Advertisements of all shapes and forms are uniquely crafted to send a message to the prospective customer about why this service or product is ideal for them. As a result, it is important to read the text included within them from a linguistically analytic view; this allows the individual to gain a better understanding of what the writer’s intention may be. In this paper, we will examine two advertisements, analyzing both their experiential and interpersonal meanings from a grammatical standpoint.
The first text is an advertisement for an investment company called Challenger, and the ad is meant to convey the importance of getting a retirement investment fund set up quickly. From an experiential standpoint, it is clear that there is a strong sensory response that is intended from the text, as the subject matter deals with one’s retirement, a very important thing to the audience of the ad. The use of the declarative ‘wouldn’t have taken’ in regards to a pay cut in the very first sentence creates tension, as it implies that the narrator will have to take a pay cut at some point. This is answered in the next sentence, which asks ‘why should I take one in retirement?”
The grammar then takes you through the process of what you can get from Challenger, with plenty of related attributes to the product and experience being inserted into the text. Phrases such as “when you are younger” and “you have time on your side” are all ways to butter you up to the material process of getting Challenger annuities, which “provides” and “[doesn’t] sacrifice” for you.
Interpersonally, the ad speaks to regret changing to opportunity. The beginning part of the text uses a lot of past finites and modal finites, implying an end to things such as their financial security. “Wouldn’t” and “was” are the operative finites in the beginning sentence, implying the past and mistakes made on the part of the narrator. This then changes to opportunity and imperatives, with the statement “Future-proof your retirement.” The mood then changes to a more positive polarity, as it states “the share market can go down as well as up,” and “you have time on your side.” All of these statements are meant to lead you to the decision to work with Challenger before it is too late.
The rest of the ad is full of declaratives and imperatives, as it wishes to tell you about their advantages (“rates are usually higher,” “they have…outperformed”), and make you feel as though time is running out to invest in Challenger annuities (“Ask,” “visit” and “call”).
The second text that will be examined is an advertisement for an energy company called Origin, calling for participation in a competition for clean and sustainable energy. Almost the entirety of the advertisement is made up of independent statements, making for a marked difference in this from the Challenger ad, which sought to create conditions that would favor the implementation of their service. Experientially, the ad is tailored to make one excited for a competition and potential prize money. The first sentence starts with the material process “Win,” already an enticing offer – people want to know what they are winning. It then moves on to showing why they are holding this competition and why it is important with further material processes like “working towards making sustainable energy,” and “we’ve launched the Sustainability Drive.”
From that point on, it turns the focus right to the customer, cutting to the chase and playing to the audience’s desire to win something, regardless of their passion for sustainable energy. Material and verbal processes like “Can…Win” and “will show” carry positive connotations, as the audience needs to be encouraged that they will, indeed, win this prize. The experiential examination of this text takes us through the entire process of entering the contest, winning it, and gaining the treasures that lay ahead for the winner.
From an interpersonal perspective, the whole ad is made up of imperative and declarative statements, which indicates excitement and new opportunities for both the company and the consumer. The company wants to get great ideas for sustainable energy, and the consumer wants to win a substantial prize – therefore, the audience needs to be ecstatic about the possibilities. This is why so much of a positive polarity is placed on the sentences in general - “we are working,” you “can” win, the “prize pool includes” and so on.
The big interrogatives in the ad, “What Can I Win?” and “How Do I Enter?” are meant to address the primary questions consumers would have in the ad, and they are then answered with the appropriate imperative statements, which are calls to action to visit the website and nominate a street for the drive. As the majority of the ad is a set of instructions for this specific drive, it is no surprise that imperatives dominate the rest of the advertisement.
In conclusion, from both experiential and interpersonal standpoints, the Challenger and Origin ads are specially tailored to make you believe a) there is a problem that needs fixing, b) this company is exactly the one to do it, and c) you have to get involved as soon as possible. The use of material processes on both the part of the company and the consumer links those experiences together to show just how easy and imperative the consumer’s participation is. Also, mood choice is used to present a problem in the beginning, using interrogatives and statements with a negative polarity in the problem, and declaratives and imperatives when presenting the solution. In the case of the Origin ad, the entire thing is less of a treatise on the sustainability problems that they are fighting and more of a contest that the audience can win. The use of imperatives within nearly all of the sentences, as the process and incentives are explained, go a long way toward establishing this. All of these factors contribute to an effective ad that seeks to draw the audience in and get them to do as it asks.
