CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

As we know that we are living in the era of globalization in which
the presence of mass media has a strong impact in todays life. The role of
mass media in humans life is very crucial since the people tend to depend
on them for communicating and acquiring new information. According to
Livesey (2011), mass media are channels of communication that involve
transmitting information in some way, shape or form to large numbers of
people. One of the elements of mass media is advertising. Advertising is
the most powerful communication strategy used by the advertisers to
convey the message to their consumer targets. The result of advertising is
referred to as advertisements or ad.
Nowadays, there is no doubt that advertisements have become the
part of our society. The fact that people are exposed to many kinds of
advertisement as seen in the newspapers, televisions, radios, magazines,
and social media. Advertising is not something separate from but is rather
a part of us, a part of something that we belong to (Cook, 1996: 182).
Many major and small organizations, companies, or groups also take
advantages by using advertisements to reach their targets. Advertising is a
necessary means to reach your target audience; it allows businesses to
reach consumers (Vintean, 2010: 373). For instance, fast food companies.
Fast food companies are arguably one of the most successful and
the wealthiest business in the entire world. The secret of their success lies
in the advertising sector. They have spent millions of their budget for the

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advertisements. In promoting the products, fast food companies use

numerous strategies such as by using television campaigns, billboard
campaigns, printed media campaigns, social media campaign, event
sponsorships, and any other forms of campaign. The use of the
advertisements is very important for the companies to approach and
persuade people to buy their products.
Moreover, as a means of communication in the mass media,
advertisements aim to provide information about the products or services,
draw the attention, arouse desire, and most importantly, convince the
consumers. In order to be able to achieve those objectives, the
advertisements should have supporting elements. One of the most
important

elements

in

advertisements

is

the

language.

Good

advertisements come from the technique of using good language. Even

though advertisements much rely on the visual design, however, the
language still plays a crucial role. As Pugsley (1996: 1) states that
language is only one component of the advertisement and that, although it
seems simple, advertising is an intricate process where each word is
carefully selected for maximum effect.
The language of advertisements is said to be unique and creative.
Myers (1997) and Cook (2006) (as cited in Skorupa and Duboviien,
2014: 62) compare the language of advertising to the poetic language,
which is used by the authors in order to create a special effect. It is a
technique of using words, such as adjectives or compound words, the
unique structure of sentences, and the use of figurative languages
(Chaysin, 2011: 1). Figurative language can be described as the use of

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words or expressions which have the different meaning from their literal
interpretation. Figurative (or non-literal) utterances encompass additional
information associated with the contextual situation in which they occur,
convey more subtle, and often different meanings that go beyond literal
sentence meanings (Regel, 2009: 1).
Figurative language uses connotation rather than denotation
meaning. Denotative meaning is the literal or common dictionary
meaning while connotative is the evaluative, inferred or emotional
meaning (Emodi, 2011: 318). It is intended to give new insights to the
readers by playing with their imaginative sense to understand what the
authors actually mean. Since figurative language doesnt provide literal
interpretation, it can be used to compare different ideas and see the
connection between them. There are some elements of figurative language
such as hyperbole, personification, simile, metaphor, paradox, metonymy,
alliteration, etc. Applying multiple types of those elements makes the
language more attractive, persuasive, and imaginative.
It is true that the figurative language mostly appears on literary
works such as novel, poetry, short stories, and drama, but in the same case,
figurative language can also be found in the advertisements, specifically in
the slogans. Slogan is another important part of the advertisements which
is designed to grab the consumers attention. Slogans are the most
effective means of drawing the attention of the general public or consumer
base to one or more aspects of a product, while visual or audio materials,
only help to consolidate the slogans in the customers minds (Skorupa
and Duboviien, 2015: 109). Slogans also help the product being

