DOI: 10.24843/JH.2018.v22.i01.p37

ISSN: 2302-920X

Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud

Vol 22.1 Pebruari 2018: 247-252

Verbal and Visual Messages in Advertisements of Men’s Accessories

Prisma Adi Prawangsa

English Department, Faculty of Arts – Udayana University [[email protected]]

Abstract

The title of this paper is “Verbal and Visual Messages in Advertisements of Men’s Accessories”. The discussion in this study is aimed to analyse the verbal and visual messages presented in each advertisements and analysing the meanings and functions of visual and verbal signs in each advertisements. The data of this study were taken from internet with different sources. They are Tudor, Velocity 773, Ray-Ban and Young’s Hats advertisement. The method and technique of collecting data used in this paper was library research and note taking, then the collected data was analysed descriptively by the theory of meaning and function proposed by Leech and theory of verbal and visual message proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure. The results of the analysis show that there are three types of meaning and function that can be identified in this study. Those meanings are connotative, thematic, and conceptual meaning. The functions are aesthetic, expressive and informational function.

Keywords: Advertisements, Verbal and Visual Messages, Meanings and Functions.

Abstrak

Judul tulisan ini adalah "Pesan Verbal dan Visual dalam Iklan Aksesoris Pria". Diskusi dalam penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pesan verbal dan visual yang disajikan di setiap iklan dan menganalisis makna dan fungsi tanda visual dan verbal di setiap iklan. Data penelitian ini diambil dari internet dengan sumber yang berbeda. Mereka adalah iklan Tudor, Velocity 773, Ray-Ban dan Young's Hats. Metode dan teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan dalam penulisan ini adalah penelitian kepustakaan dan pencatatan, kemudian data yang dikumpulkan dianalisis secara deskriptif oleh teori makna dan fungsi yang diajukan oleh Leech dan teori pesan verbal dan visual yang diajukan oleh Ferdinand de Saussure. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa ada tiga jenis makna dan fungsi yang dapat diidentifikasi dalam penelitian ini. Makna itu bersifat konotatif, tematik, dan konseptual. Fungsinya adalah fungsi estetika, ekspresif dan informasi.

Kata kunci: Iklan, Pesan Verbal dan Visual, Makna dan Fungsi.

  • 1.    Background of The Study

Nowadays Advertisement as a form of commercial promotion is a common activity which cannot be separated in our social daily life. In Oxford Advanced

Learner's Dictionary (Hornby:1995) Advertisement means a notice, picture, or film telling people about a product, job or service, According to Dyer(1993:2) Advertising is an activity of drawing

attention to something or informing somebody of something. Advertisements as a media of information are everywhere, any medium can be used for commercial advertising whether through audio, visual, and audio-visual medium, they can include on wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, web banners. shopping carts, magazines, newspapers, in radio, cinema, television, mobile telephone screens, and also through the internet. The ultimate objective of advertising is catching consumers’ attention to think and feel certain things about a company, its products as well as their services, and influence their purchase behaviour. This goal can be made by creating the persuasive communication through the verbal and visual e one of the advertisement.

A verbal sign of the advertisement is considered as a text which may be in form of word, phrase and sentence, and visual sign of advertisement is the image or picture of the product. The individual signs and their combinations are bind in order to work together in delivering a certain aim and implicit meaning appear from the printed advertisement and to perform a persuasive function in advertisements which can change the behaviour of the consumers directly. Well, actually, the process of introducing the persuasive communication to alter thought and perception of the consumers to the product through advertisement is not an easy job. It purely depends on how the creativity of advertiser in organizing the verbal and visual communication through their advertisement.

Based on these, the purpose of advertisement is, of course to tell the public about the newest product or service

in order to encourage the people to buy it or use it. The interesting point in this study is the way of the learners could understand the meaning inside the advertisement language. This project concerned on the analysis of function of verbal and visual message with general description based on the data. The study is relevant with the semiotic analysis. The purpose is to increase the learners’ knowledge and desire in learning semiotic analysis especially in the visual and verbal message on an advertisement.

  • 2.    Problem of The Study

Based on the background above the problems are formulated as follows:

  • a.    What verbal and visual messages are     presented     in     each

advertisement?

  • b.    What are the meanings and function of the visual and verbal signs in each advertisement?

  • 3.    Aims of the Study

  • a.    To identify verbal and visual messages presented in each advertisement.

  • b.    To analyse the meaning and function of the visual and verbal signs in each advertisement.

  • 4.    Research Method

The data of this study were taken from Internet with different sources. They are watch, shoes, sunglasses, and hat advertisement. The method and technique of collecting data used in this study is library research and note taking. The method and technique of analysing data used in this study was the qualitative descriptive method. First, data analysis in this study commenced with the categorization of verbal and visual

messages were identified. Second, the data were accordingly classified. The theory of advertisement and semiotic analysis were used as the main theory to elaborate the verbal and visual messages in some different categorization. This was to answer the problems of this project. It was continued with the analysis of the meaning and function of the verbal and visual signs by using the theory from Leech.

  • 5.    Findings and Discussion

The following examples present the types of meanings and function of the visual and verbal signs in each advertisement.

  • 5.1.1    The Meaning and Function Analysis

Leech (1966) classifies meaning into seven types; they are conceptual, connotative, stylistic, affective, reflected, collocative, and thematic. Leech states that there are five most important communicative function of language, such as:  expressive function, informational

function, aesthetic function, directive function, and phatic function.

