首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The Power of Words: Advertising Tricks The effect that words can have is incredible: to inform, persuade, hurt or ease pain
The Power of Words: Advertising Tricks The effect that words can have is incredible: to inform, persuade, hurt or ease pain
admin
2010-10-28
55
问题
The Power of Words: Advertising Tricks
The effect that words can have is incredible: to inform, persuade, hurt or ease pain, end war or start one killing thousands or even millions of people. They can get your point across, or destroy any hope of your ideas ever being understood. A major element of advertising is the words, which ones and in what order. The following is several of the specific tricks that are commonly used in advertising.
Black/White Trick
The black/white, or either/or, trick is making a statement that provides insufficient options to your argument. "Love it or leave it" was a big slogan of the 1960s, and it sounds logical. Nevertheless, it provides no other possible options, such as" Love it, or don’t love it, stay or not, you don’t have to agree with me if you don’t want to. "
The reason this fallacy is often called the black/white fallacy is that it denies any other choices on an issue or idea. Using it gives the impression that everything can be seen in terms of yes or no, true or false, on or off, with no maybes or both true and false depending on circumstances allowed. This fallacy is particularly popular and effective in slogans like" Love it or leave it", "If you’re not for me, you’re against me", "My country, right or wrong". Note that all of the above actually have other options, but the statements do not allow for them.
A common way in which this trick is used in advertising is by presenting two situations, one with the product and ’the other without. The one with the product shows circumstances that the advertiser presumes the target audience would like to be in, and vice versa for the situation without the product. For example, you have two groups of people: the first is young, beautiful, fit, happy, fun-loving and active; the second is old, ugly, miserable, and passive. The first uses the product; the second doesn’t. The assumption is that the purchase of the product makes you a member of the first, that the absence of the product makes you the second. Since most people would rather be the first, and the product is a part of being the first, then people should buy the product. And they do.
Genetic Fallacy
The genetic fallacy makes a prediction about something based on where it came from or its origins. For example, saying" He wouldn’t do that--he’s from a good family" is making a genetic fallacy. "You can’t expect any better from her--she’s from the slums" is also using a genetic fallacy. Note that in neither case is there any reference to the individual’s personal abilities or lack thereof; only to where they came from. In advertising, this fallacy is used often: "If it’s made by [company],it must be good" is an example.
Weasel(含糊其辞的)Words
Weasel words are those words that are tossed into a sentence that change the actual meaning of the sentence while leaving an impression that is different. It’s the easiest way to avoid having to take any responsibility for anything you say, or seem to say. For example, the sentence "Our canned corn is as good as fresh cooked corn". The impression given is that the canned corn is as good (whatever that means) as corn on the cob(玉米穗轴) right off the stalk. However, the phrase contains a weasel word:" cooked". Thus, the sentence actually says that the canned corn is as good as corn that has been cooked; now you need to cook it again to serve it. Note the sentence does not say that the canned corn is as good as fresh corn; it’s as good as fresh cooked corn.
A favorite weasel word is one of the shortest: if. "If the whole wide world can enjoy [use, buy, desire, etc.] [whatever the product is], then so can you" says absolutely nothing about the product, or even if anyone at all enjoys [uses, buys, desires, etc.] the product. It simply says "if", applied to a totally hypothetical, nonexistent state of being.
Another common way of using weasel words is using passive verb phrases. For example, instead of saying" I think that"(active verb phrase), you can say "It would seem that"( passive verb phrase). In the first instance, ff anyone challenges your statement, you need to defend your position. In the second, however, if anyone challenges you, you can avoid any responsibility for defending the statement by explaining that you only said" it would seem that" ,not that you agree or that the statement had any validity in the first place. You can duck responsibility since you never actually said it’s what you think, even if, at the time, it was.
Dangling Comparative
A dangling comparative is a statement which seems to be comparing one thing to another, but in actuality never actually states what the thing being compared is being compared to. What generally happens is that the comparison is left up to the audience to complete. For example," Our tires stop 25% faster". Note that the statement never says what the tires stop faster than. The audience would naturally expect it to be other tires, and would mentally finish the statement" Our tires stop 25% faster than other tires". However, that is not what was said. The comparison is left open, and could be other tires (in which case, it would be strong6r to actually say so), but it probably isn’t other tires. It could just as easily be doughnuts.
Complex Question
A complex question is one that appears to be asking for a yes or no answer, but is in reality two yes-or-no questions that are usually contradictory. A well-known example is, "Are you still beating your wife? "It seems to be asking for a yes or no answer, but no matter how it’s answered, it condemns the respondent. Answer yes, and he’s still beating his wife; say no, and he used to. Another example is, "Are you still cheating’ on your income tax?" Again, no matter how you answer, you can’t win.
