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II. Studies on English Advertisements
2.1 The Definition of Advertisement
English advertisement is a special form of advertisement. In order to understand English advertisement better, people should understand what is advertisement first. The word “advertising” was firstly originated from the Latin word “advert ere” which meant to catch people’s attention. During the medieval times, the word turned to “advertise” which meant to inform somebody something and catch his attention. It was not until the end of 17th century that, with the development of commerce, the word “advertising” became popular and obtained the meaning of to spread commercial information (Wu 12). The definition of advertisement is varying, with the change of the society, and it is still changing constantly. Once around the turn of the 20th century, Albert Lasker, the father of modern advertising defined advertising as the “salesmanship in print, driven by a reason why (Zhang 7). As a result of limitation of the media, he gives such a definition: Advertising is paid non-personal communication from an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade or influence an audience (Wells 11).
English advertisement usually uses simple words to make the public understand and accept the products quickly and easily. The common noun, monosyllabic words, verbs, which the English advertisement uses, are the most frequently used words in daily life, for example, buy, be, get, make, live, love, come, go, bring. Most of English advertisements use simple sentences. And imperative sentences are often used in English advertisements to achieve the purpose of sales promotion. A successful English advertisement whose language is beautiful, harmonious, vivid, concise and humorous can make the readers never forget. English advertisements are colorful, they have strong vitalities and power. They not only can cause the readers’ interests in goods, but also can strengthen the persuasive effective of advertisements so as to achieve the advertisement purpose. With the development of the times, English advertisement will add new contents.
2.2 The Features of English Advertisements
The features of advertisement can be learned from the definition of advertisement which has mentioned above. The most important feature of advertisement is to persuade consumers into buying a certain product or service successfully. Let’s appreciate a verse about advertisement:
The codfish lays a million eggs,
The helpful hen lays one.
The codfish makes no fuss of its achievement,
The hen boasts what she’s done.
People forget the gentle codfish,
The hen people eulogize;
Which teaches us this lesson that,
It pays to advertise (Zhang, Duan 605).
As we all know, there is an old Chinese saying “Good wines will become known after all even in desert lands.” This idiom has aroused many disputes in the field of advertising translation. The poem referred above tells us the great power of an advertisement in a humorous way. Recently, advertisement is being spoken highly of because of its influence on society and its role in marketing commodities. Many people think that advertisement affects people’s judgment on different kinds of commodities. It is helpful for the company to promote sales and make many profits. Advertisement is used by the companies and merchants to make communication with their consumers in order to achieve the aim of marketing more products. As one of the primary ways to promote products, advertisement is seen as the most direct and powerful way. Advertisement plays an important role in communicating and it can be printed on newspapers and magazines, played on TV or the Internet. It also can be translated into different languages which make the consumers of target market know about the products, meanwhile, it can be looked as a kind of East-West cultural exchange. On one hand, the marketers can distract the consumers’ attention from the price of the product with the help of advertisement, on the other hand, advertisement can stimulate consumers’ desire to buy.