  • 5.1.2    Connotative Meaning

Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what if refers to, over, and above its purely conceptual content.

Watch Advertisement

Designed for performance.

Engineered for elegance

Hat Advertisement

None Better Made

Shoes Advertisement

Born From Speed

The sentence from watch advertisement reflects connotative meaning because the advertiser wants to persuade the readers to buy the product by using interesting sentences and giving a message about the ability of the product.

The utterance from Hat Advertisement reflects connotative meaning because the advertiser wants to persuade and convince the consumer that the product is better than the other.

The utterance from Shoes Advertisement reflects connotative meaning because the advertiser wants to persuade the consumer about the speed of the product.

  • 5.1.3    Thematic Meaning

Thematic meaning is what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organize the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis.

Shoes Advertisement

Let’s Make Excellent Happen

Sunglasses advertisement

Gotta have a look

The utterance from shoes advertisement reflects thematic meaning because the advertiser wants to emphasize that this product is unique.

The utterance from sunglasses advertisement reflects thematic meaning because the advertiser wants to persuade the consumer to look at the product.

  • 5.1.4    Conceptual Meaning

Conceptual meaning is sometimes called ‘denotative’ or ‘cognitive’ meaning. It is considered as the central factor in linguistic communication.

Hat Advertisement

All Styles

Sunglasses Advertisement

Wayfarer

The utterance from hat advertisement reflects conceptual meaning because the advertiser wants to mention that the product is suitable for all styles.

The utterance from sunglasses advertisement reflects conceptual meaning because it explains a statement about people who travel on foot.

  • 5.1.5    Aesthetic Function

It can be defined as ‘the use of language for the sake of the linguistics artefact itself, and for no ulterior purpose’. Aesthetic function can have at least as much to do with conceptual as with affective meaning.

Shoes Advertisement

Born From Speed

Hat Advertisement

None Better Made

The utterance from shoes advertisement reflects aesthetic function because the advertiser wants to persuade the consumer about the speed of the product.

The utterance from hat advertisement reflects aesthetic function because the advertiser wants to persuade and convince the consumer that the product is better than the other.

  • 5.1.6    Expressive Function

Language can have expressive function, that is, it can be used to express its origator’s feeling and attitudes, swear words and exclamations are the most obvious instance of this.

Sunglasses Advertisement

Gotta have a look

Shoes Advertisement

Let’s Make Excellent

In the utterance from sunglasses advertisement, it reflects expressive function because the advertiser wants to persuade the consumer to look at the product.

The utterance from shoes advertisement reflects expressive function because the advertiser wants to express the feeling that this product is unique.

  • 5.1.7    Informational function

This function tends to be the most important one, which conveys the information from speaker/writer to listener/reader.

Sunglasses Advertisement

Authentic Ray-Ban glass lenses.

Superior glare protection. Perfect for those who worship the sun and those who shy away from it.

Watch Advertisement

Tudor watches are available at official Rolex retailers.

Tudorwatch.com

For more information call 486.968.1100.

Shoes Advertisement

Introducing the Velocity 773, inspired by track ace Maggie Vessey’s New Balance racing spikes

Hat Advertisement

Henry Klein & Co.

The sentence from sunglasses advertisement reflects informational function because it shows information about superiority of the product and suitable for those who loves travelling and outdoor activity.

The sentence from watch advertisement reflects informational function because this sentence giving information about the place to get the product and the web address of the company.

The utterance from shoes advertisement reflects informational function because the advertiser wants to give information about the origin of product inspiration.

The utterance from hat advertisement reflects informational function because the advertiser wants to give information about name of Product Company to the reader.

  • 6.    Conclusion

  • a.    Advertisement is one of media used by the company to promote their product to customer or the readers to know their product closely by giving brief information about the product itself. All advertisements used as the data in this study have four structural components, they are: Headline, Body Copy, Signature Line, and Standing Details. Advertisement usually has verbal or visual signs to give message to the customer or the readers. The verbal sign sends the message to the readers through words. Besides, visual

sign also important to support the message and make the advertisement more interesting. Because through the image in advertisement the readers or consumer be more convince to buy and use the product itself. Besides, with the image in advertisement that makes the advertisement looks alive. Generally, the headline in advertisement usually written in a bold big letter and in the top of the advertisement with interesting sentences; therefore they can gain and attract the reader’s attention. In advertisement the message that conveyed by advertiser is placed in body copy in order to make the message more visible by the readers. The signature line as a mention of the brand name and the standing details as a sentences that giving information about the product or the address of the company.

  • b.    Every sentence in advertisements has their own meanings and functions to make the readers more understand the messages of the advertiser conveyed. There are seven meanings used in this research such as: Affective meaning, Reflected meaning, Thematic meaning, and Stylistic meaning. There also five functions that used in this research such as: Informational function, Expressive function, Directive function, Aesthetic function, and Phatic function. Furthermore, to describe verbal and visual message are divided into signified and signifier. In terms the types of meaning and function, in this men’s accessories advertisement analysis, the result shows that there are three types of meaning and function

that can be identified. Those meanings are connotative, thematic and conceptual meaning. The functions are aesthetic, expressive and informational function.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Dyer, Gillian. 1993. Advertising as Communication. London: Clays Ltd.

Hornby, A.S.  1995.  Oxford Advanced

Learner's Dictionary of Current English: Oxford University Press

Leech, G. 1966. English in Advertising. A linguistics Study of Advertising in Great Britain. London: Longman Group Limited

Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1910. Third Course of Lecturers on General Linguistics. Pergamon Press

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