Analysis of Doublespeak in 'Apple' Products Advertisements.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam skripsi ini, saya mengkaji penggunaan doublespeak dalam iklan Apple. Apple merupakan suatu perusahaan yang membuat gadget seperti

handphone, tablet atau laptop. Iklan yang saya ambil berasal dari internet dan beberapa iklan dari website Apple. Doublespeak merupakan suatu alat dimana arti dari suatu kata bukanlah yang sebenarnya. Ada beberapa tipe doublespeak, seperti euphemism, gobbledygook, jargon dan inflated language. Selain itu, ada beberapa tipe advertorial doublespeak, seperti weasel word, parity claim, up to claim, dan unfinished words.

Salah satu temuan yang saya peroleh dalam kajian iklan ini adalah penggunaan doublespeak yang sangat membantu untuk menjual suatu produk. Hal ini tidak dapat dipisahkan dengan penggunaan weasel word. Tipe ini paling sering digunakan karena weasel word menggunakan kata sifat yang secara otomatis membuat pembaca dapat merasakan apa yang dikatakan oleh iklan tersebut sehingga membuat mereka menjadi ingin tahu akan produk tersebut. Namun, pada kenyataannya iklan tersebut tidaklah menawarkan apa-apa. Salah satu temuan lainnya adalah penggunaan parity claim, unfinished words dan jargon. Ini dikarenakan ketiga tipe doublespeak ini sangat mendukung

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

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To make people know about their product, a company advertises it by using a slogan. Slogan is a word or phrase that is easy to remember and is used by a group or business to attract attention (“Slogan”). In other words, we will know one product easily by seeing or hearing the slogan.

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition, advertising is, “the activity and industry of advertising things to people on

television, newspaper or internet” (“Advertising”, def. 1). Therefore, the company will publish their product attractively and persuasively in order to make people have a desire to have it. For example, sometimes, when we take a look at the advertisements of a particular mobile phone, and the phone that we see is better than ours both in terms of specifications or the design of the phone, automatically we will have a desire to have one. It is just because of the words used in the advertisements that persuade us.

Advertising has been started by the ancient Rome, Pompeii, Egypt, and Babylonians. They made advertisements in the form of stencilled inscriptions. For the first time, advertising was known as an outdoor display and decorated in the wall of a building and over the shops (Gopakumar pp. 39-40). Now in the 21th century, advertisements are in the form of mass media including newspapers, magazines, Internet, radio, television and billboards. This fact shows that advertising develops in this era of globalization and it is still essential for people.

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Maranatha Christian University According to Lutz, doublespeak is, “. . . a language that pretends to communicate but really does not” (1). The purpose of doublespeak is to mislead or deceive a person; the incongruity between what it is said and what the reality is (1). In other words, what it is said may not be the same as the reality. In my opinion, without doublespeak it is hard to persuade people to buy their products.

The topic of my thesis is “Doublespeak in Apple Products Advertisements”. I will discuss the elements of doublespeak contained in the advertisements of the Apple products, not only the slogan but also the content of the advertisements. I choose Apple because in promoting the products, such as iPhone, Macbook, iPad or iPod, they mostly used doublespeak, so some people are easily misled. Besides, it is interesting to find out what the advertisers do in competing with other producers. According to dailymail.co.uk, nowadays Samsung is holding the market in terms of gadget follows by Apple in the second

place in 2013.

The data for my analysis are taken from Apple products advertisements in some websites. The reason why I choose websites is because nowadays Internet plays an important role in our lives. The Internet can be accessed anytime and anywhere. That is why the Internet is one of the most effective media to publish advertisements because we can check everything we want easily by searching on the Internet. By checking the entire websites, we will know that a certain kind of mobile phone will be released with the complete specifications and features.

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aware of the use of doublespeak in advertisements, so that they will not be misled by it.

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Statement of the Problem

In doing the analysis, I would like to find out:

1. What kind of doublespeak is found in the Apple products advertisements? 2. How does the use of doublespeak in the advertisement mislead the

readers?

