Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You and What This Says About You

318 Pages·2011·16.75 MB·English

by  Julie Sedivy

Sold on Language
Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You and What This Says About You. By Julie Sedivy and Greg Carlson
© 2011 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. ISBN: 978-0-470-68309-5
Sold on Language
How Advertisers Talk to You
and What This Says About You
Julie Sedivy
Greg Carlson
Thiseditionfirstpublished2011
(cid:1)2011JohnWiley&SonsLtd.
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Sedivy,Julie.
Soldonlanguage:howadvertiserstalktoyouandwhatthissaysaboutyou/Julie
Sedivy,GregCarlson.
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Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-470-68309-5(pbk.)
1. Advertising–Language.2. Advertising. I.Carlson,GregN.,1948-II.Title.
HF5821.S4462011
659.101’4–dc22
2010035847
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1 2011
For my parents, Vera and Ladislav, who understood
better than most the power of choice.
—JS
To sons Matthew and Geoffrey, in fondest hopes
for their world.
—GC
Contents
Aboutthe Authors ix
Preface xi
1 The Power ofChoice 1
2 The Unconscious Consumer 15
3 The Attentional Arms Race 59
4 We Know What You’re Thinking 97
5 WhyAdsDon’t Say What They Mean
(OrMean What They Say) 123
6 Acting Out 157
7 Divide andConquer 193
8 The Politics of Choice 245
Sources 291
Index 307
About the Authors
JulieSedivywasformerlyanAssociateProfessoratBrownUniversity,andisnow
an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Calgary. She has taught
Linguistics and Cognitive Science for the past 15 years, and has authored and
co-authoredseveraldozenarticlesonlanguageandthemind.Shecurrentlylives
and writes in Calgary, and climbs nearby rocks.
Greg Carlson is Professor of Linguistics, Philosophy, and Brain and Cognitive
SciencesattheUniversityofRochester.Hehasauthoredorco-authoredmorethan
ahundredarticlesonnaturallanguagesemanticsandpsycholinguistics.Heisthe
authorofReferencetoKindsinEnglishandisco-editorofTheGenericBookwithF.J.
Pelletier. Professor Carlson is a former editor of the journal Linguistics and
Philosophy and is currently editor of Language, the journal of the Linguistic
Societyof America.
Preface
Thisbookiswhathappenswhenacoupleoflanguagescientistsstarttalkingabout
ads.Inourcase,theseedsforthisbookweresownmorethan15yearsago.Itwent
likethis:Thefirstauthor(JulieSedivy)wasworkingonaPhDinLinguisticswith
thesecondauthor(GregCarlson).Now,thethingaboutlanguageisthatonceyou
startgettinganalyticalaboutit,youcan’tstop.Soresearchmeetingswouldoften
trail off into discussions about language and meaning in everyday life. Since
everydaylifehappenstobesaturatedbyadvertising,itbecameanaturaltargetfor
all this analytical excess. Eventually, we decided we’d gathered enough material
thatweshouldputittosomegooduse,sowedevelopedaclassonthetopic.Nature
tookitscourse,Juliegraduatedandtookajobelsewhere,butbothofuscontinued
to teach the class at our home institutions. In fact, over time, the ideas grew to
preoccupyusmoreandmore,andaswecontinuedthinkingaboutthem,tookona
seriousness that went far beyond their origins as interesting diversions.
Asouroriginalobservationsaboutadvertisinghaverolledonthroughtheyears,
they’ve picked up a great deal of material from fields that are outside of our
immediateareasofresearch.They’vealsopickedupmanyinsightsandexamples
fromstudentsovertime,anumberofwhomwritetousyearsaftertakingtheclass
withjustonemoreexampleofanadthatremindedthemofsomethingtheylearned
inthatlong-agolanguageandadvertisingcourse.Thesestudentshaveshownus
thatteachingistheartofserendipity.Eachofushashadtheexperienceoffinding
outthatsomethingweintendedasonlythemostcasualofremarks,orthestray
example,changeswhatsomestudentthoughttothepointofchangingtheirlivesin
someimportantway.Itisexperienceslikethesethatpropelledustotakethestep
from the comfortable activity of teaching to the torturous activity of writing a
book. You never know where that stray remark will land.
A note on pronouns: Being linguists, we had lengthy discussions as to what
“authorvoice”touse.Foraestheticreasons,wesettledonthefirstpersonsingular
form “I,” even though two of us stand behind the pronoun. Just think of the
referent as your favorite amalgamation of a short jazz-loving, rock-climbing,
Canadian/American female of Czech descent and a six-foot-five Midwesterner
withScandinavianrootswhooccasionallygoesdeer-huntingbuthasonlyeverhit
onewithhispick-uptruck.Theresultwillnodoubtbemoreinterestingthaneither
one of us.
xii Preface
As always, thanks are in order. First and foremost we’d like to thank and
formallyapologizetothosepeoplewhoputupwithusinthefinal(trulytorturous)
stagesofwritingthisbook.GratitudetoCraigChambers,KateSedivy-Haley,and
IanGrahamforreadingsectionsofthisbook,sometimesatpointswhentheywere
stillunreadable.AnespeciallywarmthankstowritersBradSomer,NancyHayes,
ElenaAitken, andLeanneShirtliffeforhelpingusmakethestepfromacademic
