a study on mataphorical expressions in english advertising slogans from the semantic approach = nghiên cứu các biểu thức ẩn dụ sử dụng trong các khẩu hiệu quảng cáo bằng tiếng anh từ phương diện ngữ dụng học

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURES Figure 1: A model of interpersonal verbal communication Roman Jakobson, 1960 Figure 2: Vaseline Intensive Care Blend Figure 3: Red Bull Blend Figure 4:

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

NGUYỄN THỊ CHI MAI

A STUDY ON METAPHORICAL EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH ADVERTISING SLOGANS FROM THE SEMANTIC APPROACH

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC BIỂU THỨC ẨN DỤ SỬ DỤNG

TRONG CÁC KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO BẰNG TIẾNG ANH TỪ

PHƯƠNG DIỆN NGỮ DỤNG HỌC)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

HANOI – 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

NGUYỄN THỊ CHI MAI

A STUDY ON METAPHORICAL EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH ADVERTISING SLOGANS FROM THE SEMANTIC APPROACH

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC BIỂU THỨC ẨN DỤ SỬ DỤNG TRONG CÁC KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO BẰNG TIẾNG ANH TỪ PHƯƠNG DIỆN NGỮ DỤNG

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

FIGURES

Figure 1: A model of interpersonal verbal communication (Roman Jakobson, 1960)

Figure 2: Vaseline Intensive Care Blend

Figure 3: Red Bull Blend

Figure 4: Lexus Blend

Figure 5: Citi Bank Blend

TABLES

Table 1: The calculated frequency of advertising slogans in each metaphor type

Table 2: The general frequency of each metaphor type in the whole forty slogans of four groups Table 3: The frequency of each sub-types of Conceptual Metaphor in each group

Table 4: The analysis of target domain, source domain and metaphor concepts in 11 slogans of new and mixed conventional metaphors

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 2

2 Research questions and aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Research methodology 3

5 Design of the study 4

CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: METAPHORS AND THE USE OF METAPHORS IN ADVERTISING 5

1 Definitions of metaphor and promotional metaphor 5

2 Kinds of metaphors 6

3 Previous studies on Metaphor in Advertising 9

CHAPTER II AN ANALYSIS ON METAPHOR EXPLOITATION IN ADVERTISING SLOGANS 14

1 Advertising slogan: A crucial part of an advertisement 14

2 The exploitation of metaphors in advertising slogans 16

3 Hypotheses 18

4 Procedures 19

5 The analysis 21

CHAPTER III RESULTS AND FINDINGS 27

1 The result 27

2 Discussion and findings 30

3 Conclusion 33

CHAPTER IV SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 35

INTRODUCTION

“Advertising, your right to choose!”

American Advertising Association-CNN

Despite the best-seller position of “The fall of advertising, the rise of PR” (Alries Rises & Laura Rises), advertising has been remaining an integral part in the global economy As an old slogan has put it, “Advertising, your right to choose!” advertising has been always considered as one of the most crucial tools in any marketing campaign Advertising, through the process of informing customers, spreading and enhancing brand awareness, helps offer consumers a freedom of choice for various products To fulfill these tasks, advertising needs the exploitation of language as the foundation to realize all creative ideas In fact, advertising‟s linguistic creativity is most effectively expressed through advertising slogans, where its functions of spreading information and enhancing brand awareness are well semantically served The number of linguistic devices exploited in advertising slogans has been truly increasing owing to the marketers‟ preference to convey their product messages in an implicit, rather than explicit way

"I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid's stuck on me." (Band-Aid bandages)

"You like it It likes you."

(Seven-Up soft drink)

In this implicit way of expressing ideas, the slogans‟ messages become more impressive and persuasive It really helps marketers assert their comparative advantages in comparison with both

their direct competitors and new entrants in the industry Among of different linguistic features namely simile, metaphor, chiasmus, implicature or even presupposition, metaphor is preferably used owing to its ability of generating belief, and enhancing products‟ and services‟ images from Semantics perspective Yet, quite little research on marketing literature and linguistic appliance has discussed about the nature and effectiveness of metaphors in advertising in general and in slogans in particular This study, hence, is carried out to discuss the effectiveness of metaphor in English advertising slogans and its comprehension in promotional context

1 Rationale

Advertising slogans have proven their importance in both generating sales volume and creating a great impression on customers‟ mind In any companies-whether they are of small, or medium size, and any industries-service or trade, advertising slogans turns out to be the very first thing to add further values to the products

