Ad in Nigeria

LANGUAGE IN INDIA
Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 10 : 3 March 2010
ISSN 1930-2940
Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
K. Karunakaran, Ph.D.
Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
The Linguistics of Newspaper Advertising

in Nigeria
Emma Ezejideaku, Ph.D.

Esther Nkiruka Ugwu, Ph.D.
Introduction
Advertising has been defined as “a powerful communication force and a vital marketing tool
helping to sell goods and services, image and ideas…” (Wright 1983:8). Similarly, Roderick
(1980:4) defines advertising as “a message specified by its originator, carried by a
communication system and intended to influence and/or inform an unknown audience”.
Advertising may also be seen as “a group of activities aiming at and including dissemination of
information in any paid product or service to compel action in accordance with the intent of an
identifiable sponsor.” (Doghudje 1985:8)
Advertising has a long history, with some opinions tracing its origin to the story of Adam, Eve
and the Serpent in the Bible (see, for instance Okigbo 1985:10 and Klepper 1985:6). Wright
(1983:4) however opines that advertising started in ancient Babylon at about 3000 BC when
inscriptions for an ointment dealer, a scribe and a shoe maker were made on clay tablets.
Sandage and Fryburger (1963: IV) argue that Egyptians first wrote runaway – slave
announcements on papyrus at about 3200 BC.
Situation in Africa
Language in India www.languageinindia.com 1

10 : 3 March 2010
Emma Ezejideaku, Ph.D. and Esther Nkiruka Ugwu, Ph.D.
The Linguistics of Newspaper Advertising in Nigeria
In Africa, town-crying and hawking were the earliest forms of advertising. These have survived
in many Nigerian villages till date. With respect to media advertising, which is the focus of this
paper, Sandage and Fryburger (cited in Okeke 2006:24) suggest that the first media advertising
was done in London in 1477 when a prayer book was announced for sale while the first
newspaper advertising appeared in the Boston Newsletter in 1704.
The print media came into Nigeria in 1859 with the appearance of a Yoruba language newspaper,
iwe Iroyin published by Reverend Henry Townsend at Abeokuta. The publication carried an
advert in the form of an announcement for the Anglican Church.
Earliest Forms of Newspaper Advertising
It is noteworthy that the earliest forms of newspaper advertising were crude and unsophisticated.
But they not only helped the local merchant to sell off his goods or services but also set a pace
for the modern methods of advertising which have over a long period of time undergone
tremendous changes such that today, a lot can be written on the language of advertising in
Nigeria. This is possible because advertising has become more professional, involving copy-
writers who exploit all the available linguistic devices to make their adverts not only persuasive
but also aesthetically appealing. This paper, therefore, attempts a linguistic analysis of the
language of newspaper advertising in Nigeria, highlighting the phonological, morphological,
syntactic and semantic features that make them attractive and persuasive.
Language in Advertising
Leech (1966:25) posits that “most advertising language comes under the broader heading of
“loaded language” that is aimed to change the will, opinions or attitude of its audience…” Cook
(in Okeke 2006:13) sees advertising as a part of discourse. In his book The Discourse of
Advertising, Cook argues that discourse has to do with text, content, interaction and persuasion
and advertising performs all these functions.
Leech (1966:74) agrees with this opinion when he asserts that any aspect of language use is an
aspect of discourse. He describes the style of discourse in the language of advertising as being
either “colloquial-formal; casual – ceremonial; personal-impersonal; or simple - complex,
depending on the particular audience and the audience sought to reach”.
Leech refers to the general style used in advertising as public colloquial. According to him,
public colloquialism has a public origin in the sense that it originated through the merging of the
discourse styles mentioned above. He opines that public colloquialism can be attributed to the
enormous size of the audience in general. Leech explains that formal language is difficult both
because “… it is the style acquired after colloquial grammar largely through formal education
and because it is the vehicle of precise and rational expression”. For these reasons, a colloquial
style of language would naturally be favoured by advertisers whose aim is to make contact with
the general public regardless of their levels of education.

