Taking ADvantage
The Power of Words: Advertising Tricks of the Trade
Part One of a Two Part Series
by
Richard F. Taflinger
This
page has been accessed since
29 May 1996.
At the end of World War II
the Allies Powers sent a message to the Japanese demanding surrender. The
Japanese responded with the word mokusatsu, which
translates as either "to ignore" or "to withhold comment".
The Japanese meant that they wished to withhold comment, to discuss and then
decide. The Allies translated mokusatsu as the
Japanese deciding to ignore the demand for surrender. The Allies therefore
ended the war by dropping the bomb and transforming the world we live in
forever.
The effect that words can have is incredible:
to inform, persuade, hurt or ease pain, end war or start one, kill thousands or
even millions of people. They can get your point across, or destroy any hope of
your ideas ever being understood. A major element of advertising is the words,
which ones and in what order. The following is a discussion of words and how to
use them to the greatest effect in advertising.
#
When using words, one of the major
considerations must be how to achieve the most impact upon your audience. If
the words chosen do not have an effect then there really isn't much point in
saying or writing them. How then do you get the most impact from your words?
First, let us examine the ways in which words
can have an impact. Each word has two definitions, the denotative and the
connotative. The denotative meaning is basically the dictionary meaning, the
one that almost anyone can understand who speaks or desires to speak the
language.
For example, take the word "chair".
It has a denotative meaning: a piece of furniture designed for one person to
sit upon. Anybody can point at such a piece of furniture and the audience will
respond with "chair" (or whatever word means "a piece of
furniture designed for one person to sit upon" in their language). It is
this denotative meaning students learn in foreign language classes so they will
know the word "chaise" means "chair" in French.
However, of greater importance, particularly
in advertising, is the connotative definition, the definition each individual
conjures up in rher mind in response to hearing or reading the word. That
definition can be denotative in effect, but strictly individual. For example,
someone hearing the word chair will rarely think "a piece of furniture
designed for one person to sit upon." Instead they will imagine what they
consider a chair. It could be a desk chair, a Queen Anne wing chair, a dining
room chair, or whatever image appears before the mind's eye representing to
that person a "chair". This is not a specific image common to all,
but a general concept dependent on the individual. This is why people use
modifiers like adjectives and adverbs: they narrow the general concept to one
specific to the speaker's intent. Thus, when the speaker has an image of a wing
chair, rhe adds the modifier "wing". This prevents the audience
thinking of a desk chair.
Thus the connotative definition of a word can
be denotative in effect. However, of far more importance is that the
connotative meaning of a word can have a strong emotional content. In other
words, the audience can respond emotionally rather than intellectually to
hearing or reading a word.
For example, let us take the word
"snake". The denotative definition, a cold-blooded, legless reptile,
has little emotional content. The connotative definition, however, can have a
strong impact, depending on the individual's perception of a snake. It could be
a cool, dry, pest eliminator, or a cold, slimy, yucky monster. Another example
is "spider". As you, dear reader, read this
word, what was your response? Did you think "an eight-legged
arachnid"? Or did you have another, emotional response, perhaps "a
silent pest-killer" or "a creepy, crawly, hairy beastie, yuck,
keep-it-away-from-me, kill it"? Whichever response you had, it is your
individual connotation, your emotional response to the word.
Why is this difference between the denotative
and connotative definitions of words of such importance? It is because the
greatest impact of words comes from using the connotative meanings to affect
the audience's emotional response. One reason for this is that you cannot argue
away emotions because they do not respond to logic. Thus if you can make your
audience agree with your point of view on an emotional level, your
competition's logical arguments won't sway them about why they shouldn't feel
that way.
An example that just about everybody can
relate to: you're in love; he-she-it is the most wonderful, perfect person in
the world, flawless, faultless ("love is blind" is not only a cliche, it is a truism). Then he-she-it dumps you; tears,
wailing, depression, etc., ensues. Your friends gather around and tell you that
he-she-it is a jerk, a poltroon, not worth the tears, that he-she-it does not
deserve the trauma through which you are putting yourself. You nod, agree, then
you burst into tears anew, exclaiming "but I can't help it, this is how I
feel." All the logical arguments in the world about why you shouldn't feel
bad about being dumped have no effect on your emotions. That's how you feel.
That you cannot argue away emotions is only
one of the reasons that connotations have impact. Another is that abstract
words are almost entirely defined by their connotations. Abstract words such as
truth, beauty, and justice mean what the individual feels they mean. There is
no referent rhe can point to as a concrete example. Thus, abstractions affect
most people emotionally. If, therefore, you can make a discussion of
abstractions emotional by personalizing or anthropomorphizing them, they can
have a greater impact. Moliere used this idea in his play TARTUFFE. He
personalized religious hypocrisy, the cloaking of vice in a mantle of virtue,
in the character of Tartuffe, a quite unpleasant person. Thus, if you don't
like Tartuffe, an attitude difficult to avoid, you won't like what he stands
for.
