On Metaphor and Advertisement

2008/02/20

On Metaphor and Advertisement


..So the start of journey to rhetoric is to understand how unconsciousness works, to go deep to psycholinguistics. As it has been mentioned before - this is related to unique skill of a human - to notice and summarize similarities between different individuals and object classes. It is the same principle which is used in metaphoric processes. The foundation of metaphoric transformation is external description of inner qualities, purpose, functions, sometimes to create emotional impression and assessment.


The guys in Cognitive Linguistics have tried to prove that there is such thing as fundamental conceptual metaphor theory as one of the primary tool for cognition and perception. Conscious or unconscious use of conceptual metaphors in advertisement help to create the atmosphere of subtle details, which could not be shown otherwise. In pursuing the goal to create more effective advertisement one can use metaphors for very specific and exact purpose: I.e. by creating playful tension between metaphoric and natural meaning you can communicate multidimensional perspectives of cognition.
By changing the natural (usual) way of seeing and understanding the world by using metaphors one can open new semantic horizon, which allows to make new, unusual meaning in usual environment.
This expands definition of advertisement: advertisement is multidimensional, cultural business, which is not only creating its own goods, but also seeds social values, specific point of view and ways of consumer behavior (Rubavičius, 2004, p.17).

So research which trends of metaphoric transformation in advertisement, how the prospect of life of language systems is reflected in advertisement is very important not only for the theory of advertisement, but also for practical reasons: it can show which context is more effective and persuasive when influencing the consciousness of a consumer, and creates a framework for  creation of more effective psychological and commercial advertisement.

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