STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT OF ATKINS CHOCOLATE CHIP GRANOLA BAR – MIN LI

INTRODUCTION

Since this is a Stylistic Analysis of the Magazine Advertisement, two respects should be made clear: stylistic analysis and advertisement.

Stylistic analysis is a normal part of both linguistic and literary studies. Stylistic analysis in linguistics refers to the identification of patterns of usage in speech and writing. In linguistics the purpose of a close analysis is to identify and classify the elements of language being used. In literary studies the purpose is usually an adjunct to understanding, exegesis, and interpretation. In both cases, an extremely detailed and scrupulous attention is paid to the text. It is practiced as a part of understanding the possible meanings in a text. Stylistic analysis is generally concerned with the uniqueness of a text; that is, what it is that is peculiar to the uses of language in a literary text for delivering the message.

It is also generally assumed that the process of stylistic analysis will reveal the good qualities of the writing. In stylistic analysis, the numerical recurrence of certain stylistic features is used to make judgments about the nature and the quality of the writing. Stylistic analysis purports to be fairly scientific. A hypothesis is stated and then proved. It is a useful discipline, which encourages logical thought and can be transferred to many other areas of academic studies (Wang, 2001).

With the development of globalization and industrialization, more and more goods are produced in the world day by day; as a result, advertisement plays an important role in selling products. It is an art of language using various kinds of devices. The advertisements have achieved amazing effects on persuading consumers to buy the products. At the same time, it has also formed its special style and the language used in the advertisements is different from other styles. Its function is to “attract attention, arouse interest, stimulate desire, create conviction and get action.” It is a kind of loaded language with persuasive power. Magazines and newspapers are the daily materials for people to read. No matter where people are----on the buses or subways or during the break time or after meal----, they can get whatever information they want in the magazines and newspapers. So magazines and newspapers have become one of the most effective ways of providing information, and the advertisements in magazines and newspapers can achieve good effects, they are novel-designed, concise and colorful which are full of aesthetics and can be fast read in order to attract people’s attention as much as possible, and arouse readers’ strong purchasing desire and persuade them to buy the products. This paper intends to analysis one of the magazine advertisements from the aspects of Linguistic Description, textual Analysis and Contextual Analysis, aiming at finding out its stylistic characters.

ANALYSIS

Graphological style markers

The advertisement uses larger, capital and bold letters in the headline to draw people’s attention and make them curious about what this advertisement mainly says, to lead the readers to go on reading unconsciously, to arouse their curiosity and desire to know more about this and to persuade the readers to buy it

The italic word “your” in the headline makes it more conspicuous among those big words. It makes the headline more like the face-to-face conversation and the advertiser speaks to the readers in a tender tone, making the advertisement more reliable and the readers are more likely to go on reading in a happy and curious mood. The italicized word aims to be distinguished from other words

The advertisement uses smaller-than-headline-and- larger-than-body-copy letters for the subtitle. The subtitle is well-designed and attractive and provides more information about the product. Moreover, it shows the advantages of the products and makes the headline more believable and compared with the headline and the subtitle, the letters in the body are the smallest. It shows sharp graphological contrast, making this advertisement eye-catching, clear and in good order.

There are four paragraphs in this advertisement, different from other advertisements which have one paragraph or even one sentence. The sentences in each paragraph are no more than two. The paragraphs are very short. Short sentences in short paragraphs make it easy for readers to understand and remember.

Lexical style markers

There are 85 words in all. Seven of them are hard words (words which have at least three syllables, not including inflections or compounding (Qian, 2006))

HARD WORDS: satisfy, chocolate, Granola, vitamins, minerals, varieties, advantage

The hard words make Atkins Chocolate Chip Granola Bar more attractive and nutritious without the fear of getting fat

The advertisement widely uses affirmative and commendatory words like: high, hunger-satisfying, great, great-tasting and best.

•       To impress the potential customer of the quality of the product

•       To form positive image of the product in their minds

•       To win their trust to the product and arouse their desire to buy it

Pronouns are repeatedly used:

•       Achieving your goal is easier…

•       Ready to improve your figure?

•       Start with our figures.

•        We know that losing weight is never easy, but there is no need to deprive yourself or feel hungry.

•        You can enjoy an Atkins Chocolate Chip Granola Bar

The constant use of pronoun sounds like a face-to-face and warmer conversation, makes the tone friendlier and trustable, it also strengthens the appeal to the readers and may probably persuade the readers to purchase the product

Syntactic markers

There are only five sentences. Among the five sentences, one is compound-complex sentence, one is complex sentence, one is compound sentence and two are simple sentences. The different structure of sentences gave details and more information about the product. The longest sentence contains 29 words (second paragraph). It gives detailed information of the product with the use of exact figures of the ingredients in the chocolate bar, making it more trustable and attractive with less sugar and without the fear of getting fat. The figures reflected the headline “Ready to improve your figure? Start with our figures.”

The other sentences served as supporting details about the product. The shortest sentence which includes the website of Atkins functioned as the concluding statement of the advertisement which means that more information about the product is provided by the website.

Imperative sentence, interrogative sentence and elliptical sentence are also used in the advertisement. The first sentence of the headline is both elliptical and interrogative sentence.

·         “Ready to improve your figure?” VS “Are you ready to improve your figure?”

The ellipsis on the headline sounds friendlier and tenderly at the same time the interrogation arouses people’s attention and thinking. The second statement of the headline and the last sentence of the advertisement are both imperative sentences which persuade and make it easier to accept. Negative words are seldom used in advertising, yet the advertisement of this Granola Bar, negative words occur twice:

                “We know that losing weight is never easy, but there is no need to deprive yourself or feel hungry.”

•       The negative words are not used to deny the product but to create contrast.

•       It shows how hard to lose weight and how horrible to go on diet.

•       It illustrates the goodness of the chocolate bar without the need to go on diet.

•       It highlights the uniqueness of the chocolate bar and its outstanding quality.

Grammatical style markers

The present tense is widely used in the advertisement. The use of present tense indicates the good quality of the product and its long-lasting and everlasting effect. It also makes the advertisement easier to understand without transferring to other tenses.

Semantic style markers

In the headline two words of figure appeared and the words have different meanings yet it attracts readers’ attention to go on reading. At the bottom of the advertisement, a big letter A—trade mark of Atkins—appeared. It means two things: first, it stands for the initial letter of the product and second it stands for being number one.

Layout and paragraph development

The headline is contained of two sentences. The first sentence indirectly stated that the product is going to deal with some “figure” problem, so it achieves amazing effect on persuading the readers to go on reading for the “figure” problem is a common concern mostly of women. The italic word “your” is also a good hint for the consumers to believe that the product is going to address their figure problem. The commanding second sentence of the headline, helps persuade the readers to go on reading the advertisement.

The last paragraph of the body, has the website of the company which assures the buyers that the Granola bar comes from a legal company and it makes them feel safer, the website provides more choices for the consumers.

Cohesive devices

Notice that a cohesive device was used at the beginning of the sentence, this is wrong from the grammatical aspect, yet it still made the sentences connected, achieved a more logical structure and even made the advertisement more persuasive and trustable.

CONCLUSION

This advertisement of “Atkins Chocolate Chip Granola Bar” adopts many devices in linguistic, textual and contextual aspects. It uses well-organized language, exact figures, eye-catching and bright pictures and affirmative adjectives to describe the good quality of the product.

                By the use of these devices, the producer can better communicate with the consumers and make the product more popular among the consumers in order to achieve the goal of everlasting purchase and popularity among the consumers.

SOURCE: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/download/3735/3337