化妆品英语广告的语言特点 第2页
a) Who does your hair? I do it myself (Cui 1993).
This is a line of publicize a kind of hair jelly. We can see this is very simple like a daily talk. The words “who” “do” and “your” are very common words. Everybody use them a lot. I am sure this advertisement can be heard and remembered very soon. Thus, the target product is sure to be popular and become a good seller.
b) Maybelline invites you to experience Ultra Performance (Cui 1993).
This is a line from Maybelline. Maybelline Mascara was created by a chemist, T.L. Williams, for his sister (whose boyfriend, Chet, was in love with another woman). To help Mabel get her man, TL Williams blended Vaseline jelly with coal dust and concocted a lash -darkener. It was the first mascara! T.L. Williams founded the company, Maybelline, named after his sister, Mabel and Vaseline, in 1915. Maybelline has experienced a long history up to now, playing a leading role in color make-ups. It is very famous and popular all over the world. China is no exception. It is brought in China in 1995 and become more and more popular.
The above-mentioned line also chooses pretty simple and colloquial words. Invite is a frequently used word. It used in conversations, letters, mails, inviting cards and so on. It shows friendliness and intimacy. People love to be invited. Who will say no to be invited by Maybelline? They will feel flattered. So using “invite” is helpful. What is more, the choice of “performance” is great a thoughts so as to make every piece of advertisement is eye-catching. Describe the merits of products, causing buying interest. Then can they get people’s action of purchasing. Therefore, for all these reasons, advertising English has its particular characteristics on syntax. Namely, as followed.
2.2.3More Interrogative and Imperative Sentences<>From these instances, we can safely say that the usage of simple and colloquial words is necessary. It has magnificent effects on sale of products.
2.2. English Syntax in Cosmetic Advertising
The structure of advertising sentence should be the same as that of other styles. It is comparably complete and independent language unit. It has certain grammar structure, phonetic structure and meaningful vocabularies. However, first of all, copywriters need to consider consumers’ thoughts so as to make every piece of advertisement is eye-catching. Describe the merits of products, causing buying interest. Then can they get people’s action of purchasing. Therefore, for all these reasons, advertising English has its particular characteristics on syntax. Namely, as followed.
2.2.1 Wide Use of Simple and Colloquial Sentences
Widely use of simple and oral sentences is very important in advertising. They are easy to understand and easy to remember as well. Advertisement is facing everyone person. Anybody might be the customer. So it requires that each sentence appeared in advertising must easy, brief and make sure almost everyone can understand and remember without efforts. Then it may catch the eyes and ears of consumers’ so as to make them interest in the product. In opposite, long and complicated sentences are usually boring and difficult. Besides colloquial language is natural and make people feel comfortable. It is more acceptable.
What is more, there is another reason why advertising adopt this strategy. It is the cost. The fee of making advertisements is quite high. In order to cut down the cost, they need to use as less phrases as possible. Therefore copywriters are demanded to transmit as much information as possible thought the minimum space and sentences. As time goes by, more simple and colloquial sentences become one of vital features of advertising English.
Lancôme was created by Armand Petitjean in France, 1935. Relying on his talented sensitiveness to perfume, his remorseless sprits and his ambition of creating France’s own cosmetic brand so as to fight against America, Armand Petitjean invented perfume and established Lancôme. He made a great contribution to cosmetic history in the world. The name Lancôme comes from a castle called Lancôme, located in the middle of France. Because Lancosme is surrounded by roses, very romantic and poetic, since then rose become the symbol of Lancôme. Gradually, it became world famous product. Today, it is getting more and more popular in our country.
Now we will see some of its advertising lines:
Source of enchantment.
This is the advertising line of a kind of perfume called Magic Noire, a product of Lancôme. One simple sentence, lots of charm. It takes enchantment and mystery as its theme. Its inspiration comes from female’s serious beauty-loving tendency. This line connected with a picture with a beautiful girl in it, holding Magic Noire in hands. It likes crystals ball, extraordinarily charming. One simple sentence catches all women’s eyes. It is easy to remember and functional.
Maybe She’s Born With It. Maybe It’s Maybelline.
This is the advertising line of Maybelline. The structure of this line is very simple. It is readable to everyone. With necessity as its theme, it hopes Maybelline becomes a must for everyone. Therefore, it uses the phrase “be born with” to show the meaning. Everyone is born with Maybelline. It is really a good way to publicize the brand and its products.
What is more, colloquial sentences like “Just do it.”, “Ask for more.” are often used as well. It is a more direct way to publicize target products. And it is useful as well. Some group of people like this kind of advertising. They think it can easily catch their attention.
From above-mentioned advertisements, we can conclude that simple and colloquial sentences are excellent choice of advertising. It is functional and inexpensive.
2.2.2 More Active and Present Voices, Less Passive Voice
In daily life, we mostly use active voice to express ourselves. Apparently it is more attractive and acceptable for advertisers to adopt this kind of lines. What is more, active and present voices send out a sense of reality. People can choose any time to see and buy it without a feeling of out-of-time. That also means the lines hint the nature of duration and permanence of the target product.
Now let us see some examples:
Estee Lauder is worldly famous cosmetic brand, founded by Estee Lauder in 1946. It brings beauty to people, especially female. This technologically advanced, innovative company has gained a worldwide reputation for elegant, luxurious products. Their products have been coming with a promise to uphold the finest standards of excellence through extensive research and stringent product testing. We can always get gentle and highly effective products.
Beautiful: “This is your moment to be beautiful.”
This is a line of one kind of perfume of Estee Lauder. Here it uses present and active voice to show a sense of new. It means that any moment can be the moment. People will never be late. Whenever people use couple drops, they can enjoy the beautifulness. It gives good impression to consumers. This method is always useful and proper.
