Advertising - Language Techniques

Advertising is a very big thing in the lives of everyone on the planet. Without knowing it we all look at and see hundreds even thousands of advertisements every day. Advertising in the end comes down to trying to make your product seem better than everyone else’s, some may call it survival of the fittest as there is strong competition for billboards, TV times and radio slots. Our lives almost revolve around them, seeing celebrities we look up to with the newest phone, hair product or perfume. I myself look for the newest hair products to try, and the people or things used in the ads definitely influence my choice, as if there is a famous soccer player or a popular actor presenting the product I’d be a lot more attracted to it.

One of the biggest things advertised in today’s world is a hair product, and a big part of hair products advertised is men’s hair gel. It is such a large market to be involved in meaning there is a never-ending plethora of things you can do to make your ad seem better than the next one, using things like language techniques, form, purpose, intended target audience and the social context of the advertisement. We need to study advertising as it had such a large influence on our everyday lives. I have selected to compare print advertisements of hair gel from AX6, Axe and Phat Hair.

All three ads that I have chosen for hair gel were all presented on large billboards in busy intersections in the United States of America. They all have minimal text on their ads and let the images do the talking and they target their audience using conformity and sex appeal. These ads are aimed at young middle class men who are conscious of their look and social status. There are several stereotypes in these ads such as men are...

... middle of paper ...

...t on the audience. All these things relate back to the main target audience as low earning men or guys in college are generally very simple people, they just wants something that works and something that makes them feel a part of the crowd.

All of these ads are very effective in their own way and all have a deeper meaning that just the fact that you should buy their hair gel. There are a lot of similarities with these hair gel ads which include, the main colours used, the fact that images convey more than words and they are very minimalistic. Some of the differences are the way they target their audience with both conformity and sex appeal. In the end all these ads are trying to do is to grab you and make you buy their product. That’s what advertising is all about. Last but not least, can you imagine what our world would be like without advertising? I sure can’t.