AN ANALYSIS ON THE LANGUAGE STYLE
OF THE UTTERANCES IN MAGNUM ADVERTISEMENTS
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Sonia Niken Permatasari Student Number: 091214117
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
i
AN ANALYSIS ON THE LANGUAGE STYLE
OF THE UTTERANCES IN MAGNUM ADVERTISEMENTS
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Sonia Niken Permatasari Student Number: 091214117
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
iv
DEDICATION PAGE
For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’
(Isaiah 41:13)
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD
(Jeremiah 17:7)
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. (Little Black Book)
No matter how many times people try to criticize you, the best revenge is to prove them wrong
(Zayn Malik)
I dedicate this thesis to:
My benign parents
I present my success and every best in me for you
My dear siblings
vii
ABSTRACT
Permatasari, Sonia Niken. (2014). An Analysis on the Language Style of the Utterances in Magnum Advertisements. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
The role of broadcasted advertisements is undeniably important for the companies to market their products. To convince the audience, advertisers have to convey the persuasive message through the use of linguistic features. Those linguistic features will influence the persuasion techniques used in advertisements and the power relation which is built between the companies and the consumers. Considering Magnum‟s successful marketing, the researcher had an interest and curiosity to analyze the language style beyond Magnum advertisements.
This study attempted to solve three research problems related to the language style of the utterances in Magnum advertisements. They were (1) What are the linguistic features of Magnum advertisements? (2) What kind of persuasion technique does Magnum use to advertise the products? (3) What kind of power relation does Magnum have upon consumers through the advertisements?
As an endeavor to solve those three research problems, the researcher employed document analysis in analyzing the transcript of the utterances in 10 Magnum advertisements. The first research problem was solved by categorizing the words or the sentences into some linguistic features of advertising language proposed by Grey (2008). The second research problem was solved by classifying
Kleppner‟s persuasion techniques (1986) used in Magnum advertisements. The third research problem was solved by interpreting the power relation in Magnum advertisements based on French‟s and Raven‟s theory (1959).
From the obtained data, the researcher found that there were only a few linguistic features which appeared in Magnum advertisements. Although the advertisers created simplicity to those advertisements, the purposes of advertising were clearly understood based on the persuasion techniques which were used. The power relation between the companies and the consumers could be defined easily because the utterances are clear enough. Furthermore, the simplicity of Magnum advertisements presented Magnum‟s special characteristics albeit the advertisers did not vary the language style. This research could be used as an authentic example of teaching and learning English advertisement materials and knowledge for the advertisers to vary the language in their advertisements.
viii
ABSTRAK
Permatasari, Sonia Niken. (2014). An Analysis on the Language Style of the Utterances in Magnum Advertisements. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Tidak dapat dipungkiri bahwa peran serta iklan yang ditayangkan di beberapa media elektronik sangat penting untuk beberapa perusahaan dalam memasarkan produk mereka. Para pembuat iklan harus dapat meyakinkan para pendengar melalui penggunaan bermacam-macam aspek linguistik yang juga dapat mempengaruhi teknik persuasi dan daya relasi antara perusahaan dan konsumen. Magnum yang telah sukses memasarkan produknya menimbulkan ketertarikan tersendiri bagi peneliti untuk menganalisa gaya bahasa yang digunakan pada iklannya.
Terdapat tiga permasalahan mengenai kalimat yang diucapkan pada iklan Magnum yang akan diselesaikan dalam penilitian ini, yaitu (1) Apa saja aspek linguistik yang ada dalam iklan Magnum? (2) Apa saja teknik persuasi yang digunakan Magnum untuk mengiklankan produknya? (3) Apa daya relasi yang dibangun Magnum terhadap konsumennya melalui iklan?
Untuk menyelesaikan tiga permasalahan penelitian tersebut, peneliti menggunakan analisis dokumen dalam analisis transkrip kalimat yang diucapkan dalam iklan Magnum. Permasalahan penelitian yang pertama diselesaikan dengan mengategorikan setiap ucapan ke beberapa aspek linguistik bahasa periklanan yang dikemukakan oleh Grey (2008). Permasalahan penelitian yang kedua diselesaikan dengan mengklasifikasikan teknik persuasi, usulan Kleppner (1986) yang digunakan dalam iklan Magnum. Permasalahan penelitian yang ketiga diselesaikan dengan menginterpretasikan daya relasi dalam iklan Magnum berdasarkan teori French dan Raven (1959).
Dari data yang diperoleh, peneliti menemukan sedikit aspek linguistik yang muncul dalam iklan Magnum. Walaupun pembuat iklan menciptakan kesederhanaan untuk iklan tersebut, tujuan pengiklanan dapat dimengerti dengan jelas berdasarkan teknik persuasi yang digunakan. Daya relasi antara perusahaan dan konsumen dapat ditetapkan dengan mudah karena kalimat- diucapkan dengan jelas. Kesederhanaan iklan Magnum menyajikan ciri khasnya walaupun para pembuat iklan tidak menggunakan berbagai macam gaya bahasa. Penelitian ini dapat dimanfaatkan sebagai contoh yang otentik dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran materi iklan bahasa Inggris dan sebagai pengetahuan untuk pembuat iklan sehingga dapat menggunakan berbagai variasi bahasa dalam iklannya.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It has been a long-winded journey I went on to achieve my Sarjana
Pendidikan degree. Fortunately, there were many people who walked beside me
to strengthen me in facing every single obstacle I had to face during the process of
finishing this thesis as one of the steps I had to take. I would like to sincerely
express my gratitude to those kind-hearted people.
My very first ceaseless gratitude goes to Jesus Christ for everything. It is
only by the grace of Him that I could finish my thesis. Following His path is never
disappointing because He always makes everything beautiful in His time.
Profound appreciation is addressed to my sponsor, Made Frida Yulia,
S.Pd., M.Pd. for being very patient in guiding me. I thank her for spending her
valuable time to critically read my writing and to advise me for my better writing.