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A Peculiar Form
The structure of language in advertising has a peculiar form. Many factors predispose the
copywriter (i.e. one who writes advertisements) to choose his vocabulary. This, in some sense,
implies that the copywriter does not have a free flow of lexical items. For example the
copywriter puts into consideration language variation as regards the target audience. He also
ensures that his choice of language and content meets the four basic characteristics outlined by
Leech (1966:25) as necessary for successful advertising. These are:
1. Attention value: this refers to the unorthodox use of language to provoke the
consumer‟s attention and curiosity by presenting something surprising and
unexpected. This can be achieved by unconventional behaviour, linguistic or
otherwise.
2. Readability: the copywriter must make his message easy to grasp and assimilate.
3. Memorability: an advertisement gains nothing unless the name of the product is

remembered. In fact, it is desirable that part of the linguistic message should be
memorized. This includes brand names, slogans, key phrases, snatches of song, etc.
4. Selling power: one of the most striking features of the grammar of advertising is an
extreme infrequency of imperative clauses, etc.
Making Advertising Attractive
The need to make newspaper adverts attractive cannot be overstated. As Okpaleke (1992:21) has
noted, an advertiser must take into consideration the fact that prospective buyers are likely to
read newspapers not because of its advertising material but because of its editorials, and that
adverts are numerous in newspapers and are always competing for the readers‟ attention.
The advertiser should, therefore, ensure that the adverts are presented in such a way that they
easily catch the reader‟s attention. From a linguistic point of view, the language of advertising
must be informative, instructive, distinctive, and persuasive. By implication, it must employ a
style of language that will help in attracting people‟s attention and at the same time passing the
information across.
Linguistic Devices in Advertising
On the basis of our study, some of the linguistic devices used in advertising include:
1. Alliteration: This involves the repetition of speech sound in a sequence of nearby words.
The term applies mainly to the repetition of consonant sounds.
2. Ideophones: This refers to words whose meanings are derived from their sounds.
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3. Repetition: This is a situation in which a particular word is repeated in the same
construction for either emphasis or memorability.
4. Orthographic Modification: This has to do with a situation whereby the conventional

way or spelling a word is deliberately altered to suit a new situation.
5. Acronyms: This is a kind of shortening device whereby the first letter of several words
are picked out and pronounced together to derive a new word.
6. Deixis: This refers to the use of pronouns and demonstratives to establish a direct
communication between either the advertiser and the audience or between the advertised
product and the potential customers.
7. Personification: This attributes human qualities to non-human entities.
8. Pun: This refers to a play upon words that are almost identical in sound but contrast
sharply in meaning.
For an easier demonstration of how these linguistic devices are exploited in advertising, we shall
analyse our data using the four levels of linguistic analysis, namely the phonological,
morphological, syntactic and semantic levels.
The Phonology of Advertising
Phonology is concerned with the ways in which speech sounds are organized in a particular
language. In advertising, the phonological patterns of languages are organized in such a way as
to make the flow of words appealing and captivating to the readers or hearers. To buttress this,
Jefkins (1987:28) states that:
All words and sentences in any effective advertisement

whether broadcast or printed must be noted and digested to
a degree and remembered sufficiently to influence readers
or viewers. Such words and sentences should be such that
do not deviate from their original function, which is to
attract attention.
This implies that the phonological pattern of a language could influence the attractiveness of
adverts in that language in order to capture the reader‟s imagination.
Linguists in advertising agencies employ some phonological devices to make their texts
attractive, which is one of the major objectives of advertising. In the present study, the devices
we are concerned with under phonological analysis are alliteration, repetition and ideophones.

