- Paperback: 232 pages
- Publisher: Hodder Arnold (7 July 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340614447
- ISBN-13: 978-0340614440
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
50,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Communication Studies > Media & Communication Industries > Advertising
- #80 in Books > Business, Finance & Law > Sales & Marketing > Advertising
- #84 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Communication Studies > Media Studies
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
"A very good book about advertising."--NATFHE Journal
"A lucid guide to understanding how ads work...witty, clear, free of jargon, while still addressing a difficult range of critical issues in all their complexity, "Words in Ads" is the best book on popular culture for the general reader since Berger's "Ways of Seeing.""--College Composition andCommunication
"Thoroughly recommended to all in the field of language studies and media studies."--Forum for Modern Language
"Very readable, theoretically well-focused and penetrating analysis of advertising copy."--Forum for Modern Language Studies
"A book to be thoroughly recommended to all in the field of language studies and media studies."--Forum for Modern Language Studies
Product Description
Advertisements are central to popular culture; they are fun. This introductory text draws on current work in cultural studies and literary stylistics to emphasize the active role of the audience and the intertextual links between adverts, and between adverts and the other types of text. The author discusses the history of soap adverts, the way patterns lead to catchy copy, the analysis of puns and associative meanings, the way the audience is addressed, use of everyday conversation, language varieties and dialects, and the relations between words and pictures. Having outlined a number of ways of analyzing adverts, he shows how these can be applied to specific social topics such as green adverts, AIDS adverts and the effects of advertising on children. The book contains a wealth of examples of print and broadcast adverts drawn from sources worldwide and helps develop a critical and analytical approach to a major area of popular culture and communication.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I am tempted to cut my review short and run off to a rare book dealer to sell my copy of this book. As I write this, our favorite web site offers a new copy of the book for $564.78 and used versions for roughly $100 apiece. Although something tickles my intuition about the reality of these numbers, I do think this is a good book. Perhaps I'll hold onto it long enough to recommend it to you.
Author Greg Myers aims to provide a comprehensive treatment of the use of language in persuasive advertising. He declares a deeper purpose to entice his target audience of communications students into his specialty, the study of text and its effects on readers and society. He begins with a multipart definition of ads that focuses on their effects and their nature as written text. Following this introduction with a somewhat text-focused history of American advertising, Myers then presents current thinking. He analyses slogans (making similar points to Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die) and teaches us how to use careful sentences, mental associations between words, and similar techniques to create effective ad text. Subsequent chapters explore cultural differences in ads, use of conversational language to persuade, effective use of metaphor, and how to make words and graphics work well together. Closing chapters analyze environmental and public health ads, and discuss the importance of understanding and targeting an ad's audience.
Myers' book is a good text on effective use of text. Each chapter is supported by a recommended readings list and the book as a whole is supported by a strong bibliography and helpful glossary. Its only flaw is that it is a bit dated, written before the electronic text revolution of the web. It is still worth reading. Readers may care to supplement with a more current book, such as Frank Luntz's Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear.
And it is apparently a rather good investment as a "rare book."
Author Greg Myers aims to provide a comprehensive treatment of the use of language in persuasive advertising. He declares a deeper purpose to entice his target audience of communications students into his specialty, the study of text and its effects on readers and society. He begins with a multipart definition of ads that focuses on their effects and their nature as written text. Following this introduction with a somewhat text-focused history of American advertising, Myers then presents current thinking. He analyses slogans (making similar points to Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die) and teaches us how to use careful sentences, mental associations between words, and similar techniques to create effective ad text. Subsequent chapters explore cultural differences in ads, use of conversational language to persuade, effective use of metaphor, and how to make words and graphics work well together. Closing chapters analyze environmental and public health ads, and discuss the importance of understanding and targeting an ad's audience.
Myers' book is a good text on effective use of text. Each chapter is supported by a recommended readings list and the book as a whole is supported by a strong bibliography and helpful glossary. Its only flaw is that it is a bit dated, written before the electronic text revolution of the web. It is still worth reading. Readers may care to supplement with a more current book, such as Frank Luntz's Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear.
And it is apparently a rather good investment as a "rare book."
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Worth Much More Than I Paid For It
30 Nov 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am tempted to cut my review short and run off to a rare book dealer to sell my copy of this book. As I write this, our favorite web site offers a new copy of the book for $564.78 and used versions for roughly $100 apiece. Although something tickles my intuition about the reality of these numbers, I do think this is a good book. Perhaps I'll hold onto it long enough to recommend it to you.
Author Greg Myers aims to provide a comprehensive treatment of the use of language in persuasive advertising. He declares a deeper purpose to entice his target audience of communications students into his specialty, the study of text and its effects on readers and society. He begins with a multipart definition of ads that focuses on their effects and their nature as written text. Following this introduction with a somewhat text-focused history of American advertising, Myers then presents current thinking. He analyses slogans (making similar points to Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die) and teaches us how to use careful sentences, mental associations between words, and similar techniques to create effective ad text. Subsequent chapters explore cultural differences in ads, use of conversational language to persuade, effective use of metaphor, and how to make words and graphics work well together. Closing chapters analyze environmental and public health ads, and discuss the importance of understanding and targeting an ad's audience.
Myers' book is a good text on effective use of text. Each chapter is supported by a recommended readings list and the book as a whole is supported by a strong bibliography and helpful glossary. Its only flaw is that it is a bit dated, written before the electronic text revolution of the web. It is still worth reading. Readers may care to supplement with a more current book, such as Frank Luntz's Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear.
And it is apparently a rather good investment as a "rare book."
Author Greg Myers aims to provide a comprehensive treatment of the use of language in persuasive advertising. He declares a deeper purpose to entice his target audience of communications students into his specialty, the study of text and its effects on readers and society. He begins with a multipart definition of ads that focuses on their effects and their nature as written text. Following this introduction with a somewhat text-focused history of American advertising, Myers then presents current thinking. He analyses slogans (making similar points to Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die) and teaches us how to use careful sentences, mental associations between words, and similar techniques to create effective ad text. Subsequent chapters explore cultural differences in ads, use of conversational language to persuade, effective use of metaphor, and how to make words and graphics work well together. Closing chapters analyze environmental and public health ads, and discuss the importance of understanding and targeting an ad's audience.
Myers' book is a good text on effective use of text. Each chapter is supported by a recommended readings list and the book as a whole is supported by a strong bibliography and helpful glossary. Its only flaw is that it is a bit dated, written before the electronic text revolution of the web. It is still worth reading. Readers may care to supplement with a more current book, such as Frank Luntz's Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear.
And it is apparently a rather good investment as a "rare book."
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