I thank all of the lecturers of the English Language Education Study
Program who indirectly inspired me along my study process. Also, I thank all of
the staff for helping me during the years of my study.
Special thankfulness goes to my beloved parents, Lalina and Budiyono,
and my siblings, Sahana Nila Natasashari, Febri Syahari Valentian, Candra Nastiti
Ayunanda, and Fladimir Panca Syaputra. I could always count on them in every
situation because of their unpretentious love and care. I am also greatly indebted
to the big family of Yasmin Hadi Prayitno and the big family of Supardi for the
x
My generous thanks is also to my dearest Yulianto Puji Pamungkas for
being there to give me love and encouragement. He is an awesome best friend, an
admirable brother, and a fabulous boyfriend.
I am very grateful owing to my benevolent friends, namely Yogyaria Astin
K. G. and Consita Iriana P. Every moment we spent together for about four years
was the whole happiness bit. The members of A Fortiori Play Performance, Class
C students, and all of the students of batch 2009 of ELESP are also people who I
want to thank to. I also thank Indria Ajeng Noor Ambar, my only PPL partner in
SMK 6, and my friends of KKN Group 39 for the cheerful short time togetherness
when we were duty bound to take those courses. They are all amiable persons.
Finally, I give my indebtedness to all of the people I could not mention
here for their support, prayers and help. They really mean so much to me. God
counts them among His belongings. Once again, I am very grateful for everything
they have done to me.
xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGES ... ii
DEDICATION PAGE ... iv
STATEMENT OF WORK‟S ORIGINALITY ... v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... vi
ABSTRACT ... vii
ABSTRAK ... viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... xi
LIST OF TABLES ... xiv
LIST OF FIGURES ... xv
LIST OF APPENDICES ... xvi
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Research Background ... 1
B. Research Problem ... 6
C. Problem Limitation ... 6
D. Research Objectives ... 7
E. Research Benefits ... 7
xii
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ... 11
A.Theoretical Description ... 11
1. Advertisement and Advertising ... 11
a. Definition ... 11
b. Functions of Advertising ... 13
c. Types of Advertising ... 13
2. Language Style of Advertisement ... 14
a. Lexical Features ... 14
b. Syntactic Features ... 17
3. Persuasion ... 21
4. Power Relation ... 23
B.Theoretical Framework ... 25
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 27
A.Research Method ... 27
B.Research Setting... 28
C.Research Subjects ... 29
D.Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ... 29
E. Data Analysis Technique ... 30
F. Research Procedure ... 33
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ... 36
xiii
1. The Lexical Features of Magnum Advertisements ... 36
2. The Syntactic Features of Magnum Advertisements .. 42
B.The Persuasion Techniques in Magnum Advertisements .. 49
C.The Power Relation in Magnum Advertisements ... 51
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ... 56
A.Conclusions ... 56
B.Implications... 58
C.Recommendations ... 59
1. For English Teachers ... 59
2. For English Learners ... 60
3. For Advertisers ... 60
4. For Future Researchers ... 61
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
3.1 The (Feature X) of Magnum Advertisements ... 32
3.2 The Checklist of Persuasion Techniques in Magnum Advertisements ... 32
3.3 The Checklist of Power Relation in Magnum Advertisements ... 33
4.1 The Persuasion Techniques in Magnum Advertisements ... 49
xv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
4.1 The Lexical Features of Magnum Advertisements ... 37
xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Page
A. The Transcript of Magnum Advertisements ... 64
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides a general introduction to the language style of
broadcasted advertisements. Hence, the researcher intends to present the research
background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives,
research benefits, and definition of terms.
A. Research Background
It is clear that every company needs media to disseminate their products to
people, the consumers of their products. Mass media hold an important role to
meet companies‟ needs. Mass media can be in the form of pamphlets, brochures,
advertisements, and many more. Companies have their own decision to choose the
form of mass media by considering many aspects. How companies present their
products through mass media is considered as a valuable thing because the
consumers often judge certain products from what they understand from the mass
media before using the products in reality. It directly can affect the image of that
brand and the image of the company itself.
Advertisements become the most well-known mass media because many
companies use advertisements for particular aims. Taylor (1986) argues that the
functions of advertisements are to create consumers‟ awareness and product
differentiation, to create consumers‟ good-will, to reinforce existing behavior, and
achieve those functions for their profits. Broadcasted advertisements are now the
familiar one because people can know many kinds of advertisements in some
channels of television, internet, and radio.
Asher (1994) states that advertising language is used to persuade or to
tempt people to buy companies‟ products. It means that advertisements use
persuasive language to entice consumers. Advertisers should know what kind of
persuasive language which is suitable for certain products and make consumers
believe in the companies‟ products. Although the use of persuasive language is
important, advertisers cannot ignore another function of advertisements, such as to
create a good image of a product. The audience of broadcasted advertisements in
television will create the image of the products by seeing and hearing what the
advertisers make in the advertisements. Persuasive language should emphasize the
functions of advertisements themselves.
According to Grey (2008: 5), to convey the persuasive message of
advertisements, advertisers often use some linguistic features, such as hyperbole,
repetition, glamorization, and some syntactic features, such as short sentences,
long noun phrases, and ambiguity. Hyperbole is the common one which can make
advertisements more alive. As the consumers‟ experiences increase, advertisers
have to be responsible for the advertised products because advertisements can
influence the development of the companies. Unfortunately, companies have
bigger responsibility to their advertisements because consumers never judge
affect the image of the companies. Therefore, diction will be a very crucial thing
in advertisements.
The use of certain strategies in making advertisements can influence
consumers‟ point of view on the products. Choosing persuasion techniques is
based on companies‟ needs and purposes. For example, cosmetics which can
make women more beautiful will usually use Packard‟s idea of selling reassurance
of worth (1957). Packard (1957) says that selling reassurance of worth is a
persuasion technique of advertising to fulfill the needs of the consumers‟
satisfaction after they use the product. For example, the advertisement of
TRESemmé in late September 2012. It is a new product of hair care in Indonesia.
