The language of advertising: Who controls quality?

Abstract

Robert George Wyckham is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University and at present Director Undergraduate Programs. He was formerly Visiting Professor at the Michigan State University and the University of Manchester. He was the author of Problems in Branch Bank Administration and coauthor of Images and Marketing and Small Business Management: Text and Cases. He further published articles in various journals, e.g. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences. Journal of Retailing and European Journal of Marketing. Peter M. Banting is Professor at the Faculty of Business, McMaster University and at present Visiting Professor at the Institute for International Studies and Training, Fujinomiya, Japan. He was formerly Visiting Professor at the Cranfield School of Management, Bedfordshire, England, at York University, and at the Wilfrid Laurier University. His most important publications are: Ross, R. E. and P. M. Banting, 'Improving Canada's Global Competitiveness', Business Quarterly (1981), 41-46 and Banting, P.M., Canadian Mar keting (McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd., Toronto, 1977), 305 pp. Anthony K. Wensley is Lecturer and Head of the Micro computor Group at the University of Waterloo. He was formerly Lecturer at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. His most important publications are: (The Teaching of Computing Using Micro Computers', I.B.S.C.U.G. Conference (San Francisco, 1982), and Wensley, A. K., 'The Efficiency of Cana dian Foreign Exchange Markets', McMaster Faculty of Business Working Paper, No. 161. of syntax1 to accomplish the advertiser's objec tives are critical functions in the development of advertising. The advertiser chooses words and syntax in order to achieve specific marketing goals with a particular target audience. In determining the language to be used, decisions are often made to break the commonly accepted rules of standard English. The Pillsbury Frosting commercial which states that the product "spreads as good as it tastes" is an example. The advertiser apparently decided to use "the language of the people" as opposed to using correct grammar. Presumably this was done to communicate more effectively. Rules of grammar also may be broken as a device to attract attention. No doubt the copy writer who developed the Sprite advertising made such a decision when the phrase "the uppest taste" was selected. Large numbers of print advertisements contain phrases which are treated as sentences. It is generally accepted that short sets of words are easily com prehended. Hence the advertiser ignores gram matical convention. Phrases, such as "In hardest water... up to 30% cleaner", in a Calgon adver tisement, are based on an open flaunting of the traditional rules of English. Nevertheless, the advertiser achieves some degree of memorability and uniqueness (Nilsen, 1976). Those who create advertising copy which does not conform with standard English generally do so with marketing communication objectives in mind. It is not known whether advertising messages which use language that transgresses accepted rules of grammar are more powerful as com munication devices than grammatically correct messages. The literature of advertising and marketing is silent on this issue. However, it seems likely that, wittingly or unwittingly,