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Alliteration
In alliteration, certain sounds that occur in conspicuous positions in a word or sentence are
repeated. These sounds are usually consonant sounds. An example can be seen from the
following milk advert:
1. Peak of the Pack1
It is observed that the phonemes /p/ and /k/ occur at the initial and final positions respectively in
the two key words: „peak‟ and „pack‟. This is aimed at drawing the attention of the reader and it
enhances the auditory agreeableness due to the inherent melody of the speech sound. Also
worthy of note is the contrast between the vowel sounds /i:/, a high vowel in /pi:k/ and /æ/, a low
vowel in /pæk/. The contrast, coupled with the alliteration earlier discussed makes the advert
such that the reader can easily remember or chant the slogan without difficulty because of the
organization of the sound patterns.
Another example can be seen in the Harp beer advert:
2. Harp for Happiness2
This advert bears resemblance to the first one in terms of their alliterative qualities. The use of
the [h] and [p] sounds which are part of the Brand name of the product as well as part of the
word „happiness‟ is alliterative. There is also a stylistic exploitation of the sound similarity
between the word „Harp‟ and the first syllable of the word „happiness‟. This sharpens the
alliteration and makes the advert both remarkable and memorable.
Another good use of alliteration can be seen in the Whirlpool advert in which the sound /p/ is
exploited for sound effects:
3. You and Whirlpool: pride, passion and performance…
Repetition
The second feature is repetition and it involves the repetition of particular words or brand names
of a product or service so that it is impressed upon the hearer‟s mind. An example of this can be
seen in the Sharp Corporation‟s advert for cameras:
Sharp Mind, Sharp Products4
There is a play upon the word „sharp‟ which is the brand name of the product being advertised.
The logic is that „sharp‟ products can only come from the sharp minds who work in the sharp
corporation. Moreover, the word play on „sharp‟ is also apt for a camera since the quality of a
camera is usually measured by the sharpness of its pictures. We see another case of repetition in
the Kia Picanto advert.
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Love life. Love the city. Love Picanto5.
Here the word love is repeated to buttress the logic that if one loves life and loves city life, then
one must necessarily love picanto. In other words, picanto is the car for the city if one wants to
enjoy life in the city.
Rhyme
Rhyme refers to “the repetition of the identical or similar stressed sound or sounds” (Barnet
1985:230). Rhyme is used in adverts because it is pleasant to the ears in that it suggests order.
Sometimes too, it is related to meaning as it “brings two words sharply together, often implying a
relationship…” (Barnet 1985:230).
A good example of rhymes is found in a „Kia Rio advert‟.

Welcome back Jack6
Here, there is a rhyme between back and Jack. The advertiser exploits the similarity in stress and
sound between the two words to enhance memorability through the suggestion of beauty and
harmony. A similar device is exploited in the following Santa Fe car advert:
. It‟s got pace

And lots of space7
as well as the Kia Cerato advert:

Walk the Talk8
Apart from the similarity in sound between walk and talk, a relationship is also suggested in the
sense that with the car, you are put on the move (walk), and because the car affords you
maximum comfort, you can discuss your business (talk) while on wheels.
Onomatopoeia
This is a poetic device which depends on the resemblance between sound and meaning for its
effect. An example of this is seen in the Schweppes drink advert.
Schweppes… schhh…9
The sound schhh…, is laden with tantalizing suggestions. First, it suggests that the drink is ice-
cold as the sound mimics the sound of gas emission as obtains when one opens a very chilled
drink. Second, it indicates the exciting, refreshing and thirst assuaging qualities of the drink. The
goal is to make the drink appealing to a potential consumer, especially one that is thirsty and in
need of something cold and soothing.

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What is more, the advert holds the reader‟s attention because of the resemblance between the
sound schhh… and the first part of the brand name of the product. The use of onomatopoeia in
advertising is common with food and beverages.
Similarities and Contrasts in Sound
From the above discussion on the phonology of advertising, one can easily conclude that the
advertiser often exploits similarities or contrasts in sounds to capture the attention of the reader.
Montgomery (1982:64) must have had this in mind when he notes that:
The sensitivity of language to any context is registered by

more than the individual words themselves. What seems to
be more crucial is the way in which particular vocabulary is
articulated together into utterances and which type of
utterances can then result.
He illustrates his point by citing the Tubifast advert:
The tubular dressing retention bandage.