The advertiser introduces the existence of TRESemmé in Indonesia nowadays by
using that persuasion technique. There is a woman who has beautiful long hair
and is walking around a narrow room. There are also some pictorial scenes of a
woman whose hair is being treated by a hair stylist. In that advertisement, the
advertiser shows how satisfied that woman is after she uses that product. It shows
how consumers will be satisfied if they use TRESemmé. That persuasion
technique is a match for presenting the purpose of TRESemmé company.
Nowadays, companies broadcast interesting advertisements in creative
presentations. The utterances related to the product description are found in some
television advertisements. Nevertheless, companies focus more on the image or
action through a very short story to create dramatization. For example, the honesty
version of Mie Sedaaap advertisement focuses on the boys who are eating Mie
point that the audience will receive from the advertisement. The main point of that
advertisement is that Mie Sedaaap is delicious. It is only a very simple message
which is presented by a twenty-second-advertisement. Therefore, the unique
presentation of advertisements is an interesting subject matter to observe.
Moreover, advertising language has its own specialization of language elements
which are used in the advertisements themselves.
Since broadcasted advertisements can be seen and heard, an utterance is as
important as the visualization. Advertisers need to choose the most appropriate
words to be uttered by the speakers in advertisements. Utterances hold important
points because the audience can easily notice the uttered words instead of the
written one. Ear-catching utterances should be attractive to the audience. Brands‟
slogan can be more understandable and remarkable if it is uttered in
advertisements. Even, some advertisements present both the written slogan and
the spoken slogan to grab the audience‟s attention. The speakers in advertisements
can help the audience to understand on the advertised products through their
utterances which are uttered with the right tone.
Kertajaya (1997: 48) writes that consumers are basically familiar with the
brand instead of the product itself. Consumers trust the products of certain brands.
Since the product has a big deal with people‟s perspective about product brands,
there are some power relation which are built by companies upon consumers
through advertisements. French and Raven (1959) classify power relation into five
types, namely reward power, expert power, legitimate power, referent power, and
audience‟s interest to buy a product because of a reward that they will gain from
that product. It directly means that advertisements use reward power to raise
consumers‟ buying willingness.
Overall advertisements which have been watched, the researcher is
interested in Magnum advertisements. From the data taken from Magnum‟s
official website (2012), it says, “Magnum was the first handheld ice cream
targeted as a premium ice cream for adults. Today, Magnum is one of the world's
leading ice cream brands, selling one billion units annually worldwide, and it is
the biggest brand of Unilever ice creams.” It is true that Magnum is a product
which has a great success in marketing its product to people all around the world.
This success is also influenced by the use of mass media to spread the existence of
all products from Magnum.
Considering Magnum‟s success in marketing its products, the researcher
would like to analyze the language style which is used over Magnum
advertisements that have created success. Since there are a lot of topics which
discuss the language style of advertisements, the researcher narrows the language
style to the linguistic features and persuasion techniques of the utterances in
Magnum advertisements. Besides, Magnum advertisements also hold the
researcher‟s attention to identify the power relation that companies want to show
B. Research Problem
This research endeavors to seek the language style of Magnum
advertisements. Based on the main purpose of this research, the problems are
formulated in the following questions:
1. What are the linguistic features of Magnum advertisements?
2. What kind of persuasion technique does Magnum use to advertise the
products?
3. What kind of power relation does Magnum have upon consumers through the
advertisements?
C. Problem Limitation
This research attempts to identify the linguistic features which appear in
Magnum advertisements. The researcher analyzes the linguistic features based on
the theory proposed by Grey (2008) in his Language in Use. The researcher
specifies the linguistic features of Magnum advertisements into two parts; they are
the lexical features and syntactic features. There are several theories of persuasion
technique types, but in this research, the researcher uses Kleppner‟s theory of
persuasion technique (1986). Then, the researcher implements the classification of
power relation proposed by French and Raven (1959). The analysis is directed
D. Research Objectives
The aims of this study are divided into three parts. They are:
1. To analyze the linguistic features of Magnum advertisements.
2. To identify the persuasion techniques which are used by Magnum to advertise
the products.
3. To interpret the power relation which Magnum has upon consumers through
the advertisements.
E. Research Benefits
Since this thesis deals with language in society, particularly the
advertisements, it is hoped that it will be a useful study for:
1. Advertisers
The advertising field has been developed rapidly nowadays. The
competitive competence in advertisements is needed to attract companies‟
attention. Hopefully this research can inspire advertisers to create high quality
advertisements with some consideration from many aspects, including consumers‟
point of view.
2. Consumers
Through this research, the researcher hopes that consumers can raise their
awareness of wise buying decision, because the decision to buy some products is
3. English Teachers
It is expected that the findings of this research can contribute to the
development of the language study. Particularly, it is hoped to be an outline to
teach the language elements of functional texts, especially advertisements. In the
teaching-learning process, they may use advertisements as the authentic materials
in linguistics course related to analyzing the advertising language.
F. Definition of Terms
Some terms will be defined to help the readers have better understanding
through this study. Below are some terms as the key words of this study.
1. Advertisements
Gilson and Berkman (1986) define advertisements as the persuasive media
of communication to help companies achieve marketing objectives.
