Mixed-Language and Humorous Advertising Slogans

195 Pages·2017·2.8 MB·English

by  Kerstin Fuhrich

Mixed-language and
Humorous Advertising
Slogans

Inauguraldissertation
zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie
an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
vorgelegt von
Kerstin Fuhrich
geboren in Rosenheim, Deutschland

2017
Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Schmid
Zweitgutachterin: Prof. Dr. Angela Hahn

Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 22.November 2017
Für meine Eltern.
Acknowledgements

I want to thank my supervisor Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Schmid for his invaluable
feedback and support throughout all stages of my dissertation. From the
supervision of my Magister- and Zulassungsarbeit to the final stages of my
doctoral thesis, he opened up numerous opportunities and perspectives for me,
such as my former work for and with him as a research assistant at LMU and his
encouragement to apply for the Graduate School Language & Literature Munich –
Class of Language. I am particularly grateful that Prof. Dr. Schmid became a
constant in both my studies and my subsequent academic career, being a
rolemodel for me in both composure and competence.
I also wish to thank my second supervisor, Prof. Dr. Angela Hahn, for her
warm support, encouragement and ready availability in all matters. I consider it as
a particular privilege to have both Prof. Dr. Schmid and Prof. Dr. Hahn, two very
important pillars of my academic work, by my side.
The doctoral programme Graduate School Language & Literature Munich
– Class of Language and particularly its coordinator Dr. Daniel Holl provided me
with the ideal environment to progress scientifically. I would particularly like to
thank all members of the Class of Language, both professors and doctoral
candidates, for their helpful comments and questions.
This doctoral thesis contains large amounts of statistical calculations with
RStudio, which would have not been possible without the help of the Consulting
Laboratory of the Institute of Statistics (StaBLab) of the LMU under the
supervision of Prof. Dr. Helmut Küchenhoff. I owe great thanks to StaBLab
counselor Alexander Bauer and his extensive calculations and analyses which
accompagnied me throughout all stages of this project.
I also want to thank the LMU Graduate Center, which provided me with a
scholarship and thus with the best possible conditions for the final stages.
Particular thanks goes to my partner Thomas Grashei who gave me the
utmost support through all stages of my work. I also want to thank my colleagues
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in the LMU Department of English and American studies which I can now call
my friends: Dr. Franziska Günther, Livia Roshdi, Katharina Scholtz and Jan
Ullmann. I am also grateful for the additional statistical assistance of Eva
Müntefering, the proofreading of Agnes Vanes and the general, year-long support
of Prof. Dr. Helge Nowak from the Institute of English Literature.
I especially want to thank my parents Marianne and Christoph Fuhrich and
my sister Nicola Fuhrich for their confidence, trust, support and love which made
it possible in the first place that I am where I am now.
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Table of Contents

Table of Contents ................................................................................................... iii
List of Tables.......................................................................................................... vi
List of Figures ....................................................................................................... vii
List of Abbreviations.............................................................................................. ix
Zusammenfassung ................................................................................................... x
1. Advertising slogans with wordplays and English elements on the rise ........... 1
2. Slogans within the larger context of advertising ............................................. 7
2.1 History of advertising .................................................................................... 8
2.2 Nature of advertising ................................................................................... 12
2.2.1 Different areas of advertising ............................................................... 13
2.2.2 Five essential features of advertising .................................................... 14
2.2.3 Communication in advertising .............................................................. 15
2.2.4 Influencing in advertising ..................................................................... 16
2.2.5 Advertising as a process ....................................................................... 18
2.3 What is good advertising? ........................................................................... 18
3. Humour and language in advertising ............................................................. 22
3.1 What is a good slogan? ................................................................................ 22
3.2 Humour and puns ........................................................................................ 23
3.2.1 Humour ................................................................................................. 23
3.2.2 Humorous slogans................................................................................. 25
3.2.3 Puns ....................................................................................................... 26
3.2.4 Puns vs. wordplay ................................................................................. 28
3.2.5 Effects of humour in advertising .......................................................... 29
3.3 English elements in German advertising ..................................................... 33
3.4 Previous work .............................................................................................. 34
3.5 Aims of the present study ............................................................................ 36
4. Study on immediate recall ................................................................................. 37
4.1 Design .......................................................................................................... 38
4.1.1 Test group and setting ........................................................................... 38
4.1.2 Study design .......................................................................................... 38
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4.1.3 Choice of slogans .................................................................................. 42
4.1.4 Choice of brand names ......................................................................... 46
4.2 Results ......................................................................................................... 49
4.2.1 Slogan-related factors ........................................................................... 50
4.2.2 Target-group-related factors ................................................................. 54
4.2.3 Interactions between slogan-related and target group-related factors -
wordplay and language:education ................................................................. 58
4.2.4 Deviating wordplay............................................................................... 65
4.2.5 Interim summary ................................................................................... 67
4.3 Discussion ................................................................................................... 68
4.3.1 Frame theory and mixed-language slogans without wordplay ............. 69
4.3.2 Relevance theory and mixed-language and monolingual slogans without
wordplay ........................................................................................................ 73
4.3.3 Humour and relevance theory and slogans with wordplay ................... 77
4.3.4 Target-group specific differences ......................................................... 85
4.3.5 Deviating wordplay............................................................................. 106
4.3.6 Interim summary ................................................................................. 111
5. Study on retention and recall after one week .................................................. 115
5.1 Design ........................................................................................................ 115
5.1.1 Test group and setting ......................................................................... 115
5.1.2 Study design ........................................................................................ 116
5.1.3 Choice of slogans and brand names .................................................... 117
5.2 Results ....................................................................................................... 117
5.2.1 Time .................................................................................................... 118
5.2.2 Humour ............................................................................................... 119
5.2.3 Mixed-language and English .............................................................. 120
5.2.4 Interactions between humour and language ........................................ 122
5.2.5 Deviating wordplay............................................................................. 127
5.2.6 Interim summary ................................................................................. 128
5.3 Discussion ................................................................................................. 129
5.3.1 Time .................................................................................................... 129
5.3.2 Frame-violation and relevance theory applied to mixed-language
slogans without wordplay ............................................................................ 130
5.3.3 Relevance theory applied to monolingual slogans without wordplay 131
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5.3.4 Humour theory and relevance theory applied to slogan wordplays.... 132
5.3.5 Predictive coding theory ..................................................................... 133
5.3.6 Deviating wordplay............................................................................. 136
5.3.7 Interim summary ................................................................................. 139
6. Implications for advertising agencies and companies ..................................... 141
6.1 Know the effects of humour and language ................................................ 141
6.2 Know your company ................................................................................. 142
6.3 Know your target group ............................................................................ 143
6.3.1 Age ...................................................................................................... 143
6.3.2 Level of education .............................................................................. 144
6.4 Know your slogan ..................................................................................... 147
7. General discussion and conclusion ................................................................. 148
Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 154
Appendix ............................................................................................................. 167
A. Detailed list of statistical values of chapter 4 ............................................. 167
Statistical values including heterogeneous wordplays................................. 167
Statistical values excluding heterogeneous wordplays ................................ 168
B. Detailed list of statistical values of chapter 5 ............................................. 170
Statistical values including heterogeneous wordplays................................. 170
Statistial values excluding heterogeneous wordplays .................................. 171
C. Detailed results of the predict-function applied in chapter 4 ...................... 172
List of values ................................................................................................ 172
Graphical representation of the predict-function ......................................... 175
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List of Tables