Another element of words that's important is
that there are concrete and fuzzy words. Concrete words are those that have
definite referents. That is, you can point at an example of what you mean by
that word. For example, when you say the word "chair," you can point
at the concrete item, a chair, to clarify your meaning to your listener.
Concrete words have definite denotative meanings, and often have weak emotional
connotations.
Fuzzy words are those that have no concrete
referents, for which there is no object that can be pointed at to clarify what
the speaker means. Fuzzy words can mean whatever you think they mean, and thus
can mean different things to different people. For example, one fuzzy word is
"beauty." Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder, is dependent on
culture, and changes from time to time and person to person. Other fuzzy words
include "justice," which can mean anything from equality before the
law to the vendetta, and "truth," which depends on how you view the
world, what you know (or think you know), what others tell you, etc., etc., ad
nauseam.
The thing that is clear is that fuzzy words
are virtually all connotation, with their denotative meanings dependent on who
is defining them. For example, Samuel Johnson, who wrote one of the first
dictionaries in 1755, "defined a patron as 'one who supports with
insolence, and is paid with flattery.'" (Bryson, 1990, pg. 153)
#
Recall the discussion of programming in Consumer Psychology.
Much of people's programming is done in words, and those words lead to people's
behavior.
Words can obviously make people react or
behave in certain ways. The problem is: which words?
Obviously some words have built-in reactions:
mother, patriotism, truth, God, Allah, vomit, dentist. Whether someone is for
or against any of the concepts represented by those words, nonetheless there is
an emotional reaction.
However, most words do not, in and of
themselves create reactions. Nevertheless, when put in combination with other
words, phrases can have strong effects. For example, I once had a student who
wrote an informative paper on the medical techniques used for abortions. She
didn't want to express a point of view about abortion, simply discuss medical
techniques. However, she used the words, "Another method used to kill the
baby is . . .." (my
italics). Notice the emotional impact of that phrase. Changing the words to
ones that have little connotational meaning changes
the effect of the same meaning. For example, "terminate the fetus"
has the same meaning; however, it has far less emotional impact than "kill
the baby."
By choosing words according to their
denotative or conotative meanings, you can increase
or decrease their impact on your audience.
#
An effective use of words that is rather
unethical but often used in advertising is using logical fallacies. These
fallacies, "tricks of the trade," are misleading and are not sound
reasoning, based as they are on word choice and syntax rather than evidence.
They sound like evidence, but are really lacking evidence.
The usual way to create the tricks of the
trade is by mixing concrete and fuzzy words, denotative and connotative meanings.
Fuzzy words are particularly useful, since it is possible for the copywriter to
mean one thing by a word, knowing all the while that the average reader will
assume the meaning is something totally different. For example, "made in
#
The following is several of the specific
tricks of the trade that are commonly used in advertising
Black/White
The black/white, or either/or, trick is
making a statement that provides insufficient options to your argument.
"Love it or leave it" was a big slogan of the 1960s, and it sounds
logical. Nevertheless, it provides no other possible options, such as
"Love it, or don't love it, stay or not, you don't have to agree with me
if you don't want to."
The reason this fallacy is often called the
black/white fallacy is that it denies any shades of grey on an issue or idea.
Using it gives the impression that everything can be seen in terms of yes or
no, true or false, on or off, with no maybes or both true and false depending
on circumstances allowed. This fallacy is particularly popular and effective in
jingoism, where slogans replace thinking: "Love it or leave it",
"If you're not for me, you're against me", "My country, right or
wrong". Note that all of the above actually have other options, but the
statements do not allow for them.
A common way in which this trick is used in
advertising is by presenting two situations, one with the product and the other
without. The one with the product shows circumstances that the advertiser
presumes the target audience would like to be in, and vice versa for the
situation without the product. For example, you have two groups of people: the
first is young, beautiful, fit, happy, fun-loving and active; the second is
old, ugly, out-of-shape, miserable, and apathetic. The first uses the product;
the second doesn't. The underlying premise is that the product is an integral
part of making you a member of the first, that the absence of the product makes
you the second. Since most people would rather be the first, and the product is
a part of being the first, then people should buy the product. And they do.
A real example: a salsa company used the
slogan, "Got it. Don't got it." When saying
"got it", the commercial showed pictures of the first group of people
described above, all of whom were eating the salsa. Interspersed were pictures
of the second type of people, who weren't eating the salsa, and who "don't
got it." Clearly, eat the salsa or you
"don't get it, loser."