Advertisements which have their own particular language style are media to
persuade consumers to buy or use certain products. A sale is the marketing
objective that can be done through advertisements. To meet this need, companies
should make the best advertisement with the most suitable language style. In this
research, the researcher chooses Magnum advertisements because of their
particular language style in persuading the audience. Magnum advertisements
become the only data sources. The language style, the persuasion technique, and
the power relation of Magnum advertisements are the main subject matter that is
2. Language Style
According to Verdonk (2002), style in language is a set of conscious or
unconscious choices of expression, inspired or induced by particular context. In
this research, language style is a general term which refers to the linguistic
features used in Magnum advertisements. It deals with the use of linguistic
features which consist of lexical features and syntactic features in Magnum
advertisements, such as hyperbole, weasel words, imperative, and long noun
phrases. Those linguistic features can be used to analyze Magnum advertisements‟
persuasion techniques and Magnum advertisements‟ power relation. The analysis
of the expressions, particularly the spoken expressions, indicates the analysis of
the language style. This research will analyze deeply the presence of Magnum
advertisements‟ language style which can influence the kind of persuasion
technique and power relation.
3. Persuasion Technique
Ross (1994: 168) says, “Persuasion is a process of skillfully and ethically
using logical thoughts, effective appeals, credibility and ethical proof to influence
and motivate others to responds as you wish them to.” Besides, a persuasion
technique is a strategy that is used to persuade people. In this research, persuasion
techniques are the strategies used in each Magnum advertisement in order to
convince the audience of what the speakers said in Magnum advertisements. This
research is going to analyze how the speakers‟ utterances reflect the use of certain
4. Power Relation
According to Peirce (1886), power relation is the power which is built
from the message sender to the message receiver through the communication act.
In this research, power relation refers to the relation which Magnum company
wants to have upon its consumers through its advertisements. This power is
created by Magnum advertiser to build the brand image of Magnum in society.
5. Magnum
The official website of Magnum (2012) claims, “Magnum was the first
handheld ice cream targeted as a premium ice cream for adults. Today, Magnum
is one of the world's leading ice cream brands, selling one billion units annually
worldwide, and it is the biggest brand of Unilever ice creams.” Nowadays,
Magnum is one of the most well-known brands of ice cream in the world. Its
success in attracting consumers involves the use of broadcasted advertisements.
This research will focus on the language style of English Magnum advertisements.
The researcher analyzes the videos of English Magnum advertisements as the data
11
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The content of this chapter will seek to explain some important theories
which are related to this research. There are two main parts of this chapter,
namely theoretical description and theoretical framework. Theoretical description
provides the theoretical review of this research base whereas theoretical
framework explains the relation between the theories and the research.
A. Theoretical Description
In this section, there are some theories which can be the foundation of this
research. This section elaborates on the advertisement and advertising, language
style of advertisement, persuasion, and power relation.
1. Advertisement and Advertising
This part is going to explain what advertisement and advertising are. There
are several things which deal with advertisement and advertising. They are the
definition of advertisement and advertising, the functions of advertising, and the
types of advertising.
a. Definition
Hornby (1995) defines an advertisement as a public notice which is
offering or asking for goods, services, and so on. An advertisement becomes a
medium to publish companies‟ offer to society. Companies inform society about
companies are trying to gain society‟s attention to their products. Therefore, an
advertisement is a device to connect companies to their consumers. Based on that
definition, advertisement does not have the role of marketing strategy because it
only focuses on companies‟ intention to give information to society without
persuading society to be the consumers of their products.
Similar to Hornby (1995), Weilbacher (1984: 8) says, “An advertisement
is a marketing tool that helps to build confidence in companies and institutions by
conveying accurate and compelling information to consumers about the brand or
company or institution.” As a marketing tool, an advertisement has the function of
marketing companies‟ products. While Hornby (1995) only emphasizes how to
gain society‟s attention, Weilbacher (1984) emphasizes how to gain society‟s
willingness to use the advertised products.
Advertisement cannot be separated from advertising. Bovee and Arens
(1986: 5) describe “Advertising is the 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.” Advertising
should be done as the public communication which involves companies as
message senders and consumers as message receivers in order to meet companies‟
needs of product marketing. Furthermore, the word „persuasive‟ directs
advertising into an action of persuading people. For example, an advertisement of
Matahari Department Store which was broadcasted nearly Christmas offers
discount for selected items up to 50%. That communication occurs between
audience to go shopping there because Matahari Department Store offers big
discounts for their consumers.
b. Functions of Advertising
Taylor (1986) mentions some functions of advertising. The first function
of advertising is to create consumer awareness and product differentiation.
Companies show that they have products to meet their consumers‟ needs and that
they have the best products among the similar products through advertisements.
Advertising is a step which is used to compete with other companies in order to
fulfill other functions of advertising. Second, advertising is used to create
consumer good-will. Companies make their consumers feel that they have the
appropriate choice when they choose those companies‟ products. Besides, they
are trying to prove that they always do their best to satisfy their consumers. Third,
advertising reinforces existing behavior. After consumers are aware of companies‟
products, companies have to advertise their products to keep their consumers‟
awareness. It also makes their products always „visible.‟ The last function of
advertising is to make sales. This is the most important function of advertisements
because many companies advertise their products to persuade their consumers to
buy or use their products. An advertisement, as a marketing tool, has the main role
of persuading people to give advantages to companies.
c. Types of Advertising
The classification of advertising based on Gilson and Berkman (1986) is
divided into four types. They are printed media (e.g.: newspaper and magazine),
catalogue, mail package, pen, and calendar), and out-of-home and directory media
(e.g.: poster in the bus shelter).
2. Language Style of Advertisement
An advertisement has its own particular language style. The language style
of advertisement deals with the linguistic features. Grey (2008) in his Language in
Use divides the linguistic features of advertisement language style into two parts.
They are lexical features and syntactic features.
a. Lexical Features
Lexical features of advertisements present advertisements to be more
unique because of the use of certain words. Lexical features make advertisers
reconsider the diction of advertisements to grab consumers‟ attention and
willingness.
1) Hyperbole
Leech (1972) argues that hyperbole is often concerned with personal
values and sentiments. It is used to vary the expression of personal feelings and
opinion. People use hyperbole to exaggerate something, especially in describing
something in exaggerating manner. For example, the use of more, new, real, fresh,
and improved in some advertisement slogans.
