Analysis of the Use of Doublespeak in Wendyâs Advertisements.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam skripsi ini saya akan mengkaji doublespeak. Doublespeak

merupakan bagian dalam studi pragmatik. Doublespeak merupakan suatu kajian

bahasa yang seringkali dipakai untuk menyatakan sesuatu, tetapi tidak

menyatakan apapun.

Doublespeak sendiri muncul di dalam kehidupan sehari-hari seperti di

dalam dunia politik dan di dalam dunia periklanan. Khusus dalam skripsi ini saya

akan mengkaji doublespeak dalam dunia periklanan, atau yang disebut

Advertorial Doublespeak. Doublespeak dalam periklanan sendiri terdiri dari weasel words, unfinished words, up to claim dan parity claim, dan saya akan menerapkannnya dalam iklan produk makanan cepat saji Wendy’s. Alasan saya menggunakan data dari Wendy’s ad karena saya mendapati banyak doublespeak

di dalamnya.

Salah satu hasil analisis yang saya temukan ternyata weasel word banyak

digunakan dalam iklan Wendy’s. Weasel word digunakan oleh iklan tersebut

karena merupakan cara termudah dalam menjual suatu produk sehingga menarik

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

This thesis is a study of the use of doublespeak. The study is specifically

based on sixteen Wendy’s advertisements from the Internet.

Advertisement is “a notice, picture or film telling people about a product,

job or service” (“Advertisement,” 1989). The reason why advertisements exist is

that companies want to sell their products and introduce them to consumers.

Using advertisements is the best way for the company to sell their products to the

market as well as to introduce them (Small Business, 2012).

Advertisements can be found anywhere on the media, such as television,

radio or newspapers. With the development of technology, the advertisements also

can be found in the Internet. There are many companies that have advertised their

products using the Internet; these advertisements are called online advertisements

(Small Business, 2012).

Doublespeak in advertisement can mislead the customers by the language

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words that are used in advertisements which make the customers believe and buy

the product is very interesting for me to analyze. According to William Lutz’s

Doublespeak, “Doublespeak is the use of language that pretends to communicate

but does not. Doublespeak can make the bad seem good, the negative appear

positive and the unpleasant seem attractive” (Lutz, 1990, p. 1). By making fake

promises and misleading the consumers, advertisers can make their products seem

the best product ever when in reality there is nothing special about it.

I would like to analyze Wendy’s advertisements that I found in the

Internet, because I find many examples of doublespeak that are used in Wendy’s

advertisements about their delicious food, which makes it interesting to be

customers believe in their products and buy their products.

Fast food restaurants are very popular for those who do not have time to

cook their own meal, for those who do not want to waste their time cooking meals

and for those who are in a hurry. The service that fast food restaurants give is fast.

The prices that fast food restaurants offer are quite affordable for people; thus,

they do not have to worry about spending too much money if they buy fast food.

Fast food restaurants offer a limited menu; they usually serve hamburgers, fried

chicken, French fries, bread, soda, and similar items of food and drink (Science

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“Wendy’s is an international well-known fast food restaurant that was

founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Wendy’s

menu consists of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, French fries and beverages.

Wendy’s marketing in product placement seen in films and television. Wendy’s

advertisements use a picture and a tagline which are used to attract the customers’

attention to buy their products, by claiming that Wendy’s is better and the best”

(The Wendy’s Company, 2013).

I choose Wendy’s advertisements because the advertisements contain

many forms of doublespeak. In the thesis, I would like to discuss all the

expressions in Wendy’s advertisements that contain doublespeak.

The purpose of the advertisers in using doublespeak is to attract the

readers’ attention and to persuade the readers to buy their product. “Doublespeak

surrounds, engulfs, pervades us in advertising” (LA Times, 1989).

The significance of my thesis is that the readers will be aware of the fact

that product advertisements are often misleading and give false promises.

Therefore, the consumers will be careful and not be lured by the use of

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1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Based on the Background of the Study, the problems are formulated as

follows:

1. Which part of Wendy’s advertisement contains doublespeak?

2. What type of doublespeak does it belong to?

3. How does the doublespeak mislead the readers?

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

1. To identify which part of Wendy’s advertisement contains doublespeak.

2. To find out the type of doublespeak that is used in the advertisement.

3. To discuss how the doublespeak misleads the readers.

1.4 METHOD OF THE RESEARCH

First, I collected Wendy’s advertisements that I found on the Internet. The

second step was I analyzed the advertisements and classified the words which

were considered as doublespeak into the types of doublespeak. The last step was

discussing the reason the advertisement had misled the readers. Then, I wrote the

report.

