Sloganized praises in advertisements

Abstract

The function ascribed to the stereotyped, conventional and popular phrases of praise in the oral media, with a view to acting on the target audience, constitutes the focal point of this article. Conventional phrases of praise, just like the catch phrases used in advertisements meant to attract consumers' attention, are seen to be short, to the point, easy to remember and therefore generally rhymed. Thus, these set phrases of praise in question have drawn advertisers' attention and are being widely used in publicities. In these advertisements, the functional relationship between the positive effect that praise creates on the addressees and the main use of publicity, i.e. the psychological inducement of the consumers to buy the relevant goods and the construction of a good image is observed to stand out. It is on these grounds that, conventional phrases of praise are found out to be a convenient tool for he advertising business, both for its formal features and its effects on the target consumer audience. Yet, these phrases are also seen to be transformed and to be therefore apt for an analysis in terms of "secondary orality", a term put forward by Walter J. Ong.