2) Neologism
Grey (2008) defines a neologism as a new word or an expression which is
For example, Volvocracy is a neologism of people in the government who deal
with democracy and drive Volvos.
3) Weasel Word
A weasel word is a modifier that practically negates the claim that follows.
According to Grey (2008), a weasel word suggests a meaning without actually
being specific. There are some words which are usually used as weasel words,
such as help, like, virtually, enriched, worth, fresh, tested, guaranteed, and
scientific. For example, totally different makes the consumers raise a question
„different from what?‟ but there is no exact explanation of that question.
4) Familiar Language
The pronoun you is often used in advertisements to show more friendly
attitudes toward consumers. Grey (2008) states that the use of that pronoun makes
the audience feels to be involved within the advertisement. For example,
Hyundai‟s slogan is Drive You Away. The use of pronoun you gives friendly
attitude to Hyundai‟s consumers.
5) Simple Vocabulary
The language of advertisements should enable the audience to always
remember the words. It can be said that advertisement must be simple, brief, and
clear. This simplicity has to be attractive, too. For example, there is a slogan Scott
makes it better for you. It is simple and understandable enough. By reading that
6) Repetition
Repetition is usually used to make the brand‟s name or brand‟s slogan
more interesting. Repetition also mostly appears in the written parts. There are
three types of repetition. They are alliteration, rhyme, and rhythm. Alliteration is
the repetition in the initial consonant sound of a word to produce rhythmical and
musical effect. For example, finger of fudge the best four by four by far uses the
repetition of /f/ sound to make it more interesting. Rhyme is a pattern of identity
of sound between words extending from the end to the last fully accented vowel.
Mean machine is an example of rhyme. Rhythm is a regular pattern produced by
varying the stressed and unstressed syllables of the words. For example, drinka
pinta milka day.
7) Euphemism
Based on Grey‟s explanation (2008), euphemism is a type of figurative
language which carries connotative meaning. For example, to say that somebody
is a smelly person, people can use the euphemism body odor. Body odor sounds
better because it can avoid saying an unpleasant word.
8) Humor
Humor is a quality in something that makes it funny. It is useful to attract
and to entertain the audience. For example, the use of the word wonderfuel is used
in a fuel advertisement. It is actually formed from the word wonderful and then it
is used as humor becomes wonderfuel. It makes the product more interesting
because of the use of humor. Humor can gain consumers‟ attention to the
9) Glamorization
The words employed in advertisements are modified in such a way by
combining the words which are uncommonly used in daily speaking is one way to
give glamorization touch in advertisements. Grey (2008) gives an example of
glamorization, like old house becomes charming, characterful, olde, worlde or
unique house. The use of those words will make the house become more
interesting. It will be interesting to say charming house instead of old house.
10) Potency
Grey (2008) suggests that potential words are those which are able to give
new value, novelty or immediacy. Potential words can influence the audience.
Ogilvy as is quoted by Grey (2008) identifies the words free, now, how to,
suddenly, announcing, introducing, it’s here, just arrived, important development,
improvement, amazing, sensational, remarkable, revolutionary startling, miracle,
magic, and offer as the potential words.
b. Syntactic Features
Syntactic features deal with the categories of words having the same
grammatical properties. Grey (2008) classifies syntactic features of advertisement
based on the emergence of similar grammatical structure in the form of phrase.
The simplicity of advertising language can be easily seen from the syntactic
1) Short Sentence
A short sentence gives a clearness impact for the audience when they hear
the utterances in advertisements. The purpose of this is to capture the audience‟s
attention. For example, a tagline of insurance company is Arrange your insurance
with NFU. That tagline uses short sentences but it has clear and complete
information as the consumers want to know.
2) Long Noun Phrase
According to Grey (2008), a long noun phrase describes the advertised
products in three or more words or two or more independent phrases to impress
the audience. For example, a description of a product says First automatic
chronograph with a 72-hour power-reserve and patented compression
push-buttons. From that description, the audience notices the specialty of the automatic
chronograph. Long noun phrases can make consumers feel that the advertised
product has many special qualities if it is compared to other similar types of
product.
3) Ambiguity
There is a phrase or a sentence which has more than one cognitive
meaning. It is called an ambiguous phrase or sentence. Leech (1972) differentiates
between lexical ambiguity, which consists of lexical homonymy and lexical
polysemy, and grammatical ambiguity, which consists of grammatical homonymy
and grammatical polysemy. The example of lexical homonymy is the word mole.
It has three different meaning. They are a small mammal which is nearly blind,
or lump on a person's skin or a person who works for an organization or
government and secretly gives information to its competitors. Besides, the
example of lexical polysemy is in the sentence Gentlemen prefer blondes. Prefer
has the meaning of like better or promote. The sentence I like moving gates is the
example of grammatical homonymy because it is ambiguous whether moving
gates is gates that move or causing gates to move. Grammatical polysemy appears
in the sentence He eats bread. The use of present tense in that sentence makes
people doubtful whether it is happening now or a habitually repeated activity.
4) Use of Imperative
An imperative can be used to make an order. Advertisers use an
imperative to make the audience act or do something, including buy or use the
advertised product. For example, the imperative used in a poster of newly
launched cassette album, Grab it now. That imperative suggest the audience to
buy the cassette album.
5) Simple and Colloquial Language
This kind of language is only used in informal expressions. Grey (2008)
assumes that colloquial expressions do not bear the meaning they normally have.
For example, It ain’t half good. That sentence looks very informal because of the
use of ain’t which can indicate the presence of simple and colloquial language.
6) Present Tense
A present tense gives as if the condition is real whenever the audience sees
or hears the advertisements. Grey (2008) says that a present tense implies a
Rossini. When the audience sees or hears that sentence, they will feel like in the
real time.