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advertised memorable. Unlike headlines and subheads, slogans usually

last years, if not decades, and are memorable (Applegate, 2016: 84).
Slogans have been used for many years in the advertising industry.
Many corporations such as fast food restaurants have been producing
hundreds of slogans. For instance, look at the following slogans:
Im lovin it. (McDonalds)
Daddy loves his pepperoni. (Pizza Hut)
Eat Fresh. (Subway)
Making people happy through food. (Carls Jr)
Finger lickin good. (KFC)
All of those slogans are made to represent the brand identity as well as
maintaining the image of the companies. In most cases, the slogans
employ some elements of figurative language. A study conducted by
Katrandjiev et al (2016: 271) has proven that nearly 80% of advertising
slogans contain any kinds of figurative language. The use of figurative
language in the slogans enables the advertisers to deliver the message
effectively and also helps the consumers to always remember about the
company, product, or brand as well. Thus, it is very beneficial for both the
advertisers and the consumers.
Based on the explanations above, we can see that the
advertisements have powerful elements which are used to attract the
consumers attention and persuade them to buy the products, such as the
use of figurative language in the advertising slogans. Therefore, the
researcher finds it interesting to analyze the figurative language used in the
advertisements. The data source of this research is taken from fast food
advertising slogans. There are certain reasons why fast food advertising
slogans deserve to be the focus of this research. First, the researcher
believes that most fast food advertising slogans contain some elements of

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figurative language. Second, fast food corporations are creative enough in

creating their slogans, making it different from any other products.
Basically, the use of figurative language in the advertisements has
been studied by many researchers with different aims and methods. The
first researcher is Bagus Nugraha who had done a study entitled The
Meaning of Figurative Language in Advertisement Columns of the Jakarta
Post from November until December 2013 (2015, State Islamic University
of Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta). The purpose of his research was to
determine the types of figurative language and find the meaning of the
slogans in the advertisement columns of Jakarta Post newspaper. He used
some theories related to figurative language such as hyperbole, alliteration,
personification, metonymy, ellipsis, metaphor, simile, and paradox. In
doing his research, Nugraha used qualitative method. He selected some
advertising slogans from advertisement columns of Jakarta Post newspaper
published in November to December 2013 and then the data were analyzed
based on the types of figurative language. The results of his study showed
that four types of figure of speech were found in the advertising slogans
namely hyperbole, alliteration, metaphor, and metonymy. Among them,
the most widely used was hyperbole.
The second one comes from a research conducted by Nurita
Widyanti with the title A Stylistic-Pragmatic Analysis of Figurative
Language in Harpers Bazaar Magazine Advertisement (2013, State
University of Yogyakarta). In her research, Widyanti identified the types of
figurative language used in Harpers Bazaar Magazine advertisements and
investigated how the speech act was related to the use of figurative

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language. The data source of her research was taken from Harpers
Bazaar Magazine advertisements published in November 2012 to January
2013. She analyzed the data using a qualitative method. As the results of
her research, there were six types of figurative language that commonly
appeared in Harpers Bazaar Magazine advertisements including
metaphor, hyperbole, personification, simile, metonymy, and synecdoche.
Among those types of figurative language, the most dominant one was
metaphor. Then, there were three aspects of speech act also found in
Harpers Bazaar Magazine advertisements such as locutionary act,
illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. The most commonly used type of
locutionary act was the declarative sentence. While the appearance of
representative ranked first in the category of illocutionary act that occurred
in Harpers Bazaar Magazine advertisements.
Another researcher is Prapispan

Supasamout

who

had

accomplished a study with the title A Classification of Figurative

Language Used in Lipstick Advertisements in Women Magazines (2006,
Srinakharinwirot University). Supasamout discussed four types of
figurative language which were used in lipstick advertisements in women
magazines such as alliteration, rhyme, metaphor and imagery. The
objectives of her study were to investigate how figurative language was
linked with lipstick advertisements and to examine how figurative
language was applied in lipstick advertisements. She selected thirty
lipstick advertisements from two leading women magazines in Thailand as
the data source for her study. The results indicated that all lipstick
advertisements used at least one type of figurative language. Figurative

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expressions were found in both headlines and body copies. Alliteration

was the most common type of figurative language which was found in
lipstick advertisements, followed by rhyme, metaphor, and imagery
respectively.
The next researcher is Porntida Chaysin who wrote a study entitled
Analyzing the Use of Figures of Speech in Print Advertising of Food
Products from a Food Magazine (2011, Thammasat University). The aims
of his study were to investigate the use of figures of speech in food
product advertisements from a food magazine, to analyze which types of
figurative language were most frequently used in the advertisements, and
to study whether the type of product had some correlations with the
specific figures of speech. The data were taken from printed food product
advertisements in Food Network magazine which was issued in January to
December 2010. Qualitative method was applied to analyze the data. The
findings revealed that all advertisements used figures of speech at least
one. The figures of speech that were frequently used in food product
advertisements were alliteration and repetition which shared the same
rank, followed by rhetorical question, hyperbole, and rhyme respectively.
The findings also revealed that the type of product had some correlations
with specific figures of speech as well. Moreover, figures of speech
employed in each element of the advertisements such as headline, copy
and slogan were related, but not the whole part.
Referring to the previous studies, it can be seen that figurative
language can be studied within the context of advertisements. However,
this study is different from the previous ones in the sense that the