English into English English in the writing of this book.
1
The Power of Choice
Atrilliondollarsis,astheysay,alotofmoney.Alot.Here’swhatyoudo.Youtakea
house, yours will do fine, and remove all the furniture, rugs, dinnerware,
everything.Onceeverythingisclearedout,packthehousefullofsand.Floorto
ceiling. Make sure you open the closet and cabinet doors. Don’t forget the
medicine chest. Every inch. Now, sharpen your tweezers and start counting
the grains of sand, one at a time, until you have counted every grain of sand
in the house. Let’s just ignore the fact it would take you maybe three or four
thousandyearsat24hoursaday,moreifyouwantedtosleep,eat,havealife,etc.
Done with your house? Good! Now persuade your neighbors to move all their
belongings out, and pack their house with sand and count all of those grains.
You’renotdoneyet.Gotothenexthouse,thenthenext,anddothesameforthree
moredownthestreet.You’refinallydone—youhavenowcountedatrilliongrains
ofsand,andifyoureceivedonedollarforeverygrainyoucounted,you’dbethe
world’sfirst (andoldest) trillionaire.
Your bank account now would hold as much money as is spent each year
worldwideonadvertisingandmarketing.Actually,theamountspentisa“little”
more,afewhundredbilliondollarsmore,butlet’snotsweatthedetails.Roughly
40%ofthisfigureisintheUnitedStates.Thecompaniestypicallywiththelargest
advertising budgets, Procter & Gamble, Verizon Wireless, General Motors,
Johnson & Johnson, etc., each spend in the ballpark of two billion annually on
advertising.Twobillionisnothingtosneezeat.Ifyouhadthismoneyandinvested
itunimaginatively,youcouldretireonanincomeofmaybe$100millionperyear
andbuythatfleetofhelicoptersyou’vealwaysdreamedof.Cometothinkofit,if
P&G didn’t advertise at all for a year, the execs there could just keep that two
billion,investit,andgrabthatextra100milforthemselvestosplitwiththeirgolf
buddies(andsincetheywouldn’tinvestitunimaginatively,probablyalotmore).
But companies typically choose not to keep the money for themselves. That
money spent is, like most other company expenditures, an investment. It’s
expected to yield returns. If your company spends $10 000 on advertising your
newjuicesqueezer,youexpecttogetinreturnmorethan$10000inprofitscoming
Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You and What This Says About You. By Julie Sedivy and Greg Carlson
© 2011 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. ISBN: 978-0-470-68309-5
2 SoldonLanguage
fromincreasedjuicesqueezersales.Likeinvestinginnewplantstoproducetruck
transmissions,ornewmachinerytoputthetoothpasteinthetube,theexpectation
is return on investment—you spend the money in order to make even more
money.Andtheannualworldwideinvestmentofatrilliondollarspluschangeis
expectedtoyield more than that in profits.
Looked at this way, advertising is responsible for a great deal of economic
prosperity. Just consider momentarily what might happen if all advertising
suddenlydisappeared.Let’snotdwellontheunemployedadvertisingexecutives
forcedtoretireearlytotheircondos,butlookatthepotentialbroadereffects.We
knowseveralthingsforcertain.You’dhavetopayalotmoreforyoursuddenly
much thinner newspapers andmagazines, and doubtless many would go out of
business.You’dalsohavetopayalottowatchtelevision(thoughyou’dhavean
extra 15–20 minutes per hour of actual programming to watch instead of
commercials). Sales of existing products would plummet, and new products
wouldbefewandfarbetween.Withfarmorethanatrilliondollarsindecreased
profits, unemployment would soar, tax revenues woulddry up, and investment
would lag. A worldwide depression would set in, one we would never recover
from—except by reintroducing advertising. From this view, the presence of
advertising is not merely a sign of prosperity—it’s a major cause of it. Raise a
glass to Madison Avenue.
Salvation Through Advertising
Butsomepeoplegoevenfurtherthanthisinsingingthepraisesofadvertising.The
greatestcheerleaderfortheadindustrymaywellhavebeennoneotherthanalong-
ago president of the United States. It was the Roaring Twenties, a time of
unprecedented economic growth and optimism in America. The stock market
wasbooming,withnoendinsight—atleastforthetimebeing.Reigningoverthis
euphoriawasPresidentCalvinCoolidgefromVermont,nicknamed“SilentCal”
forhissparinguseofYankeewords.Butin1926,addressingagroupofadmenat
theirannualconvention,Calwasfarfromsilent.Hegotdownrightlyricalabout
the unparalleledvirtuesofthe advertising industry:
Advertisingministerstothespiritualsideoftrade.Itisagreatpowerthathasbeen
entrusted to your keeping which charges you with the highest responsibility of
inspiringandennoblingthecommercialworld.Itisallpartofthegreaterworkof
the regeneration andredemption of mankind.
Thisisreligiouslanguagefullforce.Itmightappearsomewhatoutofplaceinour
era.Afterall,he’stalkingabouttheverypeoplewhobroughtusRonaldMcDonald,
theJollyGreenGiant,andthePillsburyDoughboy.Hardlyreligiousiconography.
But Coolidgesaw in advertising’s fruits the salvation ofmankind: