VISUAL AND VERBAL SIGNS OF HAIR COLOR ADVERTISEMENT

FOR ADULT IN WOMEN’S HEALTH MAGAZINE

Lylis Mayani

English Department Faculty of Letters

Abstract

Penelitian bertujuan untuk menganalisis tanda verbal dan non verbal yang terdapat dalam sebuah iklan yang dicetak dalam sebuah majalah bahasa Inggris. Penelitian ini diarahkan untuk menjawab dua pertanyaan mendasar yang terdapat dalam pokok permasalahan.

Dalam penelitian ini terdapat satu iklan yang telah dianalisisis yang diambil dari majalah wanita dicetak pada September 2011. Dalam menganalisis tanda verbal dan non verbal, penelitian ini menggunakan teori Sign oleh Leech (1966) dan Saussure dikutip Berger (1984),teori konteks situasi oleh Halliday (1985), teori fungsi dan makna oleh Leech (1974). Hasil kajian menunjukan presentasi non verbal,mampu menjadikan sebuah iklan untuk dapat tampil lebih persuasive, menarik dan mudah diingat. Dan dari analysis berdasarkan kontek situasi memberikan informasi tentang jenis iklan yang ditampilkan, peserta dari iklan dan bahasa yang digunakan untuk membujuk calon konsumen. Hasil kajian juga menunjukan, pada umumnya iklan memiliki makna konseptual, konotatif dan afektif digunakan untuk membujuk calon konsumen. Dalam setiap iklan juga menyampaikan fungsi bahasa yang digunakan seperti, fungsi informatif, ekspresif dan direktif.

Key words: tanda verbal dan non verba,konteks situasi, fungsi dan makna

  • 1.    Introduction

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listener) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. According to Dyer (1982: 2), advertising means drawing the attention to something or notifying or informing somebody about something.

In printed advertisement, the language in everyday life is different from the languages that are used in advertisement. These differences exist because when the advertisers make the advertisement, they attempt to motivate them, to tell something about their products, and to persuade the consumers. Advertising language is

generally informal; its sentences are usually simply constructed and short (Dyer, 1986: 139).

In printed advertisement the basic sign divides the format in two halves: An impressive picture which can be defined as the visual sign, and a simple text which can be defined as the verbal sign. A sign can create multiple meanings or a single one, the relationship between sign can generate a different set of meanings, a sign is active and always generates some meaning (Ilze, 1998).

  • 2.    Problems of the Study

By looking at the background of the study, the problems need to be discussed in this study could be stated as follows:

  • 1.    How are the visual and verbal signs used in Hair color advertisement for adult in English magazine related to the context of situation?

  • 2.    What are the functions and meanings of the signs that found in Hair color advertisement for adult from English magazine?

  • 3.    The Aims of the Study

Based on the statement of problems stated previously, the aims of this present study can be divided into two points:

  • 1 .To analyze the visual and verbal signs used in Hair color advertisement for adult in English magazines related to the context of situation.

  • 2 .To analyze and explain the functions and meanings of the signs that found in Hair color advertisement for adult in English magazines.

  • 4.    Research Method

The research method that used in this study can be divided into three components, namely the data source, method and technique of collecting data, method and technique of analyzing data.

  • 4.1.1    Data Source

The data used as the object of the discussion in this present study were presented in the form of English magazines printed Hair color advertisements, namely: Women’s Health that printed on September 2011. There was one advertisement analyzed in this study, there was: HerbaShine Color Crème

  • 4.1.2    Method and Technique of Collecting Data

The data were collected by documentation method. The steps are:

  • •      Finding the data source

  • •      Categorization process

  • •    Selection the data based on the types and the appropriate data that support the study.

  • 4.1.3    Method and Technique of Analyzing Data

The collected data were analyzed by descriptive method. The steps which were taken are as follow:

  • •    Was described the text as verbal from its components proposed by Leech (1966),

and visual signs in the advertisement according to Saussure (1857-1913).