Buzz Words
Buzz words are words that seem to say something, but what? They are extremely popular in advertising. For example," natural" is a big buzz word, particularly applied to food and drink. However, what exactly is" natural"? Definitions of the word include" produced by nature"," not artificial", or "not cultivated or civilized". Thus what does the word mean when applied to, say, beer? If a beer is natural, is it produced by nature? That somewhere in the Amazon forest, there exists a beer tree that need merely be tapped and bottled? Unlikely; beer is produced in breweries and does not exist in nature. Is natural beer not artificial? Artificial means" made by humans". Since :humans make the beer in breweries(啤酒厂) ,then beer is definitely artificial. Is natural beer not cultivated or civilized? The behavior of beer drinkers is occasionally not cultivated or civilized, but beer is one of the first achievements of civilization. Then what exactly does it mean for beer to be natural? In effect, the word natural applied to any product that doesn’t exist in a finished state in nature is a buzz word.
Thus we can see that buzz words have little or no meaning in and of themselves. What meaning they do have is based on the connotations(言外之意)people give them (which often come from the way the people using them give them) rather than their actual denotative meanings.
The comparison in a dangling comparative is often left ______.
选项
答案
open
解析
题干考查的是dangling comparative中的comparison的特点。根据原文定位句The comparison is left open可推知本题空格处该填open。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/hbs7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
What’syourearliestchildhoodmemory?Canyourememberlearningtowalk?Ortalk?Thefirsttimeyou【C1】______thunderorwatch
What’syourearliestchildhoodmemory?Canyourememberlearningtowalk?Ortalk?Thefirsttimeyou【C1】______thunderorwatch
Weareallnaturallyattractedtopeoplewithideas,beliefsandinterestslikeourown.Similarly,wefeelcomfortablewithpeo
WhenitcomestopubliceducationintheUnitedStates,freemarketsandfleemindsaremutuallyexclusive.Recentcommercialve
WhenitcomestopubliceducationintheUnitedStates,freemarketsandfleemindsaremutuallyexclusive.Recentcommercialve
A、Boysbuyrosesfortheirgirlfriends.B、StudentsgiveValentinecardstotheirmothers.C、PeopleholdValentinepartiestocel
Thereisnodoubtaboutit:theEarthreallyisgrowingwarmer.Ifyouliveinacity,thatis,urban【C1】______haveknownfory
Thereisnodoubtaboutit:theEarthreallyisgrowingwarmer.Ifyouliveinacity,thatis,urban【C1】______haveknownfory
Inrecentyears,therehasbeenabigincreaseinairtravelandmanylargeairportshavenowreachedthelimitofthenumberof
Largeanimalsthatinhabitthedeserthaveevolvedanumberofadaptationsforreducingtheeffectsofextremeheat.Oneadaptat
随机试题
《抗日救国十大纲领》的颁布标志着抗日民族统一战线的形成,它的通过是在()。
以上哪项为溃疡样结肠炎较常见的镜下表现以上哪项为Crohn病较常见的镜下表现
局限性胸痛,按压后疼痛加重,提示病变主要累及的部位是
甲向乙租赁了房屋,向丙租赁了电视机,甲与乙的租赁合同为书面形式,签订于7月10日,约定7月15日乙向甲交付其所租赁房屋,租赁期为1年。乙依约定按时交付了租赁房屋。甲与丙的租赁合同为口头形式,同样约定租赁期为1年。对此,下列说法不正确的有:
下列关于长管的描述,正确的是()。
如果注册会计师提请被审计单位管理层在财务报表中披露导致对持续经营能力产生重大疑虑的主要事项或情况以及管理层拟采取的改善措施.然后依据披露情况决定其发表的审计意见类型,意味着注册会计师可能发表的审计报告的意见类型有()。
陈独秀说:“我们现在认定,只有这两位先生可以救治中国政治上、道德上、学术上、思想上一切的黑暗。”请问“这两位先生”是指()。
现代人养生要做到当喜则喜、当怒则怒,但是不可过度,过度就会有损健康。适当的喜,能“气和志达,荣卫通利”,可以消除因忧思所造成的“气机结滞”。但狂喜过度,就会“暴喜伤阳,乐极生悲”。常常有人因为大喜若狂,冲昏头脑。酿成不良后果,甚至导致猝死。再如悲,有悲伤之
下列情形中,应认定为自首的有()。
执行下列程序后,输出的结果是()。#include<stdio.h>#defineS(X)X*Xvoidmain(){inta=9,k=3,m=2;a/=S(k+m)/S(k+m);prin
最新回复
(
0
)