7) Syntactic Parallelism
Leech (1972) defines parallelism as a repetition of formal patterns of two
or more similar ideas in similar structural forms. For example, stay dry, stay
happy. The word stay is repeated to make the sentence more interesting for the
audience because of the similar pattern.
8) Association
Advertisements should associate the positive side of the product to
something else. It is sometimes indicated by the words like and as. For example,
fresh as a mountain stream. The freshness is associated with a mountain stream
although they are two different things.
9) Ellipsis
Goddard (2002: 123) defines ellipsis as “the omission of part of a
structure.” Cook (1996) says one of its aims is to create the sense of informality.
For example, the utterance “Nespresso, what else?” when follows the
grammatical rules should be “You’ll take Nespresso. What else would you like to
drink?”However, it needs too many words and looks too formal.
10)Incomplete Sentence
The audience rarely pays attention to the sentences of advertisements very
carefully. Even in visualized advertisements, the audience will pay attention more
to the visualization of the advertisements. Therefore, Grey (2008) identifies an
incomplete sentence helps the audience to catch the main point of advertisements.
For example, “Revolutionary lift. Revolutionary results. REVITALIFT DOUBLE
LIFTING.” is more interesting in an advertisement instead of “If you want a
revolutionary lift of your skin and to see revolutionary results, buy Revitalift
Double Lifting.”The complete version of the utterances
3. Persuasion
Hornby (1995: 864) states that “persuasion refers to the action of
persuading or being persuaded.” It means that persuasion has the quality of
persuasiveness. The persuasive state is the state of having the characteristic of
urging people to do something. According to Trimmer and Nancy (1984),
persuasion is verbal communication which make people have certain judgment or
change their previous judgment to accept the new one which they do not believe
before. An advertisement is one example of a persuasion activity. Bovee (1982)
argues that persuasive state involves convincing people that the product advertised
will give some benefits to them. Based on Trimmer (1984), advertisements can
convince the target by giving statements, commands, suggestions, and rhetorical
questions about the product which directly shows a product guarantee.
Kleppner (1986) proposes an idea of the classification of persuasion
techniques based on the marketing situation and human characteristics. The main
consideration of those three techniques is the product existence in the marketing
area and how people‟s attitude towards the product. There are three techniques of
a. Pioneering Stage
This technique is used to introduce a product which has been just released.
Typically, advertisers will show consumers that they can meet their needs by
using the advertised product. Besides, advertisers convince consumers that the
product will give satisfaction in an efficient way.
b. Competitive Stage
The advertisers direct people to choose the products which have existed in
the market. Consumers can freely select the products which they consider best to
use. Many advertisements need to compete with others to win people‟s interest
towards the advertised products. It is usually done by showing the uniqueness of
the product which makes it different from other brands. Advertisers should
emphasize why consumers should choose the advertised product instead of other
similar products from other brands.
c. Retentive Stage
The purpose of retentive stage is to maintain the existence of the
advertised product. By using this technique, advertisers give reminder to
consumers that a product still exists in markets. Advertisers use this technique
when the advertised product has been marketed for a long time. Retentive stage is
also known as reminder stage because it can be a reminder for the audience about
4. Power Relation
Peirce (1886) states that power is built from the relation between message
senders and message receivers. According to Petress in Triandjojo (2008), power
is the capability to persuade others to believe or to do something like what is
wanted. Lill (1998) says that power works when people use ideology association
in the cultural action strategy. Triandjojo (2008) argues that an advertisement is
an ideology reflection from a company. It can be a medium for companies to
communicate with consumers. The relation which is built by companies and
consumers is called power relation. Power relation makes communication act
occur between companies as message senders and consumers as message
receivers. French and Raven (1959) divide the types of power relation into five
types, namely legitimate power, reward power, referent power, expert power, and
coercive power.
a. Legitimate Power
French and Raven (1959) describe legitimate power as the power which is
built when message senders are able to control message receivers. Message
senders have the right to posit themselves in the higher level than message
receivers. That right refers to message senders‟ power to dictate message
receivers. By using this power, message receivers are hoped to consider buying
the advertised products.
b. Reward Power
Message senders promise to give a reward to message receivers.
senders have an assumption of persuading message receivers through giving a
bonus when they use or buy their products.
c. Referent Power
Based on French and Raven (1959), through this power, message senders
use people‟s popularity to reach what they want. It is functioned to attract
message receivers to buy or use the products. It is also used to influence message
receivers‟ life style to imitate famous people‟s life style which appear in message
senders‟ message. For example, advertisers use some public figures in their
advertisements.
d. Expert Power
French and Raven (1959) state that expert power appears when message
senders are positioned as the ones who understand the product. Therefore,
message receivers should follow their superiors to use the advertised products.
Message senders tend to show their higher quality of knowledge or experience to
persuade message receivers to follow them.
e. Coercive Power
Loudon in Supriyono (2006) states that message senders can delete a
promised reward if message receivers do not follow the suggestion in
advertisements. In the other words, message senders threaten message receivers to
do their order. Therefore, message receivers feel threatened by message senders if
she or he does not obey message senders‟ order.
B. Theoretical Framework
Based on the theoretical description, the researcher wraps up the
appropriate theories to accomplish the objectives of this study. There are only
three major theories which are used to answer the formulated research questions.
They are the language style of advertisements, the persuasion techniques, and the
power relation.