Genetic Fallacy
The genetic fallacy makes a prediction about
something based on where it came from or its origins. For example, saying
"He wouldn't do that--he's from a good family" is making a genetic
fallacy. "You can't expect any better from her--she's from the slums"
is also using a genetic fallacy. Note that in neither case is
there any reference to the individual's personal abilities or lack thereof;
only to where they came from. In advertising, this fallacy is used
often: "If it's made by [company], it must be good" is an example.
Such statements may indeed by true, but they need evidence as proof, not merely
a statement of origin.
Begging the Question
Begging the question is making a statement
that includes a premise that has not been proven, basically saying that
something is simply because it is. For example, the statement "Henry
Miller's filthy books should be banned" is begging the question, in that
it contains the unproven premise that the books are filthy. "Why are so
many mothers of cavity prone children switching to Aim [toothpaste]?" is
also begging the question. It contains the unproven premise that mothers of
cavity-prone children are doing anything at all, much less switching to Aim. It
looks like evidence that Aim is better for cavity-prone children, when it fact
it provides no evidence whatsoever.
Weasel Words
Weasel words are those words that are tossed
into a sentence that change the actual meaning of the sentence while leaving an
impression that is different. It's the easiest way to avoid having to take any
responsibility for anything you say, or seem to say. For example, the sentence
"Our canned corn is as good as fresh cooked corn."© The impression
given is that the canned corn is as good (whatever that means) as corn on the
cob right off the stalk. However, the phrase contains a weasel word:
"cooked". Thus, the sentence actually says that the canned corn is as
good as corn that has been cooked; now you need to cook it again to serve it.
Note the sentence does not say that the canned corn is as good as fresh corn;
it's as good as fresh cooked corn.
Another example: "Our dog food contains
as much meat protein as 10 pounds of sirloin steak."© The sentence gives
the impression that the dog food contains sirloin steak. In fact it contains
the equivalent of 10 pounds of steak in the form of meat protein. This protein
can be anything that is made of meat: lips, cheeks, snouts, entrails, etc. It
is doubtful that the dog food actually contains 10 pounds of steak. If it did,
the sentence would read, "Our dog food contains 10 pounds of sirloin
steak."
An interesting example of weasel words is the
phrase "Three out of four doctors recommend the major ingredient in [the
product of your choice]." Note that the major ingredient is not
specifically stated. For many analgesic products, the major ingredient is
aspirin. Saying that outright might leave the audience wondering why they
should buy that product rather than just buying aspirin, and thus would defeat
the purpose of the sentence.
(Of course, using the same reasoning as the
above, the sentence could be "Three out of four doctors recommend the
major ingredient in poisoned orange juice." Since the major ingredient in poisoned
orange juice is orange juice, the statement is true, and we can ignore the
small percentage of strychnine mixed in.)(Cross, 1983)
A favorite weasel word is one of the
shortest: if. "If the whole wide world can enjoy [use,
buy, desire, etc.] [whatever the product is], then so can you" says
absolutely nothing about the product, or even if anyone at all enjoys [uses,
buys, desires, etc.] the product. It simply says "if", applied to a
totally hypothetical, nonexistent state of being. Nonetheless, that weaseling
out of actually having to prove a contention is a major way of seeming to prove
a contention.
Another common way of usng
weasel words is using passive verb phrases. For example, instead of saying
"I think that" (active verb phrase), you can say "It would seem
that" (passive verb phrase). In the first instance, if anyone challenges
your statement, you need to defend your position. In the second, however, if
anyone challenges you, you can avoid any responsibility for defending the statement
by explaining that you only said "it would seem that", not that you
agree or that the statement had any validity in the first place. You can duck
responsibility since you never actually said it's what you think, even if, at
the time, it was.
Dangling Comparative
A dangling comparative is a statement which
seems to be comparing one thing to another, but in actuality never actually
states what the thing being compared is being compared to. What generally
happens is that the comparison is left up to the audience to complete. For
example, "Our tires stop 25% faster." Note that the statement never
says what the tires stop faster than. The audience would naturally expect it to
be other tires, and would mentally finish the statement "Our tires stop
25% faster than other tires." However, that is not what was said. The
comparison is left open, and could be other tires (in which case, it would be
stronger to actually say so), but it probably isn't other tires. It could just
as easily be doughnuts.
"Our toothpaste tastes better."
Better than what, day-old bacon fat, fertilizer, kerosene? The comparison is
never finished except in the minds of the audience.
"There is nothing just like
[whatever]." This is undoubtedly true. However, what is being compared? It
could be simply the name of the product. Thus if the sentence is, "There
is nothing just like Armorall,"™ this is
absolutely true; there is nothing else named Armorall.™ Other products may have exactly the same formula and do
exactly the same thing, but "Nothing else is named Armorall."™
In fact, nothing else can be named the same; the name is trademarked, and if
anyone tried to use the name, they would end up in court being sued for
trademark infringement.