To create an understandable, meaningful and useful slogan, the exploitation of most fields in language is involved These include pragmatics, lexicology, phonology, syntax and so on The linguistic features help transmit the message in an implicit way, avoiding the violation of the Law of Truth

Based on the acknowledgement of all linguistic devices exploited in slogans, the study is conducted to investigate the employment of metaphors in advertising slogans from a Semantic approach

2 Research questions and aims of the study

2.1 Research questions

Dealing with the study of different kinds of metaphor, the researcher has established several research questions to ensure the orientation of the roadmap In fact, based on the business context, studying advertising slogans requires quite specific research questions as well as clear study aims With the foundation of all the literature review studied and the samples collected, three research questions have been established:

1 What kind of metaphor represents the most frequently chosen by advertisers and marketers?

2 What are the strengths (or weaknesses, if any) of each kind of metaphor exploited in advertising slogans?

3 What kind of metaphor represents the wisest choice for the slogans in specific classified groups?

2.2 Aims of the study

The study deals with the employment of different metaphor types based on Lakeoff and Johnson‟s theory (1980) In this work, a classification of metaphors is presented, and then is applied in the study of a collection of 40 advertising slogans from English-speaking countries or global brands To find out the answer for the research questions proposed, the study specifically aims at:

(i) quantitatively identifying the frequency of different metaphor types exploited in slogans to find out which kind is most favored by advertisers and marketers

(ii) investigating the target domain, source domain and metaphor concepts in each slogans to discover the strengths (or weaknesses, if any) of each metaphor type when applied in advertising (iii) placing the analysis of each metaphorical slogan in its group context to see which type represent the smartest choice for each classification of products

3 Scope of the study

In this study, the analysis is (i) a semantic analysis which bases itself on a semantic approach and Lakeoff and Johnson‟s theory of metaphors and (ii) a hypothesis-testing analysis on each type of metaphors used in international advertising slogans For this reason, the study primarily deals with researching matters from a semantic approach Furthermore, since the study takes hypothesis testing as one of the two main methods, it is somehow deductive and subjective Nevertheless, all the predictions and inferences are made based on the theory and previous studies of linguistics and advertising

As the exploitation of linguistic features in advertising slogans is quite huge and diversified, and the number of slogans has been increasing year after year, the analysis is supposed to be selective rather than comprehensive in three senses: (i) only four groups of products and services are chosen, (ii) only 10 slogans of each group are selected as typical samples and (iii) in each group, just some cases are picked up for a further in-depth study

4 Research methodology

The research is based on the combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods The choice originates from the fact that the use of quantitative method helps us to build up a general

picture over all the selected cases and the exploitation of qualitative analysis allows us to painstakingly research each specific case Hence, a quantification to synthesize all metaphor patterns in each case In fact, it really helps us to fulfill the task of defining frequencies of each type of metaphor in use

After using quantification and classification to identify the frequencies and divide selected slogans into groups of types and sub-types, three predictions would be made and proven later based on the result of the classification

5 Design of the study

Apart from the Introduction and Conclusion to begin and conclude the study, the thesis comprises three chapters, each of which is supposed to serve a specific function

The Introduction serves as an explanation for the reason why the study is conducted, and worth being carried out In addition, the thesis also states the aims and objectives of the study, as well

as the research questions and the scope of the study, which are considered as a significant roadmap for the research

Chapter one will begin by stating the definition of metaphors and promotional metaphor In addition, the typical classification of metaphors by Lakeoff and Johnson is asserted as a theory base for the specific classification of metaphor types exploited in 40 selected slogans This chapter also reflects different previous studies on advertising and advertisements, in which the linguistic devices receive the greatest attention

Chapter two centers on the slogans‟ significance to advertising and to the producers‟ reputation Also, in this chapter, an analysis of 40 slogans selected from four fields is conducted As it is carried out in the form of a hypothesis-testing research, some predictions are proposed beforehand and latter on, are proved through the classification

Finally, chapter three presents all the results and findings, which have been proved and obtained from the analysis conducted in chapter two This chapter plays the role of a harvest for all what have been achieved

The last part Conclusion provides a full summary of all what have been gained through the study and suggest some prospects for future researches The study is covered by a list of advertising slogans that are selected for study and a table analyzing the target domain, source domain and typical metaphor concepts of conceptual/conventional metaphor-the type of the most frequent use

CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: METAPHORS AND THE USE OF METAPHORS IN ADVERTISING

1 Definitions of metaphor and promotional metaphor

Metaphor expressions abound in most aspects of life: in daily conversations, in literature, and even in other fields In fact, according to Lakeoff and Johnson, “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action.” (1980:3) Owing to its mass appearance in different fields, the study of metaphor has long been of great interest to other disciplines These prominently include philosophy (for a review of historical and recent perspectives see Johnson 1981), psychology (for reviews see Billow 1977, Ortony 1979), or linguistics (e.g., see Lakeoff and Johnson 1980)

In general, metaphor is a figure of speech concisely expressed by an implied analogy between two objects or ideas, conveyed by the use of a word instead of another Or, stated in a “working definition”, metaphor in Murray Knowles and Rosamund Moon‟s eyes is viewed as “the use of language to refer to something other than what it was originally applied to, or what it „literally‟ means, in order to suggest some resemblance or make a connection between the two things” Usually, three components are included in a metaphor: the tenor (or object), the vehicle (or image), and the ground (or sense) Let‟s analyze the following example to further understand how these components work In accordance with I A Richards‟example, these components are more clearly understood:

All the world‟s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances; — William Shakespeare, As You Like It

In this metaphoric example, "the world" is compared to a stage, describing it with the attributes

of “the stage”; hence, "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle; "men and women" is

a secondary tenor, "players" is the secondary vehicle In George Herbet‟s poetic sentence: “Hope

is the poor man's bread.”, “hope” is the tenor, “bread” is the vehicle and the ground is “the necessity of poor man”

As a socio-economic facet, advertising also exploits this figure of speech to the full for its purpose of informing and persuading customers in the process of selecting products In fact, this

is quite understandable since the "Truth in advertising" laws make it highly desirable for advertisers to avoid making explicit statements that could be judged true or false; therefore

metaphors (and apparently other devices) are chosen to convey the manufacturers‟ messages In advertising, promotional metaphor is divided into visual metaphor (or pictorial metaphor) and textual metaphor In advertising, the latter, which is also my study‟s focus, in

semantic domain which has positive connotations.”

“Conceptual metaphors may be culture-specific”

In the 1980 edition of Metaphors we Live by, Lakoff and Johnson identify three categories of conceptual metaphors: ontological, structural and orientational Belonging to the structural metaphors group, ontological metaphor is perceived as a metaphor in which “an abstraction, such

as an activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as something concrete, such as an object, substance, container, or person” such as in:

I put a lot of energy into washing the windows

I get a lot of satisfaction out of washing windows

In a detailed manner, this metaphor is further classified into container metaphor, where one concept is represented as having an inside and outside, and capable of holding something else and entity metaphor, in which an abstraction is represented as a concrete physical object, or maybe a person (personification) Another kind of ontological metaphor is substance metaphor via the use of which, an abstract entity such as idea, emotion, event or activity is represented as a solid material As seen in the following examples from “Metaphor we live by”, three kinds of ontological metaphors are quite clearly illustrated:

Life is empty for him (container metaphor)

Her ego is very fragile (entity metaphor)

Inflation is eating up our profits (personification)

There was a lot of good running in the race (substance metaphor)

As stated, structural metaphors, in their view, are considered as “cases where one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another” Structural metaphors allow us to do much more than just orient concepts, refer to them, quantify them, etc., as we do with simple orientational and onto-logical metaphors; they allow us, in addition, to use one highly structured and clearly delineated concept to structure another This metaphor allows us to conceptualize what a rational argument is in terms of something that we understand more readily, namely, physical conflict In fact, as Lakoff and Johnson analyzed, “The point here is that not only our conception of an argument but the way we carry it out is grounded in our knowledge and experience of physical combat Even if you have never fought a fistfight in you life, much less a war, but have been arguing from the time you began to talk, you still conceive of arguments, and execute them, according to the ARGUMENT IS WAR metaphor because the metaphor is built into the conceptual system of the culture in which you live.” There is also another kind-orientational metaphor which “organizes a whole system of concepts with respect to one another” since “most

of them have to do with spatial orientation: up-down, in-out, front-back, on-off, deep-shallow, central-peripheral” Orientational metaphors give a concept a spatial orientation; as in “Happy is up”