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differences lie in the focus of the study, the objective of the study, and the
source of the data. For instance, in contrast to Chaysin (2011) who
analyzed the use of figurative language in printed advertisements of food
products in the food magazine, this study mainly focuses on analyzing
figurative language in fast food advertising slogans. Moreover, (Nugraha,
2015; Widyanti, 2013; Supasamout, 2006; Chaysin, 2011) share one thing
in common which is analyzing and exploring figurative language in the
advertisements. Different from the previous studies above, the objectives
of this study are not only to analyze the use of figurative language in the
advertisements, but also to study how figurative language affects the way
people think of the advertisements. The data source of the previous studies
was mostly taken from newspaper and magazine, while the data source of
this study is collected from online sources. Nonetheless, those previous
studies contribute a sort of knowledge for the researcher to conduct a
further study about the use of figurative language in the advertisements.
B. Statements of the Problem
According to the description of the background above, the
problems to discuss in this research can be formulated as follows:
1. What kinds of figurative language that are used in the fast food
advertising slogans?
2. How effective the use of figurative language in the fast food
advertising slogans affect the consumers way of thinking?
C. Objectives of the Study
In relation to the statements of the problem, this study provides two
objectives as presented below:

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1. To identify the what kinds of figurative language that appear in

the fast food advertising slogans and how they are used.
2. To find out how effective the use of figurative language in the
fast food advertising slogans can affect the consumers way of
thinking.
F. Significances of the Study
The study of figurative language in the fast food advertising
slogans is expected to give some benefits both theoretically and practically
as presented below:

1. Theoretical Significance
The researcher hopes the results of this study become an additional
contribution to the research world especially in the field of linguistics.
2. Practical Significances
a. This study can improve the knowledge and experience both for the
researcher and the readers by giving better understandings about
the use of figurative language in the advertising slogans.
b. After reading this study, hopefully, the advertisers or the marketers
should be more creative and also innovative in creating their
slogans particularly in the way figurative language is used.
c. This study is expected to be a reference material for those who
want to conduct and develop the similar research in the future.
D. Theoretical Frameworks
In this section, several related theories have been reviewed by the
researcher in order to be able to analyze the data and answer the research
questions. The theories explain the definitions of advertisement, the
functions of advertisement, the classification of advertisement, advertising
slogans, and figurative language. The researcher will provide some

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descriptions, definitions, and arguments which are gained from several

books, theses, articles, journals, and other sources.
1. The Definitions of Advertisement
Basically, advertisement comes from the verb form advertise. It
originally derives from the Latin word advertere which literally means
to turn peoples attention towards something or a specific thing.
Goddard, in her book (1998: 6), confirms this by saying that Adverts are
texts that do their best to get our attention, to make us turn towards them.
According to Oxford Dictionary, the word advertise means to describe or
draw attention to a particular product, service, or event in the public
medium in order to promote sales or attendance. However, advertisements
can be defined in various ways with different perspectives.
Akrani (2012, What is Advertising? Etymology, Definition, and
Meaning,

http://kalyan-city.blogspot.co.id/2012/12/what-is-advertising-

etymology.html) describes advertisements in the context of general,

business, and academic.
In the general sense, advertisement is a means of communication
which is intended to inform or attract the peoples attention by promoting
the ideas, products, services, and/or events by the help of mass media. It is
executed by an authorized advertising agency to fulfill the expectations of
an identified sponsoring entity.
In the terms of business, advertisement is a kind of marketing
strategy to allure, persuade, and convince the potential consumers in order
to obtain some profits through the promotion of ideas, goods, services,
and/or events. The profit is usually in the form of financial profit (money
gained) due to the fact that advertisements can help increasing sales.

