LANGUAGE AND POWER Advertising and the Media
ANALYSING AN ADVERT
What features do you expect to find in an Advert?
Brainstorm in pairs
ANALYSING AN ADVERT A necdotes F acts O pinions R hetorical questions E motive language S tatistics T riplets
Alliteration is missing – this is usually a very important feature of advertising.
ANALYSING AN ADVERT PAF = Purpose, Audience & Form Who would read this advert? Who will be put off by this advert? What do you expect to see in the advert? What is missing from that list? What do they use? How do they work? How does the language exert power and influence?
Sample exam question
“How does the language of the text attempt to influence its audience?”
BRITISH CODE OF ADVERTISING PRACTICE
All advertisements should be legal, decent, honest and truthful. The Code’s rules on truthful presentation place no constraint upon the free expression of opinion, including subjective assessments of the quality or desirability of products, provided always that:
It is clear what is being expressed is opinion No marketing communication should mislead, or be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise.
No advertisement should cause the children to believe that they will be inferior to other children, or unpopular with them, if they do not buy a particular product, or have it bought for them.
IDEOLOGY OF ADVERTISING Building Relations Building Images Building the Consumer
INTERPRETING ADVERTS Relies on a relationship between the advertiser and the audience Difference between the implied and the interpreted Therefore a presupposition of the audience exists Use of an advertising lexicon Different advertising spaces