2.2 Mixed metaphors

Mixed metaphors can be understood as different metaphors occurring in the same utterance, or the same sentence, to express the same concept Mixed metaphors is divided into impermissible mixed metaphor-metaphors that conflict because they serve different purposes and permissible mixed metaphor which not conflict with each other because they serve the same purpose, and/or exhibit a correlation with each other This classification may have sprung from the possibility to lead to a conflict of concepts In the following sentences a mixture of the argument-as-journey and argument-as-container metaphors is presented The first two sentences are acceptable; however, the last two are marginally acceptable

1 At this point our argument doesn‟t have much content

2 If we keep going the way we‟re going, we‟ll fit all the facts in

3 We can now follow the path of the core of the argument

4 The content of the argument proceeds as follows…

Here we can see the argument-as-container metaphor is decisively presented in the first two examples, however in the following illustrations there exist an overlap between the argument-as-container metaphor “the core of the argument”, “the content of the argument” and the argument-as-journey metaphor-“the path of…” or “proceed”

2.3 New metaphors

Not all metaphors belong to the existing concepts; some are outside the conventional conceptual system, that‟s why new metaphors are perceived as “imaginative and creative” In Lakeoff and Johnson‟s affirmation, “such metaphors are capable of giving a new understanding of experience Thus, they can give new meaning to our pasts, to our daily activity, and to what we know and believe.” The creation of novel and unconventional metaphors requires the employment of some devices, including extending, elaboration, questioning and combining (Kovecses 2002: 47) However, in terms of the frequency and favoritism towards new metaphors‟ sub-types exploited in advertising slogans, the thesis just mentions extended new metaphor and elaborated new metaphor

2.3.1 Extending

The employment of extending is recognized when a new conceptual element is introduced in the source domain to an already existing conventional metaphor and the ordinary conceptual metaphor is expressed with new metaphorical expression The examples stated by Kovecses (2002:47) can illustrate this tactic

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference

It is not very difficult to acknowledge the conventional metaphor “Life is a Journey” employed

in the poem The novelty added is in this case, despite the very same destination both roads lead

to, there is one road less or more traveled than the other

2.3.2 Elaborating

Quite different from extension, in elaboration, an existing element of the source is elaborated in

an unusual way Elaboration captures the source in a novel and strange way, rather than adding a new expression to the source domain According to Lakeoff and Turner (1989), Horace used the metaphorical expression “eternal exile of the raft” to refer the death The conventional metaphor

“Death is Departure” is captured right in the words Nevertheless, it is also further elaborated when described in detailed definition “exile” and “raft” The two words employed provoke the understanding that death is a forceful departure and the means of transportation-“raft” can not take them to the destination

3 Previous studies on Metaphor in Advertising

Due to the interdisciplinary nature and the massive exploitation of metaphors in advertising, quite a vast amount of research has been so far carried out However, I have no intention of making this overview effortlessly lengthy and exhaustive Hence, since this paper bases itself on the Semantics approach, it will be an insightful view on studies relevant to the present one It is also noted that in studying metaphors in advertising, not many researchers have seen metaphors studied in Semantics and in general linguistics as clear-cut This also means for many studies selected to be herein reviewed, there will be a painstaking selection of viewpoints compatibly related to the chosen approach

3.1 Meaning of Metaphors: Denotation and Connotation

Discussing about the use of metaphors in advertising, the first and foremost to notice is the meaning In this aspect, Roland Barthes (1988) paid a great attention to the hidden meaning expressed in advertisements It was also him who adopted from Louis Hjelmslev the notion that there are different orders of signification (Barthes 1957; Hjelmslev 1961) The first order of signification is that of denotation: at this level there is a sign consisting of a signifier and a signified Connotation is a second-order of signification which uses the denotative sign (signifier and signified) as its signifier and attaches to it an additional signified This study seems to be too semiotics-oriented rather than semantics even though studying the signifier and the signified leads to his conclusion that the sign (which is the advertisement in his “Advertising message”, The Semiotic Challenge) has loaded multiple meanings In fact, in his research, the close connection between the meaning and the advertisements is undeniable

The term denotation, according to Gillian Dyer (1988), refers to “the literal meaning of the advertisement, to what is „objectively‟ present and easily recognized or identified” Connotation,

on the other hand, is regarded as “meanings which lie beyond the advertisement‟s denotation but are dependent on it”