To answer the first research question, related to the use of certain linguistic
features of advertisements, the researcher analyzes the language style of
advertising based on Grey‟s theory (2008). There are two parts of language style
in advertisements. The first part is the lexical features that deal with the lexical
items or the use of words. They consist of hyperbole, neologism, weasel word,
familiar language, simple vocabulary, repetition, euphemism, humor,
glamorization, and potency. The second part is the syntactic features which deal
with the grammatical properties. They consist of short sentence, longnoun phrase,
ambiguity, use of imperative, simple and colloquial language, present tense,
syntactic parallelism, association, ellipsis, and incomplete sentence. The
researcher analyzes the utterances of Magnum advertisements and then classifies
them to the characteristics of advertisement linguistic features proposed by Grey
(2008). The researcher chooses Grey‟s theory (2008) because there is specific
description on the characteristics of advertisement language. Different from other
theories of the advertising language, the theory of Grey (2008) provides the
The second research question which is related to the use of persuasion
techniques is answered by identifying each Magnum advertisement based on the
theory of three persuasion techniques proposed by Kleppner (1986). They are
pioneering stage, competitive stage, and retentive stage. The researcher uses the
theory of Kleppner (1986) because it has clearer types of persuasion techniques to
be used to classify Magnum advertisements. Kleppner (1986) differentiates the
persuasion techniques clearly based on the marketing situation and human
characteristics. Therefore, the researcher can clearly categorize Magnum
advertisements into the types of persuasion techniques by using a checklist of
persuasion techniques used in Magnum advertisements based on Kleppner‟s
theory (1986).
For the last research question, the researcher uses the theory of power
relation proposed by French and Raven (1959). The theory of power relation
shows how the companies build their position upon their consumers. The types of
power relation are divided into legitimate power, reward power, referent power,
expert power, and coercive power. Power relation which is suggested by Peirce
(1886) directs communication which is built by message senders and message
receivers. It is combined with the power relation theory in leadership issue
proposed by French and Raven (1959). The researcher tries to interpret the
utterances of Magnum advertisements and then classifies them into the types of
27
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter is going to elaborate on the detailed information about the
methodology used to accomplish this study. The use of the methodology was
aimed to answer the formulated research questions. There are six sections in this
chapter, namely the research method, research setting, research subjects,
instruments and data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research
procedure.
A. Research Method
This research has three questions to be answered. They are (1) What are
the linguistic features of Magnum advertisements? (2) What kind of persuasion
technique does Magnum use to advertise the products? and (3) What kind of
power relation does Magnum have upon consumers through the advertisements?
To answer those three research questions, the researcher conducted
research which was categorized into qualitative research. Brown and Rodgers
(2002: 12) state that qualitative research is “research which is based
predominantly on non-numerical data, reveals that it can be subdivided into
various different non numerical qualitative research techniques for gathering data,
for example observations/field notes, case studies, diaries, etc.” This research did
not deal with any numerical data because it would focus on the descriptive
describes what is describing, recording, analyzing, interpreting conditions that
exist. This research was going to describe the language style used in Magnum
advertisements.
The method employed in this research was content or document analysis.
Leedy and Ormrod (2005: 142) define content analysis as “a detailed and
systematic examination of the contents of a particular body of material for the
purpose of identifying patterns, themes, or biases.” It means that content analysis
allows the analyst to analyze information from certain data sources in order to
describe particular characteristics of the information. In this research, the data
sources were 10 videos of Magnum advertisements. Generally, the researcher was
going to describe the available characteristics of language style used in Magnum
advertisements.
B. Research Setting
The researcher conducted the research from October 2012 to February
2013. Firstly, the researcher looked for the data sources in October 2012. After
finding the data sources, the researcher selected ten Magnum advertisements to be
the samples of this research. Then, the researcher gathered the data from
December 2012 to January 2013 by transcribing the ten Magnum advertisements.
The data analysis took the longest time in this research because it needed to be
rechecked and revised for some times. It took about four months which began in
C. Research Subjects
There were so many versions of Magnum advertisements that people can
find from the broadcasting media, such as television and internet. However, the
researcher only chose 10 versions of Magnum advertisements because those 10
advertisements were the most appropriate representatives among other versions of
Magnum advertisements. According to Leedy and Ormrod (2005), purposive
sampling is the most appropriate method to select the appropriate sample because
the samples should yield the greatest amount of information about the topic under
the research. Those 10 representatives of Magnum advertisements were used as
the purposive samples of this research. Briefly, it could be said that the purpose of
selecting those samples was to deeply analyze the major language style,
persuasion technique, and power relation which often appeared in Magnum
advertisements. The researcher determined the criterion of selecting those
advertisements. The only criterion was whether there was the presence of spoken
English. Those 10 Magnum advertisements were Magnum Mini version, Magnum
Ecuador version, Magnum Infinity version, Magnum Classic version, Magnum
Temptation version, Magnum Temptation Hazelnut version, Selecta Magnum
version, Magnum advertisement in 1994, Magnum advertisement in 1993, and
Magnum advertisement in 1992.
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique
This research involved two instruments. Those are the researcher as
1. The researcher as human instrument
Merriam (2002) says that in qualitative research, the researcher becomes
the primary instrument for data collection and data analysis. Drake (2006) also
points out the researcher as human instrument when the researcher collects the
data using methods, such as interview and observation. In this research, the
researcher collected the data by observing the ten Magnum advertisement videos.
Then, the researcher wrote down the transcript of each video and analyzed it.
2. Document
According to Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh (2002), in qualitative research,
especially in content analysis, the analyzed materials can be in the form of public
records, textbooks, letters, films, tapes, and many more. In this research, the
document is in the form of transcript of 10 Magnum advertisements. The
researcher transcribed the recorded Magnum advertisements to be analyzed.
Those transcripts belonged to the research instruments because they were used to
answer the research questions. This transcript would be useful to obtain the data
because it could decrease the missing words which should be analyzed and
increase the validity of the data.
E. Data Analysis Technique
The researcher prepared 20 tables as in Table 3.1 to categorize the
language style of Magnum advertisements into 10 lexical features and 10
syntactic features. Those 20 features are hyperbole, neologism, weasel word,
glamorization, potency, short sentence, long noun phrase, ambiguity, use of
imperative, simple and colloquial language, present tense, syntactic parallelism,
association, ellipsis, and incomplete sentence. Those features are based on Grey‟s
theory (2008) about the linguistic features of advertisements. There was the
checklist of persuasion techniques of Magnum advertisements as shown in Table
3.2, which was used to answer the second research question, related to the use of
persuasion techniques. The classification of persuasion techniques used in this
research is proposed by Kleppner (1986). The last research question was answered
through the researcher‟s interpretation upon the theory of power relation proposed
by French and Raven (1959). However, the researcher also provided the checklist
as in Table 3.3.to ease the researcher in categorizing the power relation which
appeared in Magnum advertisements.
