‘Analysing Advertisements’By Ms. Quinn

When analysing an advertisement, you must consider the following:

1. Type of Language: What kind of language do adverts use?

Informative Language : provides the target market with a lot of

information about the product or service

Emotive Language : language that appeals to our emotions or

manipulate us to feel a certain way

Persuasive Language: language that manipulates us and

persuades us that we need the product or service

Descriptive Language : contains a lot of description about the

product or service; uses a lot of adjectives

2. Repetition: words or phrases that are used repeatedly. This emphatically

reinforces the selling point.

3. Rhyme: this helps ensconces (fixes/settles) the selling point in the consumer’s

mind.

4. Glamour: the product is associated with a lifestyle of prestige, success or

beauty.

5. Superlative adjectives: features are described in the superlative to suggest

that the product is the ultimate in terms of quality e.g. ‘Fabulous’,

‘Super’, ‘Great’, ‘Fabulous’, ‘Wonderful’, ‘Exciting’, ‘Fashionable’

etc.

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‘Analysing Advertisements’By Ms. Quinn

6. Slogans: memorable short phrases often repeated in the course of an advert

to reinforce the main selling points and to familiarise the consumer

with the product.

7. Imperative verbs : verbs to used to convey a sense of urgency and exhort

the target market to buy the product or avail of the service.

8. Logos: symbols used to represent the company or organisation. They help

the target audience to become familiar with the product.

9. Colour: the colour scheme usually ties in the product or with prominent

colours in the company logo. Colours are meant used to catch the

consumer’s eye. They are meant to be eye-catching.

10.Buzz words: ‘perfect’, ‘amazing’, ‘satisfy’, ‘choice’, ‘only’, ‘new’,

‘adventurous’, ‘brilliant’, ‘super’, ‘great’, ‘fabulous’.

11.Celebrity Endorsement: this is where a celebrity is shown using the

product to encourage others to buy it. E.g. Tiger Woods wearing a Nike

cap, or Cheryl Cole and the Pantene adverts.

12.Hyperbole: exaggeration for effect. Adverts use hyperbole in order to

make their product seem good.

13.Alliteration: repetition of the first letter in every word in order to have a

catchy effect. For example, Big Bad Ben, Sizzling Sausages

14. Assonance: Repetition of vowels. Used to make a phrase catchy. For

example, high as a kite.

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‘Analysing Advertisements’By Ms. Quinn

15.The word imagery refers to the pictures used in the advert. There are

five types of imagery. These five types of images appeal to our five senses:

Visual imagery appeal to our sense of sight

Aural imagery appeal to our sense of hearing

Tactile imagery appeal to our sense of touch

Olfactory imagery appeal to our sense of smell

Gustatory imagery appeal to our sense of taste.

These techniques are used in order to do the following:

Arouses the target market’s audience curiosity To inform the target market of the product/service Entice the target market to buy the product/avail of the

service

Students must be familiar with these advertising techniques and the rationale behind why they are used!

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