This statement may be further exemplified by Williamson (1978)‟s discussion on advertisements for Channel beauty products which were presented at the time with an image of the actress Catherine Deneuve At the first level, the advertisement associates the products with Catherine Deneuve, and at the second level, we get the connotations of Catherine Deneuve in the context of beauty products as a signifier: she connotes the classy, chic lifestyle of a mature and sophisticated woman The advertisement not only functions as the construction of meaning itself, but also to transfer the meaning from other systems outside the advertisement, which he called as

“referent systems”, the ideological systems depending on and reflecting the society and culture The whole process appears to be so closed to the encoding and decoding of the message transferred in the advertisement, which also means the connotative meaning necessarily acquired

by consumers will be much influenced by the culture codes and the individual subjectivity of connotation In other words, according to Williamson, advertising makes connections which are not in the reality and thereby manages to mislead the audience

In terms of metaphor uses and from cognitive research, it is interesting to note that the idea in Lakeoff (1987), Lakeoff and Johnson (1999) is quite contrary to that of Williamson since they

refuted the idea that there is an objective reality independent of our perception, culture and ideology making the reality distorted There is one problem here when the matter is considered in the advertising context since firstly, there exists a certain border between linguistics and advertisement‟s meaning, though so small, and secondly the advertisements themselves are quite frequently distorted compared to the real value of the products Or, as possibly concluded, as Bathes (1974) confirmed, the problem springs from the fact that in advertising “denotation is not the first meaning, but pretend to be so, under this illusion, it is ultimately no more than the last of the connotations”

3.2 Meaning of Metaphors: Meaninglessness or Ambiguity

Concerning about the level of reality distorted in using figurative devices in general and metaphor in particular, Dyer (1982), went too extreme when stating that this leads to the

“meaninglessness techniques” or “painting a falsely glowing picture”

“Meaninglessness is an important technique in advertising as loose promises that don‟t tie down the advertiser to anything specific Even advertisers recognize this tendency in their work; they call them „resounding non-statement‟”

According to Dyer, figurative language, including metaphors, on the whole is mainly used in rhetoric and poetry, however, there is a difference between the poet‟s and the advertiser‟s use of

it In her somehow biased view, the poet tries to “create an impression, pin-point or sum up a feeling in the interest of an emotional „truth‟” whereas the advertiser‟s objective is “to paint a falsely glowing picture” However metaphorical this assessment may be, the conclusion is not appropriate compared to the meaning of the message transferred in advertisements In truth, there

is often the existence of “affective meaning” in every slogan, advertising text or even visual symbols

The matter to reveal here is a “certain distance” between what is denoted in the advertisements when using metaphors or other linguistic devices and the products‟ real values should be admitted Nevertheless, it does not mean the denoted message in the advertisement is absolutely different or isolated from the reality Here arises the recognition of the so-called state of “being too positively emphasized” or “too positively manipulated” or “being a little vague” in the advertisers‟ attempt to transmit the message of the product‟s value to consumers It is quite explicable since the primary task of the advertisement as any advertisers firmly hold in their mind is value transmission, as Pollay (1984: 111) pointed out:

“Values are probably the single most important dimension of advertising Values are important both the sender‟s and the receiver points of view since it is the „goodness‟ of products that lies at the heart of the whole communication.”

Hence, as analyzed above, with the exploitation of metaphor, the values transmitted may show some levels of ambiguity Apparently, Dyer somehow confused herself with the concept of ambiguity and meaninglessness since she also affirmed that “the ambiguity in the word does not allow us to separate the product from the „fact‟” Her typical example, the metaphorical ice-cream slogan “Spoil yourself and not your figure” for weight-watchers, is considered as “a common type of play on ambiguity in advertising” It involves interpreting “spoil” in “spoil yourself” as an idiomatic phrase and as a word in its own right Revisiting her instance for the illustration of meaninglessness, Triumph‟s slogan: “Triumph has a bra for the way you are”, in fact, does not express any single meaningless state, but some levels of ambiguity