No sticking, no tying,
No pinning.
In his words, such an advert as this displays prevalent features of advertising text:
(i) It deploys a common device of printed adverts, namely the repetition of close
succession of an identical structure.
(ii) The unusual sentence structure in which certain elements are left unstated.
The Morphology of Advertising
Morphology is concerned with the study of the internal structure of words. It deals with such
issues as word formation and derivation, as well as the relationship between words. Advertisers
often manipulate these morphological elements through blending, acronyms, coinages and
orthographic modification, among others.
Blending
Blending is a morphological process by which two words are fused into one. The following
example is not just a blend; it is also a type of coinage.
Egg is the least Eggspensive form of nutrition10

Obviously the word eggspensive does not exist in the English lexicon. It is rather a blend

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from two English words eggs and expensive. The advert would have read:
Egg is the least expensive form of nutrition;
but that would not have attracted the type of attention desired by the advertiser. By coining the
new word eggspensive, however, the advert becomes unique, thereby attracting the reader‟s
attention.
Acronyms
The word acronym was originally derived from a combination of the first letters of the words:
Aroused Citizens Representing Oppressed New York Minorities. It has now become a part of the
English lexicon and refers to a word derived from the combination of the first letters of several
words together and pronounced as one. It is a kind of shortening technique which advertisers use
to create attention for their products, especially in view of the fact that there are other new
products competing for attention. An example of this is found in the MTN (a telephone
company) advert:
BOGOF11 which is an acronym for:

Buy One, Get One Free.
Another is found in an advert for multivitamin syrup for children, MIM:
What is MIM?
MIM means
Multivitamins
Iron
Minerals12
Autographic Modification
This refers to a deviation from the conventional way of spelling a word. The copywriter
deliberately spells a regular word in a manner that deviates from the normal spelling of the word.
This, like other forms of morphological modification discussed above, is usually done to attract
attention for the advertised product. Let us consider the following examples:
. Bank PHB Pot of Phortune Promo13
Bank PHB is one of the commercial banks in Nigeria. In this advert, there is a deliberate
orthographic modification, resulting in fortune being spelt phortune. Apart from attracting the
reader‟s attention because of the peculiarity of the spelling, the first two letters of the new word –
ph - coincide with the first two letters of the bank‟s name – PHB. Thus the „mis-spelling‟ is not
only memorable in itself; it also reminds the reader of the bank‟s name. A similar example is
found in the following advert.
10 : 3 March 2010
Libertie gives you flexibilitie14
„Libertie‟ is obviously a deliberate deviation from the normal spelling of liberty, just as
flexibilitie is from the word flexibility. Libertie is a brand name for an ECONET branded
wireless phone. Its spelling distinguishes it from the dictionary word liberty. Flexibilitie is
deliberately adopted to suit the brand name of libertie, all aimed at creating more attention for
the product than would have been the case if the advert had simply said:
Liberty gives you flexibility.
Another example is seen in the MTN mobile phone advert where the key words „text‟ and „love‟
are deliberately mis-spelt to catch attention:
Let‟s txt about luv

can u text?
Can u luv txt? 15
There is also this telephone service advert from multi-links:
Lagos fone. Attractive. Trendy…16
where phone is spelt fone for the same reasons discussed above.
The Syntax of Advertising
Syntactic analysis of advertising is geared towards specifying the principles that underlie the
formation of sentences. In advertising, words may or may not necessarily be strung together in
the conventional manner of sentence formation. But even when constructions do not follow the
normal convention, they are nevertheless, couched in such a way as to adequately make the point
intended by the advertiser.
In adverts that emphasize the quality of the advertised product, the syntactic structure places
emphasis on adjectives (and adverbs) and some of such „sentences‟ may not feature any verb at
all. As such, they may not be amenable to analysis within the usual SVO structure.
From the foregoing, we may classify the sentence structures in newspaper advertising as follows:
Emphatic sentences, interrogative sentences, deviant structures and deictic constructions. We
should also point out that for the purpose of our analysis here we are using the word sentence in
a very loose sense and that some of our „sentences‟ may not be sentences after all in the strict
conventional sense.
Emphatic Constructions

