II. Advertising English
Advertising English, especially persuasive ones, are the tools controlled by advertisers “who have defined their target audiences and determined the effect they hope to achieve through buying persuasive advertisements in the media”. And they have to attract the potential customers into buying the new products and help to sell certain services, ideas, and so on. Advertising English can be defined as a communication process, a social process, an information and persuasion process and one part of marketing process.
2.1 Definition of Advertising English
Advertising means “to arouse the public attention about certain things, and to induce a certain direction of means”, which is a concentrated, integrated, commercial art. Advertising English as an application language has been separated from general English and became non-standardized language because of its special utility. There is many differences in the words and sentences between advertising English and general English with the change of the development of advertising, the progress of the times and science and technology and social change. English advertisement has gradually formed a unique application language advertisement in modern society.
Advertising English as the main carrier of advertising English gradually formed a distinct characteristics of their own in the continuous improvement process itself. Advertising English has some features in the aspects of vocabulary, syntax and rhetoric after a long-term development. Understanding language features and translation skills of English advertising can convey the meaning of the ads in the maximum degree and enhance product promotion effect.
Albert Castle, known as the father of modern advertising, defines advertising as “the printed on paper salesmanship driven by the causal relationship” at the beginning of the twenties century. Therefore, advertising is a means of communication. The purpose of advertising is a propaganda to convey information to the public widely through some form of media for a particular need. Advertising is a means of promotion. Its purpose is to persuade or remind people to buy a certain product or to take some action, has become a way to spread the information. Advertising is an indispensable part of life.
For example, journalists regard advertising as a communication process, public relation or the persuasion process, businessmen see advertisements as the marketing process, economists and sociologists tend to focus on social, economic or ethics advertising. Definition of advertising is various, different people have different understanding about advertising.
Today, a widely quoted definition of advertising was put forward by famous American Marketing Association: “Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.” From this definition, it can be seen, that advertising is a kind of communication, making use of both verbal and nonverbal elements. Most advertisements aim at persuading people to buy something.
2.2 Classification of Advertising English
2.2.1 Commercial Advertisement
Commercial advertisement is called the profitability of advertising that refers to the pursuit of economic benefits, this is commercial advertisement’s purpose of advertising. To sell products or services for consumer is the main contents of commercial advertisement.
Commercial advertising is called product advertising, it is the wizard of sale and focus on commercial products one’s own knack in. To set up new ideas and new meanings for the product, and change consumer’s psychology to get purchasing behavior to pursuit the short-term benefits and economic benefits. This is the significant characteristics of commercial advertisement.
2.2.2 Cultural Advertising
Cultural advertising includes all the indirect pursuit of economic benefits of advertising. The purpose of advertising is not for profit, but to state their opinions or free services. It is called non-profit advertising. These advertisements belong to non-profit advertisement, including political advertising, public service advertising, advertising civil service, social education advertising, poster, personnel recruitment, marriage seeking, report the loss, the advertisement of job hunting, and so on. 浅析广告英语语言特点及其翻译策略(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_18483.html