The Language of Beer Advertisements

by

 Hanno Frey

Contents

1 Introduction 4

2 Language in Advertisements 4

3 The language of beer ads 6
3.1 Brand Names 6
3.2 The accompanying text 7

4 The images 8

5 Conclusion 9

6 Selected Bibliography 10

1 Introduction

While the last centuries of human history can be characterised as a time when most countries were only concerned with increasing their power and either occupying other countries or separating themselves from them, our century (and especially the last decade ) is the age of unification and political collaboration: Europe is uniting and the so-called "global- market" persistently developing. To the industries this new market is important in two respects: On the one hand there is an increasing number of potential customers. On the other hand the competition between industries and their products is getting tougher. Accordingly the development implies both: chance and risk. In order to seize the chance (= sell more products) and to avoid the risk of being swallowed by other industries it is most important to the companies to promote their products or services and to make them become commonly known. The best possibility to do so is to advertise them and it is quite interesting to examine the way how this is done. In this term paper I am going to concentrate on one single example of this process: beer ads. I have chosen this topic firstly because the beer- market is a perfect example of what is going on in general, as there are hundreds and thousands of different beer companies trying to sell their products, and secondly because even though there are that many different brands most ads show certain similarities. I am going to focus on these similarities much more than on the differences - as examining the respects in which beer ads differ is a much more complex topic which would go beyond the scope of this term paper. Hence, it is the aim of the following analysis to point out general ideas and concepts of beer ads concerning both components: images and language. In order to do so I am first of all going to explain the importance language possesses in ads as this question has been discussed quite controversially during the last years. The topic of the second part is the particular language used in beer ads (considering three examples) and the ideas which are connected to it. The third part presents the images used in these ads by not only describing the pictures but rather by pointing out the overall effect which they create. This effect is not only achieved by the combination of language and images but moreover by a complex interplay between both of them.

2 Language in Advertisements

In the process of examining the language used in advertising a most significant characteristic can be discovered: Obviously the producers of each particular ad do not choose the words they use only to transmit an "isolated meaning" (i.e.: denotations of words) but rather make use of the additional connotations words possess. Ads are supposed to evoke feelings towards the product, to raise the listeners´ interest for it and finally cause them to buy it. Without any doubts this aim is in most cases not only achieved on the basis of language alone but rather also a consequence of additionally used means, especially of paralinguistic ones. Ruth Römer states in this context: "Die moderne Werbung bedient sich nicht nur des Wortes, sondern auch der Farbe, des Bildes, besonderer graphischer Ausdrucksmittel und des Tones" (Römer, 1976, p. 23).

But even though there are examples of communication which function without words (cf.: Watzlawick, 1969, p. 50) and accordingly "Werbebilder, die ganz ohne Sprache auskommen" ( Römer, 1976, p. 25) this is still more an exception than the rule. Words are still important for several reasons:

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