Language Change and Advertising Communication: Footloose and Fancy Free

Abstract

Advertising is a very serious business but the language it employs is very playful and creative to communicate its meaning. The degree, to which the language is experimented in advertising communication, has largely been a question of prevailing social and economic forces. Advertising punchlines transcend the purity of linguistic expression and reflects the impressions of new media and new consumers. It is easy enough to understand that languages must undergo changes in their structures because of cultural modifications and word borrowing from the outside world. But hardly do we realize how extensive these linguistic changes can be in advertising media.

In this paper, I review some of the topical advertisements in relation to language change. Many saleable print advertisements are reviewed and instances of language change are identified, categorized, and explained. It is based on the observations of selected advertisements where the language change phenomenon is predominant and how it further influences the common word choice. Language change is an ongoing and inevitable process but what we see in advertisements is more unnatural and forceful practice to invent something ‘distinct’ and ‘bizarre’ to capture the eyeballs. The results have shown that as long as the linguistic playfulness fetches money, the advertisers won't hesitate to bend the rules of the game and create a new lingo for their brands' publicity.