin at the bottom ... and work your way up (Focus Exclusive socks).
This kind of usage is unendingly fascinating and amusing and in the process the reader can not but take note of the product adver¬tised.
Instances of metaphoric use of English are also not infrequent in advertising copies, especially in those that aim at the well¬-informed, well-educated prospects:
a. Drape your walls with Luxol Silk.
b. You won't find it difficult to lose your heart to this bath tub.
c. For Nerolac, it is the way to ensure that the Indian paint industry remains in the pink of health.
The subtle play with words and phrases observed here extends to the interesting use of puns, coinages, repetitions, phonic equi¬valence and parallel syntactic structures:
a. So when you stand in Elpar Picanova, you stand out.
b. You won't have to tear your hair over balding non-sticking pans any longer.
c. Royal House Cushion Vinyl Flooring is "all designed to leave you floored! Designed to take the floor!"
d. Each and every Eagle product goes through a tough work¬out under our Eagle eyed quality controllers.
e. If your soul is in fittness, this should be perfect fit (Power Jogger ad).
f. The body and sole of fitness (Power Jogger ad).
g. All in all there should be no room for doubt about a Dyanora. Certainly not in your living room.
h. Wall tiles on the other leg, sorry, hand, serve a more decorative function.
i. Gap shirts to fill the fashion gap.
The copy of the Flying Machine Jeans tries being innovative and "ori 'jean' al" and reads thus:

"With their hip hep. For whoever wears the pants in the family. And now a wearever, whenever range of things to wear at the waist. Enter the Flying Machine age. Whatever your age."

Each of these examples succeeds by employ¬ing one or the other stylistic device that stops us in our tracks and makes us all mull over it with relish. In the process, of course, the copywriter manages to draw attention to the product as well.
At times the copywriter achieves the desired effect through a violent distortion of language in much the same way as the literary use does. For instance, one copywriter expresses one type of sensory perception in terms of another ( 'crisp colours"), another employs deviation in morphology ("cushionability), or gives human attributes to a nonhuman referent, or uses unexpected lexical collocations. However the advertising copy, unlike literary writing depends rather heavily on the technique of startling the reader into a state of alertness to its verbal pyrotechniques. These techniques appear rather pronounced, concentrated and even loud in the advertising copy because of its small canvas. Further, the self-conscious, continual efforts of the copywriter to be strikingly original in his use of language put the stylistic devices in bold perspective. Crude as it may appear to be, this quality of the advertising copy lends it pedagogic value for the English teacher.
Also noteworthy is the fact that for the copywriter what deter¬mines the use of one or the other stylistic device is the target group he is addressing. If it is children that he levels with, he would use vocabulary that appeals to them ("moo-cow"); he would use fancy spelling (frooti zing lime 'n lemon flavour, 3 lip lickin' flavours, Limca veri veri lime 'n lemon, etc.) or use figures from comic books (like the superhero, superman) that have caught their imagination. In addressing the youth or adolecents the advertising copy of the Novino batteries, for instance, would describe its superior performance in sports register, taking the jargon from cricket for obvious reasons. Use of the sports register at the beginning of the copy is only a come-on to the cricket-mad transister user but once he begins to read the copy something else crops up half-way and the absorbed reader ends up by being impressed with the sincerity of the Novino salesman:

With Novino, quality isn't a string of empty overworked phrases. Like longer life. More power. Better leak resistance. Novino quality is something you see or hear.