  • •    Was analyzed the context of situation in the advertisement based on Halliday (1985).

  • •    Were found the meaning and function of the signs in the advertisement according to Leech (1974).

  • 5.    Discussion

The advertisement was HerbaShine Color crème, published on September 201 1 in Women’s Health magazine. Herbashine was a new generation of hair color from Gamier, with bamboo extract. This product was crème that it was very easy to be used.

  • 5.1    The Verbal signs, function and meaning analysis

The verbal sign of this advertisement was in the form of text and written in English. The verbal sign within the advertisement was analyzed according to its components:

  • 1.    Headline of this advertisement was in the form of the brand name of the product HerbaShine Color Crème. The headline of this advertisement reflected the conceptual meaning because it showed the brand name of product being

advertised and has informational function by giving the target consumers information about the name of the product.

  • 2.    This advertisement contains some body copy. The first sentence in this advertisement was Brilliant color. This sentence reflected directive function, because the company want to direct and persuade the target consumer to use this product by the word brilliant. This sentence also reflected a connotative meaning. It was because the word ‘brilliant’ meant smart which allocated for a human being nature. The word ‘brilliant’ in this advertisement did not reflect the real meaning of the color. It was simply because color could not be brilliant; it only contained a naturally formula. This product could be said brilliant because when the target consumers used this hair color, they did not only get the color moreover their hair would be more shiny and looked beautiful. The second sentence was No Damage in Sight. This sentence reflected conceptual meaning and informational function, it because such a guaranty for the consumers in order not to afraid to try this hair color product. As we know that there would always be effects coming from the use of some modern product. So then the sentence above could be said as a great deal to make the user believe that this was really a good and safe product to use. The third sentence was Watch our video to see why color crème is the best. This sentence reflected conceptual meaning and informational function because it showed the real meaning without any explicit intension. Moreover, the sentence gave the information related to the hair color product. The fourth sentence was Download the free scan-tag app. This sentence reflected conceptual meaning and informational function because it showed the real meaning without any explicit intension. Moreover, the sentence gave the information related to the hair color product. The fifth sentence was Snap this tag with your smartphone. This sentence reflected conceptual meaning and informational function because it showed the real meaning without any explicit intension. Moreover, the sentence gave the information related to the hair color product.

  • 3.    The signature Line (Logo) Analysis

The signature line (logo) of this advertisement was the brand name of the company Garnier. This text reflected the conceptual meaning because it showed the brand name of the company presented in this advertisement and had informational function because it informed the target consumers that this product published by Garnier company.

  • 4.    The Standing Detail Analysis

The standing detail of this advertisement was the website address of the product garnierUSA.com. It reflected the conceptual meaning and the function of the language as informational function, because the company explained the information about the website of the product. This information was very important for the target consumers because with this website they would be easier to find more information about the product.

  • 5.2    The visual analysis

The visual signs of the advertisement were in the form of pictures. The visual signs consist of the pictures of a female who was holding two bamboo blades. The female figure in this advertisement illustrated an expression of the female which had a very cool looking because she got intense pleasure from living in tune with nature The sexuality was showing by the female, she also looked very stronger seen from when she was holding the bamboo blade. Bamboo was well-known for its extreme strength and flexibility. The company showed that the products were healthy and natural 'green' products analyzed by the product enriched of bamboo extract. Bamboo extract contained nutrients that help give bamboo its resiliency and flexibility.

  • 5.3    Context of Situation analysis

Halliday (1985:12) divided the features of the context situation into field (what is happening), tenor (who are taking part) and mode (what part the language is playing). The analysis of the context of situation were looked from verbal and visual signs presentation in the advertisement.