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By emphatic constructions we mean those constructions in which the qualities of the advertised
product are highlighted. This is usually done through the use of series of adjectives (and in some
cases, adverbs) that emphasize the qualities claimed for the product. An example can be seen in
the Pears Baby range of products advert which reads:
Here at last. One skin cream that‟s

mild and gentle on all the family‟s skin17
The use of the adjectives mild and gentle in this advert is aimed at stimulating positive responses
from the readers, as these qualities apparently set the cream apart from other competing products.
A similar strategy is adopted in the close-up advert below:
CLOSE UP… flashing white teeth and fresh sweet

breath… that‟s close up appeal18
The line-up of four adjectives in the advert is, no doubt, aimed at ensuring that the reader is left
in no doubt about the quality of the product. It reminds one of the current television advert of the
same product where it (close-up) is said to be “the only tooth paste endorsed by the World
Dental Federation (FDI).
This, like the newspaper advert above, is aimed at excluding every other brand of tooth paste in
the market. When modifiers are lined up like that, they help the advertiser in providing more
information about the product than would have been ordinarily possible. Besides, the modifiers
are used in a way that they serve as reminders for the products advertised, as they are used in a
way that they aid memory. This is obviously the reason behind the use of very in the following
advert:
Virgin Nigeria: Very Nigerian. Very Virgin19
Apart from the intensity of the emphasizer very in this advert, the alliterative value of V in the
sentence Virgin… Very… very Virgin) makes the statement impossible to forget.
Interrogatives
Interrogative statements are those made in the form of questions with a view to making the
advert catchier and more thought- provoking. The questions are asked rhetorically in such a way
that answers to them are either implied or too obvious to be supplied. By adopting this syntactic
strategy, appropriate responses are stimulated in the reader, leading (hopefully) to their better
appreciation of the advertised product or service. For example, the „new‟ Volkswagen Skoda
Felicia is presented as a car for special people, the elite of the society, with the rhetorical
question:
Are you among the chosen…? 20

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The same strategy is adopted in the following „Guaranty Trust Bank‟ advert which asks
rhetorically:
… wouldn‟t you rather bank with us? 21,
and in the following for Kia Cerato car:
Are you ready to fly? 22
which alludes to the car‟s capacity for speed. In the advert for a brand of car significantly named
„Escape‟, the advertiser echoes the famous question credited to Shakespeare:
… what is in a name? 23
By doing this, the advertiser deliberately draws the reader‟s attention to the connection between
the car‟s name and its purported capacity for speed.
Deixis
Lastly, on the syntax of advertising, the advertisers appeal to the emotion and sentiments of the
potential consumer through the use of the second person pronoun. By doing this, the impression
is created that the consumer is being addressed personally. This has the potential for forcing
them to reach a quick favourable decision on the service being advertised:
You know you can trust TOTAL24
Coca-Cola… You can‟t Beat the Feeling25
Citizens Bank… Your right to succeed26

.
Vmobile: It‟s all about You27
On the whole, our analysis of the syntactics of advertising above reveals that the advertiser
tantalizes the consumer by making them part of the advert, either by posing questions to them or
by the use of the second person pronoun. The advertisers also tantalize the consumer by
emphasizing the qualities of the products through the use of several adjectives and adverbs which
are presented in the forms of emphatic expressions.
The Semantics of Advertising
Semantics is concerned with the study of the „meanings‟ of expressions. In advertising, this has
to do with the consumers‟ perception of the goods or service being advertised. Hence, the

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advertiser does all that is possible to ensure that the message in every advert is catchy in a way
that engages the imagination of the target audience.
Thus, in advertising, there is always a stimulus-response dimension in that the message is