The copywriter protests to using salestalk here while assuring the prospect that his own eyes and ears will be a witness to the superior quality of Novino batteries. In the process he produces the effect of affirming those very qualities ("longer life, '" more power" "leak- resistance") which he did not want to appear to be pushing through. The preemptive strategy implicit here prevents the consumer from dismissing it as so much salestalk while making for an irnpression of sincerity, trustworthiness and authenticity.
Another interesting stylistic feature that the copywriter often uses is to orchestrate the syntactical and graphological sentences. This he does to give his style pep and vigour. The syntactic and graphological sentences, however, coexist in different permutations and combinations in the various advertising copies. The effect of this use is, of course, to ensure easy and clear absorption by the consumer the impressive attributes of the product item by item, even as it contributes to a smart style of the copy. The advertising copy of Boroline, for instance, makes use of this strategy:
Skin that is lively even after
the razor has taken its daily toll.
Skin that can stand the nicks
of the sharpest blade.
Skin that stays fresh and
protected--With Boroline.
Boraline fights and cures
infection in cuts, pimples,
rashes and dry skin.
Its antiseptic action protects your skin.
The copy combines the first four graphological sentences with the two syntactic sentences that follow. Out of the first four grapholo¬gical sentences, the first three are relative clauses, while the fourth one is a prepositional phrase; What would have been a single syntactic sentence is broken here into four graphological sentences. The copywriter uses here short, graphic units with heavy punctuation. This style of punctuation is abnormally emphatic in that it disjoins by full-stops (the 'heaviest' punctuation mark) constrcutions which syntactically are parts of the same sentence. The punctuation itself has an important stylistic role in that it is used to emphasize the autonomy of each piece of information given here.
The two-word graphological sentence, "With Boroline," coming after the three relatively long sentences, in fact, provides the "end-focus" in part one of this copy. By making the brief fourth sentence stand out at the end, the copywriter lets emphasis fall where he wants it to. The copywriter would have weakened the emphasis on "With Borolirie" if he had combined it with the third graphological sentence. Also contributing to the emphasis here is the pattern variation. Further, the segmentation by interacting with salience helps the copywriter put the product into prominence here. These various stylistic devices make the copy an excellent example of convergence. The device of anaphora by its iterative mode also helps highlight the skin care here.
The two syntactic sentences of the second part of the copy in a way release the anticipatory tension of the first part. The two declarative sentences start with "Boroline " and "Its antiseptic action" in subject position and this naturally shifts the focus for a briefer spell (than that of the first part) from the consumer benefit to the product publicity. Structurally the last two sentences also intro¬duce elements of informality, easiness and relaxation. The use of "doublings' ("fights and cures") and of concatenati on "cuts, pimples, rashes and dry skin" in the last two sentences also contributes to reader-interest both from the point of view of stylistic virtuosity and from the product's usefulness. Further, the declarative mood of the last sentences finally underscores, with disarming honesty and candidness, the theme of skin-care that the first part of the copy has emphasized. Also the copy distributes the emphasis in such a way that consumer's interest is sustained all through in terms of style and content. A copy like this takes in a whole range of writing skills such as conciseness, clarity, purpose and above all the ability to give character and personality to the prose. We find many of the same stylistic devices in such great prose stylists as Dickens and Lawrence. While these masters abound in such stylistic devices, an example, each from these writers is given here if only to draw parallels as far as the devices discussed are concerned. In Lawrence's passage given below, for instance, we find the same emphatic, style as the Boroline copy does:

The renegade hates life itself. He wants the
death of life. So these many, reformers and
idealists who glorify the savaqes in America.
They are death-birds, life-haters, Renegades.

We can't go back. And Melville couldn't. Much
as he hated the civilized humanity he knew. He
couldn't go back to the savages. He wanted to.
He tried to. And he couldn't.

Because, in the first place, it made him sick.
(Studies in Classic American Literature. New York edn. 1955, p.149).

This passage too combines the syntactic with graphological sentences much to the same effect as does the Boroline copy.

Also presented below is a passage from Dickens Hard Times to illustrate how it uses convergence as a stylistic device, including in it anaphora, epizeuxis, irony, paradox, quasi-similes, hyperboles, collocational clashes etc.
A man made out of a coarse material. which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him. A man with a great puffed head and forehead, swelled veins in his temples and such strained skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes open, and lift his eyebrows up. A man with a pervading appearance on him of being inflated like a balloon and ready to start. A man who could never sufficiently vaunt himself a self-made man. A man who was always proclaimed through that brassy speaking trumpet of a voice of his, his old ignorance and his old poverty. A man who was the bully of humility. (Hard Times, Part I, Ch. 4)

These writers, however, use the various stylistic devices discussed in this paper towards ends other than those of the copywriter.