ABSTRACT
Dalam tugas akhir ini, saya menganalisis penggunaan Rhetorical Figures yang tanpa kita sadari sering dijumpai dalam iklan. Pada umumnya, Rhetorical
Figuresdalam konteks komersial dapat ditemukan di berbagai media, baik media cetak, media elektronik, hingga Internet.
Saya membatasi fokus studi saya pada satu merek dagang, yakni Revlon, yang menawarkan berbagai produk kecantikan. Saya mengambil data iklan dari beberapa situs. Pada praktiknya, Revlon bereksplorasi dalam penggunaan gaya bahasa dan kata-kata menarik dalam infomasi tekstual maupun visual dari deskripsi produk-produknya sehingga dapat menarik perhatian pembaca.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ii
ABSTRACT... iv
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study ... 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem... 4
1.3 Purpose of the Study ... 4
1.4 Method of Research ... 4
1.5 Organization of the Thesis ... 4
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 McQuarrie and Mick’s Model of Rhetorical Figures ... 6
2.2 Rhetorical Operation of Repetition ... 8
2.3 Rhetorical Operation of Reversal ... 9
2.4 Rhetorical Operation of Substitution ... 10
2.5 Rhetorical Operation of Destabilization... 11
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THE RHETORICAL FIGURES IN REVLON ADVERTISEMENT
3.2 Reversal operation: Antithesis ... 22
3.3 Destabilization operation: Allusion ... 23
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION... 24
APPENDICES
Revlon advertisements ... 32
Table 1. Complete Data ... 42
Table 2. Data of Rhetorical Figures of Repetition Operation ... 47
Table 3. Data of Rhetorical Figures of Reversal Operation ... 49
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Advertisement is an inevitable part of modern life. We can easily find any
advertisements in the Internet, radio, television, or in printed media like
magazines or newspapers.
From the etymological point of view, the root of the term advertisement is
the Latin verbadvertere, meaning ‘to turn towards’ (Goddard, 1996). Furthermore,
Dyer (1982) also states that advertising means drawing the attention to
something and notifying or informing somebody about something. However, the
most concise and all-inclusive definition is offered by Arens, “Advertising is a paid
form of communicating a message by the use of various media. It is persuasive,
informative, and designed to influence purchasing behaviour or thought patterns.”
(Arens, 2002, p. 8)
When we simplify the quotation above, we get the following key information:
an advertisement ought to be informative, persuasive, and influential. In doing so,
advertisement affects our purchasing behavior and thought patterns. Although we
it is also capable of influencing a vast number of people in a very little time and
construct their mind to achieve the ultimate goal of triggering their action. Thus,
advertisers seek for attention-attracting strategies, one of which is by applying a
distinctive style of language.
Good advertisement comes from the technique of using advertising language. Some researchers refer advertising language to the language of
persuasion. It is a technique of using words such as adjectives or compound
words, the unique structure of sentences and the use of figurative language. It is
the creative relationship of language and thoughts. The technique of combining
rhetorical figures such as repetition, metaphor, pun or hyperbole into the
advertising message is one of the most creative techniques. Rhetorical figures
bring out the limitless flexibility of the language itself. Advertisers can play with
words, break the rules of syntax or semantics and create animated expressions
by applying the figures of rhetoric. In addition, it can also create more imaginative
aspects in advertising and it is able to gain a consumer’s attention and build the
product interest; therefore, advertisers tend to use this technique in their
advertisement.
According to Verdonk in his book Stylistics, “... style in language can be
defined as a distinctive linguistic expression.” (Verdonk, 2002, p. 4). He adds
further that Stylistics is defined as the analysis of distinctive expression in
language and the description of its purpose and effect (Verdonk, 2002).
Rhetoric is one of the topics in Stylistics. It concerns with the “artful
deviations” from the typical, expected communication structure (McQuarrie and
Mick, 1996). Additionally, they claim that there is “a wide range of figures appearing in advertisements” (McQuarrie and Mick, 1996). The use of rhetorical
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“The central concern of rhetoric has always been method and manner: how to
discover the most effective way to express a thought in a given situation, and
how to alter its expression to suit different situations” (McQuarrie and Mick, 1996,
p. 424).
I am interested in analyzing the use of rhetorical figures in Revlon advertisements as the topic of my thesis. Revlon is a global company for
cosmetic product. Since 1932, Revlon has developed a long-standing reputation
as the trendsetter in the world. Their products are sold in over 100 countries
across six continents (Revlon, 2016). In order to support the promotional
campaign, Revlon also uses digital advertising. They provide websites which
feature current products and promotional information. Based on the data I get
from the Internet, I find there are special forms of rhetorical figures used in their
advertisements.
This thesis is written with the concern of giving informative inputs to readers
about rhetorical figures that are used in advertisement and how it helps the
advertisements in persuading their potential consumers. Besides, for language
learners, this is beneficial to expand their linguistic knowledge, especially on
stylistics, by giving a broader understanding in analyzing rhetorical figures used
in advertisement. Furthermore, by reading this thesis, readers are encouraged to
be more open-minded toward the distinctive style of writing especially in the way
language is used in advertising work. Hopefully, this thesis inspires other
researchers to develop or to conduct other researches in the same field.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The problems in this study are formulated as follows:
1. What rhetorical figures are used in Revlon advertisements?
2. What is the function of the rhetorical figures?
1.3 Purpose of the Study
Based on the statement of the problem, I would like to accomplish these
purposes:
1. To reveal the rhetorical figures used in Revlon advertisements
2. To show the function of rhetorical figures
1.4 Method of Research
I take the following steps in conducting this research. The first step is
looking for advertisements which contain rhetorical figures from the Internet; I use
Revlon advertisements as the data. The second step is gathering and classifying
the kinds of rhetorical figures. The third step is analyzing the data. The final step
is writing a research report.