Leaving aside the consumers‟ language capability, whether a metaphorical advertising text is meaningless or ambiguous also depends on the context since metaphor is exactly a means of communication Developing research shows that the context a metaphor occurs in can influence its interpretation and the ease with which it is comprehended (Shinju and Myers 1987, Inhoff et

al 1984, McCabe 1983) These laboratory studies suggest that the contexts in which promotional metaphors occur may influence their meaning For example, in the metaphorical advertising slogan "Nissan Truck: The Hard bodies" appears in a sports magazine, the comparison between a car and an athletic body may be emphasized and the message “hard bodies” (or the car‟s absolute strength) is quite understandable In fact, further research on context effects seems warranted in consumer settings This idea is also shared with a structural linguist-Roman Jakobson In 1960 he proposed a model of interpersonal verbal communication which moved beyond the basic transmission model of communication and highlighted the importance of the social contexts involved, illustrated as the followed picture:

Figure 1: A model of interpersonal verbal communication (Roman Jakobson, 1960)

As stated by him, the addresser sends a message to the addressee To be operative the message requires a context referred to ('referent' in another, somewhat ambivalent, nomenclature), seizable by the addressee, and either verbal or capable of being verbalized, a code fully, or at least partially, common to the addresser and addressee (or in other words, to the encoder and decoder of the message); and finally, a contact, a physical channel and psychological connection between the addresser and the addressee, enabling both of them to stay in communication

CHAPTER II AN ANALYSIS ON METAPHOR EXPLOITATION IN ADVERTISING SLOGANS

1 Advertising slogan: A crucial part of an advertisement

There are many ways to promote a brand and, obviously, every method and strategy is of great importance Promoting a brand is very critical to your business It is clearly no luck that Nike became one of the most famous and influential sports gear company in history or Coca Cola hit the beverage industry Nike, or Coca, both spent billions on advertising to reach where they are today Among the four major components a brand needs in advertising campaigns-brand name, logo, slogans and theme song, slogan is regarded as a determinant for a brand‟s success thanks to its ability to increase consumers‟ retention rate and desire Slogan, an advertising statement that describes what your brand is all about, is actually believed to help set the product apart from its competitors In fact, most successful brands own brilliantly impressive slogans since slogans are critical to the image of any business, regardless of the size

-Be all you can be (US Army)

- Good to the last drop! (MaxWell House)

- Just do it (Nike)

- When you care enough to send the very best (Hallmark)

- You‟re in good hands (Allstate)

In broad sense, advertising slogan is understood as a memorable motto or phrase used in commercial or promotional context as a repetitive expression for a certain marketing purpose Slogans vary from the written and the visual This linguistic nature leaves little room for details, since they probably serve more as a social expression of unified purpose, rather than a projection for an intended audience, here, the product‟s targeted customers Hence, the function of a slogan

is often to inform the customers certain features or values of the products and to persuade targeted customers In order to fulfill these tasks, it is interesting to note that how contradictory a slogan can be inside Most importantly, a slogan should be both ear-catching, and abiding with the Law of Truth, in Britain, for example “all advertisement should be legal, honest and truthful” (Hermeren, 1999) Therefore, in fact, like what most advertisements aim to be, a slogan should

be concise and precise, besides repeatable, or memorable, to be effective First of all, slogans taking up a whole sentence to convey the brand‟s message are less effective than a slogan with just 3 words or 6 words The less wordy it is, the easier the consumers can remember The

human memory is limited so the message transmitted ought to be as short as possible for optimal recall rate Additionally, slogans must be precise as well Those few words used in slogan have

to convey exactly what the producers/manufacturers are trying to achieve Slogans that leave the consumers guessing or confused will give them much harder time perceiving the message

In fact, a company may immediately change its slogan if it is found incompatible with the desired-to-be-sent message or simply with the new marketing campaign In fact, there are quite many multinational companies making mistakes in adopting an unsuitable slogan, for example: -Come alive You‟re in the Pepsi generation! (Pepsi)

(pronounced and understood as Pepsi takes your ancestor back to the cemetery)

-Nothing sucks like Electrolux

(in America, “suck” is understood with bad meaning)

-Super Nova, the spirit of America!

(it is ridiculous when the spirit of America can not go, in Spanish, Nova means no go)

Although some groups use more than ten slogans in just a short period of time for the very same

of product, it is comprehended that this is costly In four decades, Coca Cola, with the vast amount of marketing investment, spent billions of dollars only in creating 17 slogans for its product, and the number apparently keeps increasing afterwards:

-1886 Drink Coca-Cola

-1887 Delicious! Refreshing! Invigorating! Exhilarating!

