Advertisements are one way of persuasion for consumers. Previous researches show that imperatives are widely used in English and French advertisements (Leech 1966, Ishimaru 2004).
I propose that the use of imperative in ads depends on the targeted products. First, by showing the collected data (350 examples from magazines) I state there is more use of imperatives in manicure, foundation and skin products ads (e.g. “Get gelled today at salon near you!”) following Grice’s conversational maxims (1965). Readers can see concrete colors of visual products. We say “I see what you are saying,” and interpret it based on the metaphor, UNDERSTANDING IS SEEING (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). Our visual sensation is more dominant and reliable than other sensations, thus the use of imperatives is sometimes suitable for some visual products’ ads in English.
Second, I found many non-imperative messages in perfume advertisements. Our sensation of smell is less reliable and literally inexplicable. For example, “something smells about his confession” means his confession is doubtful. Many of these perfume advertising and naming of the products violate Grice’s maxim of quality. For example, only the words “PRADA CANDY” and “Eau de Parfum pradacandy.com” are printed in the ad. A female model holds the perfume bottle half hiding her face with the product. It is obviously not a candy. The consumer can enjoy interpreting their individual image of the product, and is sometimes successfully induced to be persuaded, in other words, to buy the product without any imperatives. I also show some Japanese advertisements which effectively employ (pseudo-)imperatives such as “Yacchae, Nissan! (Do it [colloquial], Nissan!)” to show that imperatives are sometimes used in Japanese advertisements as well, even though Japan is said to have a high-context culture.
References
Grice, Paul H. (1975) “Logic and Conversation.” in Peter Cole and Jerry Morgan (eds.) Syntax and Semantics, 41-58, New York: Academic Press.
Ishimaru, Kumiko (2004) Analyse du discourse publicitaire en France et au Japon. DEA dissertation, Université de Nantes.
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Leech, Geoffery (1966) English in Advertising, London: Longmans.