To keep the trustworthiness of the data analysis, the researcher did a data
triangulation. Potter (1996) states that triangulation is a way to strengthen one‟s
argument which can be done by examining that argument through others‟ point of
view. In this case, there were two people who helped the researcher in analyzing
the data. They were a lecturer of English Language Education Study Program who
was the researcher‟s supervisor and a veteran English teacher of junior high
school. They checked and gave suggestions if they were necessary about the data
analysis based on the related theories which were used in this thesis. Then, the
researcher rechecked and revised the data analysis. The revision of the data
check the data analysis again. This data triangulation process was done more than
once to decrease the number of errors.
Table 3.1. The (Feature X) of Magnum Advertisements
Video (Feature X)
Table 3.2. The Checklist of Persuasion Techniques in Magnum Advertisements
Video Persuasion Techniques
Table 3.3. The Checklist of Power Relation in Magnum Advertisements
researcher selected 10 Magnum advertisements as the data sources of this research
based on the availability of the use of English. Those advertisements are in the
form of videos which are broadcasted in television and internet. They were
downloaded from www.youtube.com.
2. Gathering the data
The researcher had to transcribe the videos. To gather the valid data, the
researcher watched and listened to the videos several times. Then, the researcher
were also required in the data gathering process in order to minimize possible
mistakes.
3. Preparing the tables and the checklists
The researcher found the theory of linguistic features, which consists of
lexical features and syntactic features by Grey (2008), the theory of persuasion
techniques by Kleppner (1986) and the theory of power relation by French and
Raven (1959). After that, the researcher made 20 tables of analysis and two
checklists based on those theories. Those tables and checklists were very helpful
for the researcher to analyze the presence of the language style, persuasion
technique, and power relation used in Magnum advertisements.
4. Analyzing the data
The researcher analyzed the gathered data by filling in the tables and the
checklists. Besides, the researcher also wrote down the features which were
categorized into certain characteristics of Magnum advertisements‟ language style
to be explained. Then, the researcher analyzed the persuasion techniques which
were used in each advertisement by filling in the checklist and taking notes on the
criteria which made the advertisements belong to the certain persuasion
techniques. To answer the third research question, the researcher classified the
data based on the theory of power relation to the checklist. The researcher
interpreted the data and provided the checklist and the reasons why those
advertisements belong to certain power relation which is proposed by French and
Data triangulation was done for some times to maintain the trustworthiness
of the data analysis. The researcher relied on two persons who are more expert to
check and criticize the data analysis. Based on the criticism, the researcher
rechecked and revised the data analysis to reduce error.
5. Writing up the report
Finally, the researcher was responsible to write up the report. The report
itself contains the process of the research and also the results of the research.
36
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter consists of the elaboration on the research findings and
discussion. That elaboration answers the research questions. There are three
sections in this chapter. The first section discusses the linguistic features of
Magnum advertisements. The second section deals with the kind of persuasion
technique in Magnum advertisements. The last section explains the kind of power
relation in Magnum advertisements.
A. The Linguistic Features of Magnum Advertisements
Based on Grey (2008), there are two major features of the advertisement
language style. They are lexical features and syntactic features. Magnum
advertisements had some parts of those elements in the language they used to grab
the consumers‟ attention.
1. The Lexical Features of Magnum Advertisements
The lexical features of Magnum advertisements deal with the diction used
in advertisements. In this case, the words were spoken by the actors, actresses,
and the narrators of Magnum advertisements. The words can delegate what the
company wants to convey in order to persuade the consumers. The diction can
empower people to believe what the speakers say in the advertisements upon the
advertised products. The result of the data analysis dealing with the lexical
Figure 4.1 The Lexical Features of Magnum Advertisements
The researcher found that Magnum advertisements only had some lexical
features of the advertising language. They lacked neologism, repetition, and
humor. Overall, Magnum advertisements only had 36% of the whole lexical
features in the advertising language proposed by Grey (2008).
a. Hyperbole
Hyperbole is one way to exaggerate the product in order to attract the
consumers‟ attention to the product. There were seven Magnum advertisements
which had the hyperbole feature in the advertisements and the rest did not have
hyperbole feature. The advertisement of Magnum Infinity had the most number of
advertisements, such as New Magnum Ecuador and New Magnum Temptation. It
showed that the advertisers emphasized the presence of new Magnum product in
the majority of Magnum advertisements. Besides, the phrase for the first time also
had the same meaning with the word new. The other words which indicated the
use of hyperbole in Magnum advertisements were special, intense, forever,
perfection, very, and best. The presence of hyperbole in Magnum advertisements
added the variation of personal expression which could affect the consumers‟
willingness to taste Magnum whether the speakers‟ utterances were true.
b. Neologism
The advertisers of Magnum did not use neologism to advertise Magnum.
Magnum advertisements did not introduce a new word which was formed by
joining two or more word parts. The diction of Magnum advertisements was very
simple and did not use too many language features.
c. Weasel Word
Grey (2008) states that a weasel word carries unspecified meaning.
Therefore, it makes people question the missing information. There were only
three Magnum advertisements which used weasel word to gain the consumers‟
attention. Each weasel word had different styles of attracting people. It depended
on the diction the advertisers chose to use. In the advertisement of Magnum in
1992, the actress said that Magnum was so different. People could raise a question
“from what it is different.” Then, it affected people‟s curiosity to find out from
what aspect it is different by buying the product. The phrase another little