couched in a manner that invokes responses through words, pictures or sounds. The advertiser
ensures that the meaning of each phrase or sentence evokes the desired effects on the readers. In
other words, the message must be both communicative and informative.
Taking the adverts used in the present study into consideration, we observe that the advertisers
make use of pun (play upon words) metaphors, clichés and epigram.
Pun
Pun is a form of witticism which involves a play upon words to achieve different meanings. This
is put into remarkable use in the famous advert of the Virgin Nigeria Airline:
The real Virgin has arrived28
Here, the advertiser plays upon the word Virgin, contrasting the original meaning of the word
with its use as the name of the airline. By saying „the real Virgin has arrived‟, the impression is
that those who claim to be Virgins (in its original sense) are only pretenders, as they may not
actually be virgins. According to the advert, the airline is the real Virgin because it is pure,
original and new. It is akin to saying that if one was looking for a virgin, the place to look was in
the direction of the advertised airline.
Metaphor
This is a kind of comparison between two entities in which the attributes of one are transferred to
the other by claiming that one is the other. As Lodge (1981:10) puts it, „metaphor is a figure of
substitution based on similarity‟, which implies that the two things being considered must be so
similar as to be substituted, one for the other.
As we observed elsewhere, „metaphoric… relationships exist only because there is some

connection between the tow things being substituted‟ (Ezejideaku 2004:52),
Metaphor is based on similarity between things that are otherwise dissimilar and separated in
space and time. It is in this context that we see the connection between Guinness Stout and
greatness in the advert below:
Nothing tastes like Greatness29
in which greatness is substituted for Guinness. The advert could quite simply have read:
Nothing tastes like Guinness

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but the copywriter deliberately makes the substitution so as to imply that going for Guinness is
equivalent to going for greatness. It is altogether like saying: „if you want to be great, drink
Guinness‟
A similar case of substitution can be seen in the following advert of the Hyundai Elentra car
where it is claimed that:
Life is a beautiful ride30,
thus, substituting „a beautiful ride‟ for life. The implication is that if one desires to live life
(enjoy life), one should go for a beautiful car like Hyundai Elentra.
Clichés
A cliché may be described as a saying which has become trite because of over-use. In the adverts
under consideration, clichés are deliberately used to create familiarity between the product being
advertised and the intended consumer. The idea is that when potential consumers hear a phrase
they have been hearing before, they might link it with the product and think they already knew
about the product. This seems to be the reason behind the following clichés:
Kia Rio: Welcome on Board31
First Inland Bank: At your service32
In most cases, however, the monotony usually associated with clichés are broken in the adverts
through modification, such that the same aim for using the cliché is achieved while introducing
some freshness into the saying, as happens in the following modified clichés:
Skoda Fabia: All that glitters is style33
This is an obvious deconstruction of the popular cliché,
All that glitters is no gold
to highlight the claim that the car Skoda fabia glitters with style.
„Wind is air in motion‟, is the cliché exploited in the Nissan Sunny advert which claims
that the car is:
Art in motion34
Similarly, the cliché used in respect of magic:

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The more you look, the less you see
forms the basis for another Nissan Sunny advert:
The closer you look, the more compelling

the attraction becomes35
The copywriter of the ADIC Insurance advert draws inspiration from the cliché:
Change is a continuous process
to derive:
Change is a refining process36
used as a catchy phrase for the ADIC Insurance advert, which suggests that the company has
changed from what it used to be to become refined and better.
Epigram
An epigram is a short, witty, paradoxical remark. Often, the paradox or apparent contradiction) is
deliberately introduced so as to attract special attention to the „truth‟ hidden in the paradox. That
is where the beauty of the Ford Probe car advert lies:
How to make a statement

without saying a word37.
Obviously, the lexical entry for the word „statement‟ involves human language. But in this case,
the car in question purportedly speaks for itself. The import of the advert is that body language
can be as loud as verbal language. In this particular case, the beauty of the car speaks for itself,
and hence, makes a statement without saying a word. This calls to mind an Igbo saying:
Ahia ọma na-ere onwe ya

market good Aux-sell self it
(a good commodity sells itself)
which suggests that one does not need to advertise a good product, as it would advertise itself.
Conclusion
Ajanaku (2008:26) posits that
adverts mainly play on emotions, deploying images that

arrest the would-be buyer‟s attention. In appealing to the
senses, they make definitive attempts to sweep doubts off
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the way and… create the soft landing for the buyer‟s money.
To achieve their aim, the advertiser manipulates language in a way that it actually appeals to the
senses and arouses the emotions of the target audience. We can thus claim that, from the data
used for this study, the language of advertising in Nigerian newspapers has more to do with the
aesthetics of language than with commerce. Alliteration, rhetorical questions, pun,
morphological adjustment and clichés, among others, are the advertiser‟s favourite devices and
as shown in this study, are very instrumental to the general success of advertising in Nigeria.
END NOTES
1. Vanguard, June 20, 1996:18

2. Vanguard, October 12, 1994:9
3. Vanguard. February 2, 2007:26
4. The Post Express. March 15, 1999:12
9. The Guardian. February 22, 1998:2
10. Vanguard. September 21, 2001:11
11. Vanguard. December 7, 2001: 36
13. Vanguard. November 29, 2006:4
14. Vanguard. February 12, 2002: 37
15. The Guardian. February 22, 2002:2
16. Vanguard. January 16, 2007:21
17. The Guardian. June 22, 2005:11
18. The Guardian. April 23, 2005:5
19. Vanguard. December 5, 2006:25
20. The Guardian. September 10, 1998:5
21. Vanguard. April 10, 1999:10
22. Vanguard. June 13, 2007:1
23. Vanguard. May 15, 2007: 42
24. Vanguard. July 22, 1994:12
25. Vanguard. October 12, 2001:11
26. Vanguard. June 27, 1996:10
27. Vanguard. September 14, 2005:4
28. The Guardian. April 23, 2001:5
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31. Vanguard. May 15, 2007:4
36. Vanguard. December 5, 2006:27
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Emma Ezejideaku, Ph.D.
Department of Linguistics,
Faculty of Arts,
University of Benin
Benin City, Nigeria
[email protected]
Esther Nkiruka Ugwu, Ph.D.

Department of English and Literature,
Faculty of Arts,
University of Benin
Benin City, Nigeria
[email protected]

10 : 3 March 2010

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LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

The Linguistics of Newspaper Advertising

Emma Ezejideaku, Ph.D.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 1

Earliest Forms of Newspaper Advertising

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 2

3. Memorability: an advertisement gains nothing unless the name of the product is

Making Advertising Attractive

Linguistic Devices in Advertising

4. Orthographic Modification: This has to do with a situation whereby the conventional

7. Personification: This attributes human qualities to non-human entities.

The Phonology of Advertising

All words and sentences in any effective advertisement

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 4

1. Peak of the Pack1

Another example can be seen in the Harp beer advert:

2. Harp for Happiness2

3. You and Whirlpool: pride, passion and performance…

Sharp Mind, Sharp Products4

A good example of rhymes is found in a „Kia Rio advert‟.

. It‟s got pace

as well as the Kia Cerato advert:

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 6

Similarities and Contrasts in Sound

The sensitivity of language to any context is registered by

He illustrates his point by citing the Tubifast advert:

The tubular dressing retention bandage.

The Morphology of Advertising

Egg is the least Eggspensive form of nutrition10

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 7

Egg is the least expensive form of nutrition;

BOGOF11 which is an acronym for:

Another is found in an advert for multivitamin syrup for children, MIM:

. Bank PHB Pot of Phortune Promo13

Liberty gives you flexibility.

Let‟s txt about luv

There is also this telephone service advert from multi-links:

Lagos fone. Attractive. Trendy…16

The Syntax of Advertising

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 9

Here at last. One skin cream that‟s

CLOSE UP… flashing white teeth and fresh sweet

Virgin Nigeria: Very Nigerian. Very Virgin19

Are you among the chosen…? 20

… wouldn‟t you rather bank with us? 21,

and in the following for Kia Cerato car:

Are you ready to fly? 22

You know you can trust TOTAL24

Coca-Cola… You can‟t Beat the Feeling25

Citizens Bank… Your right to succeed26

The Semantics of Advertising

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 11

Thus, in advertising, there is always a stimulus-response dimension in that the message is

The real Virgin has arrived28

As we observed elsewhere, „metaphoric… relationships exist only because there is some

Nothing tastes like Guinness

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 12

Life is a beautiful ride30,