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction,

which contains the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose

of the Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is

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analyze. Chapter Three presents the analysis of the data. The last chapter is

Chapter Four, which is the conclusion, with comments and my opinion. The last

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

Now that I have finished analyzing sixteen data in Chapter three, I found a

conclusion of my thesis which is focused on doublespeak in the Wendy’s

advertisements. Based on my background of the study, there are three statements

that I seek a conclusion for in this chapter.

The purpose of Wendy’s advertisements using doublespeak is, first, to

center on accentuating the quality of the product, and sometimes the quantity. The

second reason is to sell their product in order to make their product one of the

best-selling products. The third reason is because doublespeak is direct: direct

here means the words and language that are used in doublespeak is to the point

and easy to understand. The fourth reason why Wendy’s advertisements use

doublespeak is because doublespeak is easy to target customers of all levels,

which means all kinds of customers will understand the words that are used in

doublespeak and also the catchy words in doublespeak.

I arrive at a conclusion about some words using doublespeak that are

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The first word that is most used and found in Wendy’s advertisement is

the word new; by using the word new, it means the quality of the old product has

been fixed. New in the advertisement does not mean that the product is just

launching but it can be the improvement of the previous product and to make the

old product better than before. The example of the word new that I will take is

from the tagline New thicker, juicier hamburgers with freshest premium toppings;

here we can see that the quality of the previous burger product has been fixed and

upgraded with better quality.

The second word that I give a conclusion about is the word best. By using

the word best, Wendy’s quality is unquestioned, which means there is no other

fast food restaurant which has Wendy’s quality. Wendy’s is really sure that there

is no other restaurant which can compare their quality of products, tastes and so

on. The example of the word best that I found in the advertisement which

represents all the meanings of best is the tagline Our founder Dave Thomas said it

best quality of our recipe. Here, Wendy’s states that they have the best quality of the recipe compared to other restaurants, which means they are reassuring the

customers that their quality is unquestioned.

The third word is big; by using the word big, Wendy’s states that the size

of their product is enhanced. It means that they give extra size to make sure that

the customers are satisfied. The example of the word big is from the tagline Big

flavors lots of possibilities; here Wendy’s wants to make sure the customers that they will get a big flavor.

The last word that I am going to discuss is the word more. Wendy’s uses

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customers more than other restaurants and more than what the customers expect.

The example of the word more in my thesis is from the tagline Every day, in fact,

the only thing about it that is not a mouthful, is its more. From the tagline, the

word more here is a promise from Wendy’s that they will get more in the quantity

of their product. Wendy’s keeps using the words new, best, big and more to

emphasize the quality features of the product.

From some words that I have discussed earlier, I will give some

conclusion of types of doublespeak that are used in the Wendy’s advertisements.

I conclude that weasel words used by Wendy’s shows simplicity and

attraction. After using weasel words, the customers will feel attracted to Wendy’s

product because Wendy’s has their own simplicity which makes them special and

that makes their customers always come back again to Wendy’s despite the fact

that there are many other fast food restaurants. Even though sometimes through

weasel words the claims are not always true, however Wendy’s customers always

come back and buy again Wendy’s product.

Through unfinished words Wendy’s shows their portion to the customers.

Also, through unfinished words Wendy’s wants the readers to finish the rest of the

sentences by themselves. This means Wendy’s always wants to give extra and

give more to their loyal customers, despite the fact that every person will have

different opinions about the rest of the sentences.

Through parity claims Wendy’s wants to show their rank and their

position in the category of fast food restaurants. By using some parity words like

best and ultimate Wendy’s wants to emphasize their reward. Wendy’s knows that

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is always on top and they have their loyal customers who always buy and love

their product.

The last doublespeak category which I did not find when I was analyzing

Wendy’s advertisements was up to claim, which means that Wendy’s does not

really care about the price; according to their advertisements, they focus more on

the quality of the product rather than the price itself. Usually, in fast food

advertisements there are found many up to claims, however Wendy’s does not do

so. Wendy’s customers know that with the best product price it does not really

matter and they will keep being Wendy’s loyal customers.

I hope in the future there are more analyses about the language used for

doublespeak in Wendy’s advertisements, because the words that they use in

advertisements can be analyzed even further and people can be more aware of

doublespeak. With this conclusion I hope people who read my thesis will be more

careful of doublespeak and they will not be lured by doublespeak in the future,

despite the fact that people cannot get away from doublespeak because

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Source

Buss, D (2012, May). Delicious different with Wendy’s. Brand Channel.

Retrieved from http://www.brandchannel.com

The Wendy’s company. (2013). Wendy’s Official Website USA. Retrieved from

https://www.wendys.com/

Wendy’s Malaysia Facebook. (2012). Wendy’s Malaysia Facebook. Retrieved

from http://www.facebook/wendys.malaysia

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The Wendy’s company. (2013). Wendy’s Official Website USA. Retrieved from

Analysis of the Use of Doublespeak in Wendyâs Advertisements.