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In the academic perspective, advertisement is more concerned with

the ability in creating positive impact and psychological change to the
masses of people. It is done by adding creative and unique elements to the
advertisements which make it always memorable on the peoples mind.
However, it must be done within the professional ethics.
Bove and Arens, in their book entitled Contemporary Advertising
(1986: 5) describe advertisement as nonpersonal communication of
information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about
products, service, or ideas by identified sponsors through various media.
Similar to the previous statement, Lewis (2000) defines advertisement as
a paid nonpersonal communication, from an identified sponsor using
mass media to persuade or influence an audience.
In short, advertisement can be summed up as follows:
a. Advertisement is a paid form of communication which
promotes ideas, products, services, or events.
b. Advertisement is a nonpersonal communication intended to
persuade and influence the people to buy the products.
c. Most advertisements are usually accompanied with identified
sponsors.
d. The message of advertisement can be conveyed through many
kinds of communication channels, such as using mass media.
2. The Functions of Advertisement
There are two primary functions of advertisements. Those are
informative and persuasive. Advertisement as an informative function
means that it introduces and provides the necessary information about the
products to the people. By informing the details of the products, it helps
the consumers to understand and result in purchasing the products.
Meanwhile, advertisement also has a persuasive function which means that

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it attempts to influence the consumers by promoting the quality of the

products.
Cook (2001: 10) argues that advertisements can perform multiple
functions other than informing and persuading the people to buy the
products. Firstly, there are a number of advertisements that are not
designed to promote products, but more likely to plead, warn, or seek
support. Secondly, there are some examples of other genres, such as songs
and poems, that become advertisements by being used in a particular way.
Thirdly, advertisements provide more than only persuasive function. It
may also amuse, inform, misinform, worry or warn.
Likewise, Goddard (1998: 10) points out that advertisement is not
only a matter of promoting a certain products or services but also can
cover the idea of texts whose intention is to enhance the image of an
individual, group, or organization. This suggests that the main function of
advertisements is not merely promoting product or services, but also
emphasizing the image of the corporation more favorable.
Besides, the advertisements could affect the consumers way of
thinking towards the products. Krmov (2008: 4-5) states that
advertising address and influence potential customers and change their
values, attitudes, and opinions to some extent in order to convince them of
the products merits and to evoke the feelings or a need to possess them.
Therefore, it means that advertisements do not only promote products or
services, but also shape the peoples mindset whether the products are
good for them or not.

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Moreover, Whittier (1955: 48) argues that there are five functions
that any advertisements should fulfill. These functions named as Five
Is:
a. Idea
The first thing we need to know in studying advertisement is
the idea. It is essential for advertisers to have the ability to
come up with good ideas. The better the ideas, the better the
advertisements are likely to be.
b. Immediate Impact
Any advertisement must have the power to distract the
consumers at a glance. Thus, it can evoke the consumers
curiosity to learn more about the advertisements.
c. Incessant Interest
Any advertisement must maintain interest. It should be
attractive enough to catch the customers attention. So that they
want to know more as long as the advertisement has more to
tell.
d. Information
Any advertisement must contain sufficient information about
the products to satisfy the consumers curiosity and make
conviction.
e. Impulsion
Any advertisement must be able to stimulate a great desire
upon the consumers to possess the products as a result of its
persuasive effect.
3. The Classifications of Advertisement
Generally speaking, advertisements can be categorized into two:
commercial and non-commercial. The significance difference between
commercial and non-commercial advertisement is the purpose of the
advertisement itself. Commercial advertisement involves the selling of the

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products whose purpose is to earn money from the sale. Examples of

commercial advertisement are food advertisements, electronic product
advertisements, clothing advertisements, perfume advertisements, and
many more. In contrast, non-commercial advertisement is more concerned
with the sharing of information in the hope that it can motivate and
educate people after being exposed to the information. For instance,
advertisement about the danger of drugs, diseases, etc.
On the other hand, some scholars may come up with the different
classifications (Cook, 2001; Dyer, 1982; Bove and Arens, 1986). Cook
(2001: 14-16) classifies advertisements based on the following aspects:
a. Medium
Advertisements use many kinds of media to deliver their
messages such as television, radio, newspaper, magazine, and
internet. Despite using the various media, he argues that the
distinction between one medium to another is not always so
concrete. It can be either situational or functional.
b. Product
Advertisements can be classified based on the product. In this
category, there are two kinds of advertisement, those are
product advertisements and non-product advertisements.
Product advertisements are meant to sell products, whereas
non-product advertisements more focus on achieving certain
purposes, for examples, charities and political parties.
c. Technique
Another classification of advertisement is by referring to the
technique used. He states that two fundamental techniques are
usually used in the advertisements, which are hard-sell and
soft-sell. Hard-sell uses a direct approach that focuses on the