[As a side-note, I'd like to know who does
the testing that allows the statement "Our cat [or dog] food tastes
better." Again, better than what, and who found out?]
Complex Question
A complex question is one that appears to be
asking for a yes or no answer, but is in reality two yes-or-no questions that
are usually contradictory. A well-known example is, "Are you still beating
your wife?" It seems to be asking for a yes or no answer, but no matter
how it's answered, it condemns the respondent. Answer yes, and he's still
beating his wife; say no, and he used to. Another example is, "Are you
still cheating on your income tax?" Again, no matter how you answer, you
can't win.
Buzz Words
Buzz words are words that seem to say
something, but what? They are extremely popular in advertising. For example, a
major word is "crisp" when applied to soft drinks or wine. What does
this word mean? That the drink crackles like broken glass when you drink it?
You chew it like potato chips?
"Natural" is a big buzz word,
particularly applied to food and drink. However, what exactly is
"natural"? Definitions of the word include "produced by
nature," "not artificial," or "not cultivated or
civilized." Thus what does the word mean when applied to, say, beer? If a
beer is natural, is it produced by nature? That somewhere in the Amazon forest,
there exists a beer tree that need merely be tapped
and bottled? Unlikely; beer is produced in breweries and does not exist in
nature. Is natural beer not artificial? Artificial means "made by
humans." Since humans make the beer in breweries, then beer is definitely
artificial. Is natural beer not cultivated or civilized? The behavior of beer
drinkers is occasionally not cultivated or civilized, but beer is one of the
first achievements of civilization. Then what exactly does it mean for beer to
be natural: that it's not made of polyester? In effect, the word natural
applied to any product that doesn't exist in a finished state in nature is a
buzz word.
Of course, there are products that exist in
nature and can be called natural. What does it mean in those cases? For
example, what is the difference between natural and refined honey? Basically,
the difference is dirt. Refining honey does not change the honey, just removes
extra non-honey items like dirt, bees' wax, and perhaps bees.
How about "organic"? Organic seems
to mean that a product is produced naturally (see above). However, organic
means "carbon-based", as in the difference between organic and
inorganic chemistry. Thus, just about anything not made of rocks is organic; if
you can digest it, it's organic. To many people, organic foods are more
healthful because they are produced without the use of chemical fertilizers or
other "unnatural" means. However, chemical fertilizers are organic,
are produced organically, and thus are just as organic as organic fertilizers
such as bird guano. They just have a bad reputation that comes more from the
reputations of the companies that make it than the reputation of the fertilizer
itself.
Thus we can see that buzz words have little
or no meaning in and of themselves. What meaning they do have is based on the
connotations people give them (which often come from the way the people using
them give them) rather then their actual denotative meanings.
Guilt by Association
Similar to the genetic fallacy is guilt by
association, in which you attribute characteristics to someone or something
based merely on the society they keep. It's the "lie down with dogs, get
up with fleas" syndrome, where one's personal characteristics are
overshadowed by the real or assumed characteristics of one's associates. If
your friends or family are communists, you must be one, too. If you know a
criminal, you're also a criminal. Again, it may be true, but association is not
proof of anything.
In advertising, guilt by association is
usually a positive statement about the product rather than a negative one. That
is, the associations are positive rather than negative. For example, a product
must be good because it is associated with good things or people: a car must be
good because race driver has one; a sports drink must be good because a sports
star drinks it; a brand of make-up must be good because a top model wears it.
Again, the quality must be there, but that it keeps good compnay
doesn't prove its value.
Self-Definition
Humpty Dumpty was very good at
self-definition: "When I use a word it means just what I choose it to
mean--neither more nor less." (Carroll, 1960) This fallacy is very popular
with people who wish to mislead, and is particularly effective using those
slippery words that have no concrete referent. Such words as truth, beauty,
justice, democracy, patriotism, love, and defense mean just what the person
using them says they mean, assuming he or she actually says what they mean. It
is in this way that self-definition works best: use a word that you expect your
audience to define one way, but mean another way when you use it.
Let's look at an example. A prime word is
"justice". Most people will agree that justice is a consummation
devoutly to be wished. However, when you use the word and get your audience to
agree with your desire for justice, you may mean vigilantism. Demagogues use
this technique with great effect.
In advertising, self-definition is very
effective. If the product is a beauty aid such as mascara or eyeliner or
lipstick, the ad will show a model wearing the make-up. Her appearance is the
definition of "beauty". To be "beautiful" the consumer must
therefore use the advertised product.
Look at some more Tricks of
the Trade
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Copyright © 1996 Richard
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