Pure White Linen: “The fragrance to live all year long.”
This is also an advertisement of one type of perfume of Estee Lauder. It boasts the same style. “live all year long” expresses the duration of the perfume. It is appealing because consumers always hope perfume having this effect. The longer it lasts, the better its sale will be.
People like to do something but not being asked to do. They love much more to be masters who can have their own way. Besides, everybody likes new thing and keeps pace with the trend. They hate out-of-date products. Therefore it is reasonable to adopt active and present voices in advertising process.
2.2.3More Interrogative and Imperative Sentences
According to an incomplete statistics, we can see one interrogative sentence in every 30 sentences and one imperative sentence in every four sentences in advertisement. Why does this happen? It mostly relies on the two important features of advertising which are attention-catching value and memorizing value (Qi 2003).
Interrogative sentence is widely used in advertising English. It aims to make consumers think and stand on the same side of the advertisers. Copywriters purposely put themselves in consumers’ shoes and put forward questions that consumers care about. Sometimes one question and one answer followed. And sometimes there is no answer. On this occasion, consumers are usually interested in coming up an answer. That is to it is easy to catch attention by using interrogative sentences. Besides, it also can establish kinder of harmonious relationship between consumers and products.
Let us see some instances as followed:
Who does your hair?
I do it myself. (Qi 2003)
This is an advertisement of hair wax. It is a simple interrogative sentence. But it shows amazing effect. It starts with an interrogative sentence “Who does your hair?”, causing consumers’ attention. Then, according to common knowledge, people usually want to know the answer when facing a question. They even begin to think and look for it. Thus, first step, advertisers win. Next, giving out the answer “I do it myself”, brief and direct. Once more, eye-catching, people love the answer. Also it is kinder of a way of inspiriting. Because this line makes consumers believe that they can run their hair well by themselves with this target product. Thus, it is sure that everyone will buy it, giving him or herself a chance. And give the product a chance as well. It is really a good idea.
Imperative sentence is also frequently used in advertising English. It rarely happened in other styles other than in advertising language. It is actually decided by the characteristics of advertising itself. In order to sell the target product, copywriters need to ask, persuade, suggest, even demand consumers to gradually accept certain viewpoint and purchase the product.
In this kind of advertisements, verbs play a very important role. Some of the usually used words are get, let, have, try, make and so on. We may see lines like “Get the feeling.” “Try this, you won’t regret.” “Go ahead, compare.” and so on and so forth. They all have similar functions. Imperative sentences are like magic. It can always attract most types of consumers. Let us see another instance that can fully show the charm of using imperative sentence.
Look.
Lustrous eyeshadows with new Silkglide Formula.
Look again.
Colors that last so long. Blend so smooth. Stay so true.(That’s no lie!)
Look again. A lifetime of perfect coordination. CUS.TOM EYES from Revlon.Look again. A lifetime of perfect coordination. CUS.TOM EYES from Revlon.
All this lines come from the same advertisement. They are very attractive. The nature and functions are fully presented to readers by using a series of “look” and “look again”. Every line is imperative sentence. Every sentence has the charm of make people reading. Every latter line is a little stronger than the former. One by one, get readers interest in and finally purchase.
Wide Use of Disjunctive ClauseAll this lines come from the same advertisement. They are very attractive. The nature and functions are fully presented to readers by using a series of “look” and “look again”. Every line is imperative sentence. Every sentence has the charm of make people reading. Every latter line is a little stronger than the former. One by one, get readers interest in and finally purchase.
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It may safe to say that disjunctive clause only can be seen in advertisements. In order to obtain better effect of advertising, copywriters use full stop, dash, semi-colon and hyphen etc. so as to divide a sentence into more information units which aims to enlarge the total information quantity. Meanwhile, it cuts down both space and cost. And usually, the part of being cut is about the features of the target product. Thus, this method may largely strengthen the propagating effects.
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This is a line from “Lotion ‘Fashion Fair’”. One simple sentence is divided into several segments, bring in totally different feeling. It becomes more special and charming. Besides, it also uses figure of speech of hyperbole. Make the “touch” especially attractive. It vividly describes the merit of the target product.le="mso-spacerun: yes"> Thousand
This is a line from “Lotion ‘Fashion Fair’”. One simple sentence is divided into several segments, bring in totally different feeling. It becomes more special and charming. Besides, it also uses figure oFSPAN>
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The new fragrance from Calvin Klein.
The new fragrance from Calvin Klein.
The new fragrance from Calvin Klein.
Wanting, needing, have to have.
And when he’s got it..4">Wanting, needing, have to have.
It’s about getting about what you want, when you want.
Therefore, we can see that disjunctive clause is one of the most effective ways of advertising. It has invisible power. It is wise for copywriters to adopt this method.
From this paper, we have known general knowledge about advertising. Advertising is non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. It has a long history and various functions. Furthermore, we have seen that there are many linguistic characteristics that cosmetic advertising English boasts. Here, two general aspects have been summarized and analyzed, namely English morphology and English syntax in cosmetic advertising.
Acknowledgements
Here, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this paper. I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor Mr. Zhao Hui. He helped me a lot. At the beginning, he told me general knowledge about writing paper, like requirements, steps and so on. Secondly, he instructed me how to look for information and how to collect it. Besides, he also recommended good references to me and gave me some advice, though he himself was very busy doing his own work. During the process, he really helped me a lot.
What is more, there are some classmates who I should appreciate. They helped me with many things. They often gave me some significant suggestions. It would be tougher without their help.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all the teachers of mine during my four-year study at university. Within their instructions and help, I laid a solid ground for my study and life. I obtained and mastered a great deal of knowledge. Thank you very much.
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