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components of advertisements to influence the customers,

while soft-sell relies more on the customers feeling and
implication in response to the advertisements. Furthermore, he
also states that there are other classifications of technique
namely reason and tickle (cited from Bernstein, 1974: 118),
slow drip and sudden burst (cited from Brierley, 1995: 116),
and short copy and long copy.
d. Consumer
Advertisements attempt both to categorize people effectively
and then to target their categories. The divisions of people may
vary depending on the socioeconomic class, lifestyle,
neighborhood, personality type, and some others.
Moreover, Dyer (1982: 3-4) classifies advertisement by four main
criteria:
a. Trade and Technical Advertisements
These advertisements are usually included in special interest
magazines such as Hi-Fi News, Amateur Gardener, and
Engineering Today. They are mostly targeted to the experts,
professionals, and hobbyists. Most trade advertisement is
informative and useful to evaluate the claims of cost, value,
use, etc.
b. Prestige, Business, and Financial Advertisements
These advertisements are typically designed to promote
business and build the public confidence and favorable images
of the corporation. Such advertisement is not usually intended
to influence sales directly.
c. Small Advertisements

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These types of advertisement are usually straightforward and

informative. They have been long relegated to the small print of
the classified sections of newspapers or journals.
d. Government and Charity Advertisements
These advertisements are usually in the form of non-profit, but
they often use the persuasive techniques of commercial
advertisements. For example, an organization like the Health
Education Council creates advertisement to promote antismoking.
Bove and Arens (1986: 11-17) state that advertisement can be
classified based on the following criteria:
a. By Target Audience
There are two major classifications of target audience. Those
are consumer advertisements and business advertisements.
Consumer advertisements are sponsored by the manufacturer of
the product or the dealer who sells the products. They are
usually directed at the ultimate consumer of the product or at
the person who will buy the product for someone elses use. On
the other hand, business advertisements tend to concentrate in
specialized business publications or professional journals.
Additionally, there are four distinct types of business
advertisements

(industrial,

trade,

professional,

and

agricultural).
b. By Geographic Area Covered
There are four classifications of advertisement based on
geography. The first one is International advertisements which
are directed at foreign markets. The second one is National

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advertisements which are aimed at customers in various regions

of the country and their sponsors are called as national
advertisers. Next is Regional advertisements which are directed
at customers in several states but not the entire nation. The last
is Local advertisements which are aimed at customers in only
one city or local trading area. They are often called as retail
advertisements since they are paid for by the retailers.
c. By Medium
Advertisements can be classified on the basis of the medium
used to convey the message. Advertising medium is any paid
means of communication used to present an advertisement to
its target audience. The principal media used in advertisement
are newspaper, magazine, radio, television, direct mail, out-ofhome (such as billboard and signs), and transit (on buses or
trucks).
d. By Function or Purpose
There are two classifications of advertisement on the basis of
the

purpose.

They

advertisements

and

are

product

commercial

versus
and

non-product

non-commercial

advertisements. Product advertisements are intended to sell

products or services. Whereas non-product advertisements are
designed to sell ideas. Another type of advertisement is
commercial advertisements which promote goods, services, or
ideas for a business with the exception of making a profit. Noncommercial advertisements, on the other hand, are sponsored

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by or for a charitable institution, civil group, or religious or

political organization.
4. The Concept of Slogans
Slogan is one of the most important elements in any advertisement.
It always appears on advertising campaigns whether at the television,
newspaper, magazine, internet or even in the public places. The use of
slogan in advertisements cannot be avoided since it has become an integral
part of todays life. According to Oxford Dictionary, slogan is a short and
striking or memorable phrase used in advertising. The purpose of using
those striking phrases is notably to draw attention of the people and
distinguish a product from the majority of others.
Some scholars may have different points of view in discussing
slogans.

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