1.5 Organization of the Thesis
This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter One is Introduction; it
consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the
Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two
contains Theoretical Framework, which consists of the theory of rhetorical figure
which is used in advertisement. Chapter Three contains the analysis of the data. Chapter Four contains Conclusion, which is followed by Bibliography and
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CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
In this chapter I would like to draw some conclusions regarding the
rhetorical figures found in Revlon advertisements. Using McQuarrie and Mick’s
model of levels of operation, I find that the rhetorical figures belong to three levels
of operation, namely repetition, reversal, and destabilization.
Repetition is the most excessively rhetorical figure used in Revlon advertisements. There are six figures of repetition which are rhyme, alliteration,
assonance, anaphora, epistrophe, and parison. The result of this analysis shows
26 data out of 30 data or 87% use repetition. In my opinion, it is due to the fact
that repetition can simply and obviously give an emphatic effect of the meaning.
Giving an emphasis to the advertisement message is really very important so that
repetition is a very strong and effective tool. While repeating certain words,
phrases or sentences, the advertiser also reminds the readers of the importance
of these linguistic units, making them key words, phrases or sentences of the text.
Repetition operation covers three major aspects, which are sounds (rhyme,
alliteration, and assonance), words (anaphora and epistrophe), and phrase
structure (parison). Based on my finding, I notice that in repetition operation,
There are 9 out of 26 data that belong sound repetition (73%), whereas in word
repetition there are 5 data (19%) and in phrase structure repetition there are 2
data (8%). In my opinion, this is because sound repetition can bring more
powerful impact to attention grabbing. Rhyme, alliteration and assonance are
meant to build the connection among the sounds of the words, so that it can create sentence that are easier to catch which will help the reader to understand
the meaning of the advertisement message. Besides achieving a particular effect
of euphony, sound repetition also allows better memorization of the advertisement
message, as it resonates in one’s mind. In addition, most of Revlon online
advertisements were also made in TVC (television commercial) with voice over;
therefore, it will be effective too if the advertisement messages also contain
sound-play.
The other two operations show minor use. There is only one figure for
each level; antithesis in the reversal operation and allusion in the destabilization
operation. Only 3 data found that use antithesis (10%) and 1 data for allusion
(3%). This is a very small percentage compared to repetition operation (87%). The
minor use is understandable since the figures in reversal and destabilization
operation are not quite easy enough to understand and it is most probably more
difficult to convey the messages through them. Since antithesis involves the
contradiction of ideas, it may contain double meanings due to the use of two ideas
within one sentence. Whereas allusion requires readers’ background knowledge
in order to understand the meaning. This, I believe, makes these two figure rarely
appear in Revlon advertisements.
The outcome of the analysis also shows zero use of any figures from the substitution operation, such as rhetorical question, ellipsis or metonymy. This is, in
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understand. Those figures are not only used for stylistic effects but also designed
to force the audience to think and reflect more on the advertisement messages.
Those figures are based on the close connection between words; one concept
substitutes several words. It also requires the audience’s background of
knowledge about the whole concept to understand the meaning of the advertisement message.
The other significant thing about the rhetorical figures used in Revlon
advertisement is the functions. Almost all of the data have at least one function.
The outcome of the analysis shows that the majority of the data of rhetorical
figures to serve the function of emphasizing the good point of the product. There
are 17 data out of 30 data that serve this function (57%). Through this finding, it is
also revealed that rhetorical figures can be employed to improve the effectiveness,
clarity and persuasiveness of the advertisement, so that most probably the
potential consumers may remember the advertisements better.
Besides for emphasizing the good point of a product, rhetorical figure can
also be used to make the advertisements message sound nice and pleasing.
There are 6 data that use rhetorical figure to serve this function (20%). Since this
function deals more with sound, the figures with this function are those in sound
repetition, such as rhyme, alliteration or assonance. A rhyme plays with the same
ending sound, while alliteration and assonance deal with the same consonant and
vowel sounds. These three figures allow the advertiser to play with the sounds
within the advertisement message to create euphony in order to make the slogans
more noticeable. Besides, sound repetition also plays an essential role in
From the corpus data, I find out that there are also seven data (23%) that
serve both functions of emphasizing the good point and making a nice and
pleasant sound in it. Considering this finding, I believe that by combining both
functions, it can help to achieve the goal of persuading potential consumers better.
This technique can make the advertisement messages more effective and efficient at the same time. Furthermore, since it is also quite a challenging work to
produce an advertisement that serves two functions all at once, in my opinion, by
putting several forms of sound play that can also be used to highlight the best
feature of a product will add an remarkably enticing style of writing to the
advertisement.
Finally, I would like to propose some suggestions. Since this thesis is
written with the concern of giving informative inputs to readers about rhetorical
figures that are used in advertisements and how it helps the advertisements in
persuading their potential consumers, it is expected that the readers can perceive
the advertisements not as something that people commonly take for granted in
printed media or the Internet, but also it can be a very interesting thing with so
many complexities in its linguistic aspects, especially in the distinctive style of
writing used in a commercial context. Besides, the topic of this thesis can still be
extended. There are still many other figures of rhetoric or linguistic features that
are interesting to be explored and worth investigating especially in advertisement
media.
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BCBLCOGRAPHY
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