-1891 The Ideal Brain Tonic/The Delightful Summer-Winter beverage

-1904 Delicious and refreshing

-1905 Coca-Cola revives and sustains

-1906 The great national temperance beverage

-1908 Good till the last drop

-1917 Three million a day

-1922 Thirst knows no season

-1923 Enjoy life

-1924 Refresh yourself

-1925 Six million a day

-1926 It had to be good to get where it is

-1927 Pure as Sunlight

-1927 Around the corner from anywhere

-1928 Coca-Cola pure drink of natural flavors

-1929 The pause that refreshes

Conclusively, for the long term goal of a company‟s service or product, slogans can be considered as the most indispensable factor of advertising and advertisements

2 The exploitation of metaphors in advertising slogans

As part of the revival of interest in marketing strategies, there has been a burgeoning growth in exploiting different figurative speeches in slogans Precisely, advertising slogans own an absolutely closed link with the communication between producers/manufacturers and consumers Besides, as Lakeoff and Johnson (1980:5) argued, “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”, the possibility metaphor offers products‟ message transmission is quite obvious As a result, the relevance of metaphorical language used

in advertising slogans is quite perceivable In fact, as a part of advertisement, advertising slogans also stimulate customers‟ mental processes by means of creating images and associations, informing and recalling the product‟s values Holding the power of metaphors in advertising attempts and the consideration of customers‟ physical and cultural experience and conceptualization, advertisers hunt for the most effective and compatible kind of metaphors to be best associated with the products or services advertised in slogans

The relevance of metaphor exploitation in advertising slogans should not only be counted in terms of consumers‟ senses but also the increasing generation of sale, as Kovecses (2002) made the point:

“Part of the selling power of an advertisement depends on how well-chosen the conceptual metaphor is that the picture and/or the words used in the advertisement attempt to evoke in people An appropriately selected metaphor may work wonders in promoting the sale of an item”

Kovecses (2002:59) This is absolutely true since metaphor like other figurative speeches, can successfully bring the so-called “affective meaning” or emotional effects on consumers through persuasive slogans, leading them to dig deep into their pockets For instance, the slogan of Mori Perfume: “Without the perfume, the skin is mute” Here, with the personification, the perfume is regarded as a living entity The skin, a part of body is enabled to “speak” In these advertising slogans, the power of

the perfume is brought up to a magic level, or in other words, not only the skin is personified, but the perfume is also turned into a magician

In the advertisers‟ eyes, metaphors both take wings for the slogan‟s message, and help them to loosen the centralization in denoting the exact information, values and functions of the products

To achieve this goal, advertisers uses the manifestation of language-particularly herein, metaphors Whatever way they choose, to explicitly state that there products are good, their services are prestigious or to implicitly transfer ideas of the products‟ values, they do with the hope to promote their items to the top rank without creating doubts in customers‟ mind Honestly, in consideration of every possibility concerned, the latter seems to be better That explains the cruciality of metaphor in quite many slogans:

-It‟s time you reaped the benefits of Jersey‟s fertile financial environment

(Abbey National Bank)

-That‟s another load off your mind

(Indesit WAX 120 detergent)

-The citi never sleeps

(City Bank)

It is apparent to realize the implicit meanings transferred in the slogans above when analyzing one Take the first one as an example, the mapping conceptualization in two different fields: Abbey National Bank (the target domain) and fertile ground (the source domain) creates a closed association With certain reasoning knowledge of the source and the target, it is quite understandable to give out some conceptual illustrations:

-Target: Abbey National Bank: the place (fertile soil) for the seeds (financial investment)

-Source: The fertile soil: such a good ground for seeds to grow up and become big fruit trees waiting to be reaped

Based on the advertisers‟ aims and the principle of advertising functions, stated by Pollay (1984:111): “advertising‟s primary function is to transmit the value of the products/services”, it

is perceived that Abbey National Bank-“the target domain” represents the product/service advertised and the fertile ground-the source represents the values Therefore an implicit picture may be sketched from the slogan: Farmers

(Investors) can harvest (get profit) on the fertile land of New Jersey after growing trees (investing in the bank) Through this picture, the goal that advertisers aim at is accomplished: persuade clients to invest in Abbey National Bank

Borrowing words from Geis (1982:37) to cover this part: “the attractiveness of implying something rather than asserting it overtly derives from the fact that one does not have to defend unasserted claims and consumers seem not to defend well against them”, I do think metaphor, with its power of implicit message when being exploited, has realized the dreams and objectives

of worldwide advertisers This would be proved in the subsequent part of research and analysis