Purpose of the Study

By solving the problem above, I would like to accomplish these purposes: 1. To identify the kind of doublespeak used in the Apple products

advertisements.

2. To show how doublespeak in the advertisements mislead the readers.

Method of Research

In conducting the research, the first step that I took is to understand the meaning of doublespeak. The theory that I used is derived from Lutz’ Doublespeak. Then, I looked for the data sources, in this case Apple

advertisements. After that, I analysed the data based on the relevant theory. The final step is writing the thesis.

Organization of the Thesis

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I will draw a conclusion from the analysis that I have done. We can see in the advertisements that the data contain advertorial doublespeak, such as weasel word, parity claim, unfinished word, and jargon. In the analysis there are total 9 data, in which weasel word appears in every single advertisement; jargon appears in 7 advertisements; while unfinished words and parity claim appears in 5 advertisements respectively._{The following paragraph} will discuss the reasons why those kinds of doublespeak appear in the analysis.

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feel that the words are true. For example, the word new; the word that mostly appears in the advertisements. When the readers hear or see the word new, they will associate it with something positive, like the product is good, there are several advantages of using the product, etc. Moreover, it leads their curiosity to know more about the product.

Furthermore, the curiosity can also be tickled by the familiar words which the advertisers use. By using the familiar words, such as amazing, powerful, incredible, etc, the message received by the readers is that the product is true as

what it is stated. Moreover, it is delivered well and quickly without having to describe of its overall quality. What is more, with the familiar words, the readers will find it easier to know the meaning of the advertisements. For example, when the readers see and hear the word powerful in mobile phone advertisements, they will think that the specifications, including the camera etc, are very good. However, in the advertisement, the word powerful itself is unclear as it does not tell about like what is the powerful smart phone. Thus, the choice of words that the advertisers use makes the readers easier to understand without having to know more.

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Maranatha Christian University they will think the product is rich of features different from others. This is the reason why jargon appears in 7 data that I have analyzed.

Parity claim and unfinished words are also appear in the advertisements.

The use of unfinished word is also important. The unfinished word is brief but attractive to the readers’ mind. However, it needs the visual images to make even more promising. Sometimes, the advertisements claims that they have a faster connection yet, it does not really explain and describe even though the advertisers have added it with pictures.

Furthermore, the exclusiveness is also shown by parity claim. It is seldom that the value of the iPhone is lowered. Thus, iPhone refers to upper-middle class people. That is why, they are claiming that they are the most advanced, powerful and amazing in order to prove that they are exclusive products.

Because of Apple is a well-known brand, the value of their products is not easily lowered. The company also seldom gives discounts for their products. Furthermore, the target market for Apple itself is to upper-middle class people. iPhone 5-embedded with rare black diamond is the most expensive smart phone in the world now; with the price at a whopping $15 million. For Apple users, they know that Apple products have a weak point in maintaining the battery life, the battery will weaken slowly even though we do not use it. However, the advertisers do not put up to claim in their advertisements. It is just because they do not want to show their weakness. They only focus on impressing the readers by using weasel words. Thus, the weakness of the products is covered by other claim.

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advertisements are very important to increase the selling of the products as well as jargon. Moreover, it cannot be separated from the other types of doublespeak, like parity claim and unfinished words. In my opinion, the more doublespeak found in one advertisement, the more the readers will take a notice.I wonder if we use the same theory to analyze one of their competitors, like Samsung, the result will be the same or different.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Data Sources

Castellano, Mark. iPhone 4 AD. N.p, n.d. Web. 28 September 2013.

iPhone 3G Advertisement. iLounge Incorporation, n.d. Web. 28 September 2013.

iPhone 4S Advertisement. N.p, n.d. Web. 28 September 2013.

iPhone 5 Advertisement. Apple Incorporation, n.d. Web. 28 September 2013.

iPhone 5S Advertisement. Apple Incorporation, n.d. Web. 14 January 2014.

iPhone 5C Advertisement. Apple Incorporation, n.d. Web. 16 January 2014.

The iPhone 3GS has Launched. NewLauncher, n.d. Web. 28 September 2013.

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