Table 1: Study participants according to age and education ............................................. 38
Table 2: Gradual rating system of study evaluation.......................................................... 42
Table 3: Slogan design ...................................................................................................... 43
Table 4: List of slogans and brands used in the studies .................................................... 49
Table 5: P-values and estimates for the interactions language:education ......................... 64
Table 6: Estimates and p-values for the interactions wordplay:education ........................ 64
Table 7: P-values and estimates for the interactions wordplay:level of education ........... 89
Table 8: Cost, benefit and recall - low education, with wordplay .................................... 94
Table 9: Cost, benefit and recall - high education, with wordplay ................................... 98
Table 10: Cost, benefit and recall - lower education, no wordplay ................................ 101
Table 11: Cost, benefit and recall - higher education, no wordplay ............................... 105
Table 12: Summary of cost, benefit and recall ............................................................... 113
Table 13: Calculated recall rates for each slogan category, recall after one week.......... 123
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List of Figures

Theoretical Framework
Figure 1: Nature of advertising ......................................................................................... 12

Study on immediate recall
Figure 2: Study on immediate recall, sample processing task .......................................... 40
Figure 3: Study on immediate recall, distractor task ........................................................ 41
Figure 4: Study on immediate recall, sample recall task .................................................. 41
Figure 5: Recall rates of non-humorous vs. humorous slogans, immediate recall -boxplot
.......................................................................................................................................... 50
Figure 6: Recall rates of non-humorous vs. humorous slogans, immediate recall - barplot
.......................................................................................................................................... 50
Figure 7: Recall rates of German, English and German-English slogans, immediate recall
- boxplot ............................................................................................................................ 52
Figure 8: Recall rates of German, English and German-English slogans, immediate recall
- barplot ............................................................................................................................. 52
Figure 9: Recall rates of slogans with a feature combination, immediate recall .............. 53
Figure 10: Recall rates of different age groups, immediate recall - boxplot .................... 55
Figure 11: Recall rates of different age groups, immediate recall - barplot ..................... 55
Figure 12: Recall rates of different levels of education, immediate recall - boxplot ....... 56
Figure 13: Recall rates of different levels of education, immediate recall - barplot ........ 57
Figure 14: Recall rates of slogans with and without wordplay for subjects with lower
levels of education ............................................................................................................ 60
Figure 15: Recall rates of slogans with and without wordplay for subjects with higher
levels of education ............................................................................................................ 62
Figure 16: Slogans with homogeneous wordplay vs. slogans with deviating wordplay,
immediate recall - boxplot ................................................................................................ 66
Figure 17: Slogans with homogeneous wordplay vs. slogans with deviating wordplay,
immediate recall - barplot ................................................................................................. 66
Figure 18: Recall of slogans with wordplay - all age groups, lower education ................ 93
Figure 19: Recall rates of slogans with wordplay - all age groups, higher education
(without advanced technical college certificate) ............................................................... 96
Figure 20: Recall of slogans without wordplay - all age groups, lower level of education
........................................................................................................................................ 100
Figure 21: Recall rates of slogans without wordplay - all age groups, higher education
without advanced technical college certificate ............................................................... 103
Figure 22: Slogans with homogeneous wordplay vs. slogans with compound wordplay,
immediate recall - barplot ............................................................................................... 106
Figure 23: Slogans with homogeneous wordplay vs. slogans with sound as wordplay,
immediate recall - barplot ............................................................................................... 107
Figure 24: Slogans with homogeneous wordplay vs. slogans with wordplay at the
beginning, immediate recall - barplot ............................................................................. 108
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