3 Hypotheses

Based on the integrated classification of metaphor use earlier and the reality of the metaphor exploitation in English advertising slogans, it is possible to draw out some predictions concerning the types of metaphor favored in international slogans and advertisements

by the slogans are exported/imported Typical conceptual metaphor concepts as in “LG: Life is Good” (Good is Up) or “Say Hello to your child‟s new body guard-Johnsons & Johnsons” (An object is a person), are certainly more ear-catching and ear-approachable than the metaphor concepts that consumers/buyers have never known about Furthermore, the use of conceptual metaphor helps producers avoid ambiguity in the transmitted promotional message thanks to its understandability and saves money for designing very complicated illustration In fact, as for mixed metaphors and new metaphors, to enable the buyers‟ accessibility to an entire understanding of the slogan, the accompanied pictures and illustration must be absolutely relevant and smartly meaningful, which is quite costly

Hypothesis 2:

Once the conceptual metaphors are applied, there is an outstanding favors towards the ontological metaphor, where we find the typical concept: Abstract is Concrete, and structural

metaphor, where once concept is structured in terms of others, rather than the orientational metaphor, which involves the spatial orientation

Ontological metaphor involves the very typical concept, which represent Abstract is Concrete with three sub-types namely personification, entity metaphor and container metaphor These types allow advertisers to implicitly transfer the value of the product in a tactful way, which does not violate the Law of Truth or lend the coat of showing-off onto the product The abstract factor which are often the values of the products (comfort, happiness, joy, pleasure…etc…) is realized

in concrete factors, creating a new sense of self-experiencing for consumers It should be the fact

to admit once deciding to buy something, the buyers expect a hidden but understandable comparison between the values of the products and some factors/objects/type of people that they know/trust… in life This is the very case of “The listening bank “ (Midland Bank) Nevertheless, the use of structure metaphor seems to be too ambiguous when the values of the products (the feelings/the abstract) are understood by another concept/abstract feeling As for the use of orientation metaphor with spatial orientation of Up-Down, Front-Back…etc , if this type

is not extremely tactfully exploited, the product really sounds being shown off This is the very case of Lexus‟ former slogans: “The car in front is Lexus.”

is Money are conceptual metaphor owing to its high familiarity in usage.) Since the product‟s slogan should never been mistaken for a poem or a masterpiece of literature (in very literal sense), advertisers often prefer the new conventional metaphors or mixed conventional metaphor which own the conceptual metaphor foundation

4 Procedures

4.1 Data collection

In order to answer the research questions already stated in the very first part, a collection of 50 slogans of various products is collected As for the source, all the slogans are collected from the companies‟ websites or from the online stock of slogan lists To ensure the reliability of the research, the slogans selected are originally from the English-speaking countries, which use English as their main language such as the USA, Britain or Australia Most of them are slogans

of worldwide brand names In terms of the generality, the chosen slogans are representatives of 4 broad categories namely Cosmetics and Fashion, Food and Drinks, Transportations, and Finance and Banking These defined categories of slogans, firstly represent different perspective of customers‟/clients‟ needs and secondly, are assumed to meet the following listed criteria for an acceptable extent of reliability and generality

- All the slogans selected belong to the category of commercial advertisement Hence, those of non-commercial category should be excluded

-The advertisement selected are the ones that belong to one of the following categories: fashion and cosmetics, food and beverages, transportation and petrol, and finance and banking This means the advertising claims for other categories rather than the four stated groups would be excluded from the research The number of selected slogans classified into each group will be equally 10 slogans

- For painstaking analysis, only advertising slogans that belong to National Advertising or International Advertising are selected The two specific terms are used to refer to the commodities or services advertised or supplied on a national scale or on an international scale, which means in the worldwide or foreign markets Advertisements and slogans of local products/services sold or rendered in a part of a country, not on a national/international scale are excluded

-The research focuses on advertising slogans, which means the advertisements that advertise the specifications, locations, prices, promotions or special offers of the products should be excluded

4.2 Data analysis

A collection of 40 English advertising slogans will be taken into consideration regarding to the use of metaphors For each group, the slogans are classified into sub types of conceptual metaphor, mixed metaphor, and new metaphor With each kind of metaphor in use, the possible strengths, weaknesses and effectiveness will catch lots of the writer‟s attention Based on the