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Help is the great qualifier; once the advertiser says it, he can say anything after it. Help qualifies everything. The audience has never heard anyone say, “This product will keep you young,” or “This toothpaste will positively prevent cavities for all time.” Obviously, advertisers can’t say anything like that, because there are not any products like that made. But by adding that one little word help, in front, they can use the strongest language possible afterwards. And the most fascinating part of it is that the readers are immune to the word. The readers literally don’t hear the word help. They only knew what comes after it. That is strong language, and likely to be much more important to the readers than the little word at the front.
Like
It’s like getting on bar free.
Cleans like a white tornado.
It’s like taking a trip to Portugal.
…
Like is also a qualifier, and is used in much the same way as help. But like is also a comparative element, with a very specific purpose; advertisers use like to get the audience to stop thinking about something that is bigger than or better or different from the product which are being sold. In other words, they can make the audience believe that the product is more than it is by likening it to something else. Like help, like doesn’t catch much attention. However by using it, almost anything can be said and promised afterwards.
2.3 Differences at the lexical level
2.3.1 Gender identity in advertisements
While we found quite a lot of similarities in the choice of words, we have also found some delicate differences in the choice of words in the three types of advertisements as classified before: daily consumer goods ads, technical equipment ads, and service ads.
Language, as a communicative tool, is not only to impart information, to communicate ideas about a product, etc., but also to convey information about the relationship between the addresser (advertisement) and the addressee (the audience). An intimate relationship between the advertisement and the audience is always hoped to achieve. So according to different audience, language applied is different.
What constitutes a female and a male identity, according to advertising? Table 1, based on the language of advertising (Torben Vestergaard & Kim Schr der, 1981:74), gives the commodity profile of two gender-identified magazines: Women and Playboy and also provides the distribution of the different types of advertisements.
Table 1 Distribution of three types of advertisements
| |
Percentage of ads |
| |
Women (%) |
Playboy (%) |
|
Daily
Consumer
Goods |
Hygiene |
10 |
3 |
| Beauty |
18 |
1 |
| Clothes |
12 |
14 |
| Food, Detergents |
31 |
- |
| Tobacco |
8 |
15 |
| Beer, Spirits |
- |
25 |
| Leisure |
- |
3 |
|
Technical
Equipment
|
Vehicle |
- |
27 |
| Radio, hi-fi |
- |
4 |
| Computer |
- |
7 |
| Service |
Insurance, banking |
2 |
- |
| |
Others |
19 |
1 |
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