  • a.    Field

The first aspect of the context of situation was field discourse. The field of this advertisement was focused in advertising the product namely HerbaShine Color Crème, which was issued by Garnier’s company, it could be analyzed from the verb “watch” in the sentence “Watch our video to see why color crème is the best”, the verb “take care” in the slogan of the advertisement, the verb “Download” in the sentences “Download the free scan-tag app”, and the verb “snap” in the sentence “snap this tag with your smartphone” . All of those verbs showed the action of the company in advertising their product. Through those sentences, the company tried to convince the target consumers about the advantages of this product, so that they could knew the excellences of this product as a kind of hair color and could compared with the other hair color products.

  • b.    Tenor

Meanwhile, the second aspect of the context of situation was tenor of discourse, who was taking part to the nature of participant, their status and roles. The participants in HerbaShine Color Crème advertisement were the company itself that designed and published the advertisement and also the target consumers who read the magazines especially HerbaShine color crème advertisement. The term of the possessive pronoun “our” in the sentences of “watch our video to see why color crème is the best” was directed for those who made this product, in this case was the company itself. The term of the pronoun “your” in the sentence of “snap this tag with your smartphone” was directed for those who read this advertisement, in this case was the target consumers themselves. The target consumers of this advertisement were the adult women who were really care with their style. This could be seen from the visual presentation which used a model who was adult woman. She was chosen because nowadays more adult women were interested to something that made them differ from others and herbashine color crème offered those choices. Generally, the relationship between the company and the target consumers was seller and buyer relationship. The use possessive pronouns “our” and “your” in this advertisement were indicated the relationship between the company and the consumers as a friend The company became a friend who indicated their care to their friend (target

consumers) through producing a safe product that used natural ingredients. The target consumers of this advertisement were female start from the adults.

  • c.    Mode

The last part of context situation was mode of discourse which concerned with the language that was used by the advertiser. This advertisement used a written language printed in magazine, those were persuasive, descriptive and informative by giving the information about the excellences of the product which it could convince the target consumers and make them interested. This advertisement used informal languages but still polite and refined. For instance, the sentence of “No damage insight” if we analyzed the sentence from the context used, it was surely could be categorized as an informal sentence. The sentence had no subject and object as what the formal sentence should has. The examples of written language existed in this advertisement were “no damage in sight”, “radiant shiny color in just 10 minutes”, “covers gray every time”. The sentence “no damage in sight” has persuasive language, it was because such a guaranty for the target consumers in order not to afraid to try this hair color product. As we know that there would always be effects coming from the use of some modern product. So then the sentence above could be said as a great deal to make the user believe that this was really a good and safe product to be used. In this advertisement the mode was not only constructed with a simple and short text but also from the visual presentation. The term of green color and bamboo field as the visual signs in this advertisement indicated that the products were kind of healthy and natural 'green' products. Bamboo was well-known for its extreme strength and flexibility. The ingredients of bamboo extract contained nutrients that help the hair strong and healthy look.

  • 6.    Conclusion

The study discusses the verbal and visual signs in English printed advertisement to find out the messages from both aspects as well as the functions and meanings from each advertisement. Foregoing analyzing, the following points could be presented as the conclusion.

In visual presentation, the visual signs presented colorful pictures. The figures played very important role in advertising. The verbal signs in the advertisement pages considered of several components to support the advertisement, such as; headline, body copy, signature line and standing detail.

Three features of the context of situation gave the information about the kind of advertisements, the participants of the advertisements and the language used to persuade the audience.

Generally conceptual, connotative and affective meaning used to persuade the audience. In each advertisement were also conveying the function of language that used such as, informative, expressive and directive function.

  • 7.    References

Dyer, G. 1993. Advertising as communication. London and New York: Routledge.

London: Jonathan Cape.

De Saussure, Ferdinand. 1960. Course in General Linguistics. 1916; rpt. London: Peter Owen.

Halliday, M.A.K. and Requaiya Hasan. 1985. Language, Context, and Text: Aspect of Language in Social – Semiotic Perspective. Deakin University.

Leech, G. 1966. English in Advertising: Linguistic Study of Advertising In Great Britain. London: Longman.

Leech, G. 1974. Semantics. Great Britain: Hazell Watson and Viney Ltd.

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