Rhetoric in the advertisements 广告中的英语修辞

Rhetoric in the advertisements

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英语学术班

夏松

Advertisement is

not

only

an

economic

activity,

but

also

a

cultural

communication.

In

the

advertisement,

the

application

of

all

kinds

of

rhetoric is very common. Advertisements generally use simile, metaphor,

personification,

pun,

alliteration

etc.

Most

sorts

of

figures

are

concise,

vivid and humorous. The application of rhetoric is to make the thought

expressed more striking and effective, for the rhetoric has the power to

illustrate

and

vivify

it.

After

taking

this

semester

’

s

course

of

English

Rhetoric,

I

would

like

to

looking

into

the

application

of

rhetoric

in

advertisement by discussing some typical cases one by one.

Parallelism

comes

the

first.

Parallelism

means

giving

two

or

more

parts of the sentences

a

similar

form

so

as

to give the

whole

a

definite

pattern. It

’

s a balance of two or more similar words, phrases, or clauses.

The

application

of

parallelism

in

sentence

construction

can

sometimes

improve writing style clearness and readability. It helps create balanced

structure, powerful tone; improves expressive force, appeal; and illustrate

the idea clearly. Hence, it is widely used in advertisement.

“

For racer, is speed.

For child, is red.

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For father, is blood.

For car fan, is lover.

For individual, is challenge.

For group, is legend.

For us, is everything.

”

This is a piece of advertisement of Ferrari. The seven sentences are

in a parallel structure that can impress the listeners deeply. It can make

the listeners have a brief view of this sort of car. It seems to be attracted

by all kind of people, no matter what you are and no matter you are. In

that case, the consumers are likely to pay attention to this for the sake of

their eager for appreciation from others.

And Repetition comes the second. Like parallelism, it has the same

elements,

but

the

repetition

focuses

on

the

repeated

parts

while

parallelism

with

similar

structure

and

related

content

does

not

concentrate on the same elements. Poems, songs and advertising slogan

make

full

use

of

repetition.

It

is

mainly

to

emphasize,

to

clarify

the

meaning of a piece of writing or to express strong feelings. There are two

examples.

“

Introducing FITNESS magazine. It

’

s about health, it

’

s about exercise,

it

’

s about your image, your energy, and your outlook.

”

The use of repetition forms a strong tone to convince readers of the

abundant content of the magazine. It seems that this magazine cares about

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everything of yourself and all the consumers will care about the fitness of

themselves and their families. And this piece of advertisement is able to

drive the consumers to pay attention to it.

And

now

we

can

move

on

to

Antithesis.

Antithesis

is

a

counter- proposition

and

denotes

a

direct

contrast

to

the

original

proposition. In setting the opposite, an individual brings out a contrast in

the meaning by an obvious contrast in the expression.

“

Going East , Staying Westin.

”

The slogan of the hotel, Westin, is designed subtly. Westin looks and

pronounces like West which corresponds to East. It makes customers feel

like going across a long distance. And followed are some other examples.

“

We lead, others copy. (Ricoh Company)

”

“

No business too small

，

no problem too big. (IBM)

”

“

Tide

’

s in, Dirt

’

s out. (Tide)

”

“

The choice is yours.

The honor is ours.

”

The slogans not only have nice rhythms but also express the

products there is another function of this kind of

advertisements. For example,

“

Tide

’

s in, Dirt

’

s out. (Tide)

”

,

when us

consumers hear this piece of advertisement, we can have an illusion that

Tide is the best company to produce washing powder. In that case, when

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