Research on Memetic Phenomena in Commercial Advertisements

张丽

【Abstract】Meme plays an important role in the development of advertisement as a unit of culture.Its replication and transmission provide an effective means for creating advertisements and a new way for us to analyze advertising language.Two ways including memetic genotype and memetic phenotype for memes to be replicated and transmitted in the advertising language are analyzed.Then，how to successfully create commercial advertisements is explored.Finally，it is concluded that the concise，familiar，popular and original memes can contribute to successful commercial advertisements.

【Key words】memetics； meme； genotype； phenotype； commercial advertisements

1.Introduction

Memetics is a kind of new theory based on New Darwinism that reveals the law of cultural evolution and development.It provides a new perspective for us to explain the evolution of language by exploring the replication，transmission and evolution of meme.Since memetics appeared，a number of Chinese scholars who are interested in memes have applied this theory into many social and cultural fields such as pragmatics，（何自然，何雪林，2003）； literary intertextuality，（徐盛环，2005）； translation （王斌，2004） and metaphor （尹丕安，2005）etc.In addition，memes also play an important role in the development of advertising.As a kind of activity of cultural transmission，advertising has close relation with meme.“The replication and transmission of meme also provide a quick and effective way to enrich advertising language”（陈林霞，2006）.And this kind of question is often asked such as how memes work in advertising.Therefore，this article will analyze the memetic phenomenon in the successful advertising language and draw some conclusions about how to create successful advertisement and strong memes.

2.The origin and definition of meme

The term of ‘Meme was first put forward by famous zoologist Richard Dawkins in his best—selling book The Selfish Gene in 1976.In the last chapter of this book，Dawkins introduced the concept of ‘Meme in contrast with ‘gene to explain cultural spread.Gene is the biological replicator while “meme” is thought of as the cultural replicator which drives the cultural evolution （Dawkins，1976）.It is defined as ‘an element of culture was passed on by imitation，especially by non- genetic means” in Oxford English Dictionary.That is to say，anything that can be transmitted by imitation is called meme.Memes are ideas，habits，skills，stories，songs or any other kind of information that is copied from person to person （Blackmore，1999）.The emergence of memetic theory supplies explanation for cultural evolution，especially the transmission of memes in advertising language.In this case，it can help advertising designer to create the powerful and successful advertising slogans.

3.The approaches of analyzing the advertising language

With the development of society，more and more ads can been found nearly everywhere.But in order to make ad more unique and novel among numerous advertisements and win over the severe ad competition，admen often take more effort in choosing appropriate words to increase its attractive power.They usually adopt some rhetoric devices such as personification，repetition and pun etc to attract the audiences.The advertisers apply so many ways to design their advertisements that we have many approaches to analyze the advertising language.The most common methods are semiotic and linguistic ones.But when memetic theory appears，it provides a more effective way for advertisers to design advertising slogan.

4.The classifications that advertising meme is transmitted and replicated

From the perspective of memetics，the replication and transmission of meme in advertising language can be classified into two kinds.They are memetic genotype and memetic phenotype.Memetic genotype refers to “the same core content inherited in various language forms while memetic phenotype means the identical set pattern of language followed by different contents”（陈林霞，2008）.In the following，these two kinds of memes in advertising slogan will be illustrated in detail.

4.1 Advertising meme---genotype.The memetic genotype in advertising language often gets information from the well-known and fixed phrase，proverbs，allusions，poems and songs etc which are concise and full of philosophy.So this kind of meme is easy to be memorized and transmitted.As we all known，the basis for the success of advertising memes is to “attract their audience，enter into their memory，infect them and finally get their acceptance in a short time”（熊晓灿，2007）.Thus，in this way，the audience can pay more attention to the advertisement parodied these popular language.Moreover，this kind of meme in advertising language can arouse the consumers association，deepen their memory and stimulate their consumptive desire.

The information directly incited from the famous and popular words or lines is used in advertising language without any change.We call it direct citation.This can give them a kind of feeling of familiarity and affability.And then this kind of meme is spread quickly by imitation.Admen can reach their goal to allure the audience to take the purchase action.

For example，“借问酒家何处有，牧童遥指杏花村，汾酒名牌天下闻”，this is an advertisement designed to promote wine.The meme“借问酒家何处有，牧童遥指杏花村” is taken from a famous ancient poem entitled Mourning Day written by Du Mu in Tang Dynasty.This advertising slogan makes audiences imagine such a scene as the shepherd points at the distant place from which the sweetness of wine seems to float.Audiences must have great impression on this kind of wine after knowing this advertising slogan.Therefore，this meme can have long life and be transmitted to many people.And it can help to promote this kind of wine.Quotation of poem is a common strategy utilized by advertisers because the lines in the poem often give mouth to what people want to express.It can also move audiences greatly and make them quick response to the advertisement.There are also numerous advertisements like this kind such as a medical advertisement “A friend in need is a friend indeed”； a wire advertisement“心有灵犀一点通，灵通祝愿您成功” and so on.

4.2 Advertising meme---phenotype.This kind of meme is taken from the fixed language some elements of which are flexibly substituted according to the practical need.The changed language patterns are used in different pretexts and convey the different meanings，though they have the same linguistic structure.As we all known，in Chinese or English advertisements，many speeches come from our familiar or popular phrases，proverbs，mottos and idioms etc，but they have been slightly modified such as the change of some words or sounds etc.In this case，the advertisement can not only express what it wants to，but also increase attractive power.Meanwhile，this kind of meme changed is easy to be memorized and gets quick transmission and makes consumers find everything new and fresh.

For example，“以 ‘帽取人”，this is an advertisement for a kind of cap.This meme “以‘帽取人”（judge a person by his or her ‘cap） comes from Chinese phrase“以‘貌取人”（judge a person by his or her ‘appearance）.This meme gives audiences deep impression by using partial tone.This advertising slogan is not only humorous and funny，but also tells consumers this kind of cap can increase your good looks and your social status，as long as you wear this kind of cap.So，this advertising slogan will stimulate audiences to but it.At the same time，advertisers arrive at their goal to promote the caps.This kind of commercial advertisements can be found a lot such as an advertisement for eye drop一“明”惊人，an advertisement for chocolate “A Mars a day keeps you work，rest and play.”，an advertisement for cigarette “To smoke or not to smoke，that is a question” and the like.

5.How to create the strong meme in the advertising language

According to Heylighten （1998），a strong meme passes a life circle consisting of four stages.They are assimilation，retention，expression and transmission respectively.So is the imitation and transmission of meme in advertising.Therefore，the successful basis for the advertising meme is to attract the audiences attention，enter into their memory，make it contagious and be accepted or recognized.Furthermore，Dawkins thinks meme has three qualities： fecundity，fidelity and longevity.A strong meme must be copied accurately，many copies must be made，and the copies must last for a long time.So，the effective memes are these which can cause high fidelity and can be memorized for a long time.Meanwhile，two kinds of precondition for existing of strong memes are mentioned in the Chinese article entitled how to build contagious advertising language memes： “firstly，advertising slogan must be very concise.Secondly，it should have a core idea or concept.”（庄美英，2008）.

Besides，by analyzing the memetic phenomena in the advertising language，we can find the strong meme is very brief and easy to be remembered and transmitted.And the powerful meme is often taken from the famous or popular proverbs，mottoes，sayings，idioms，allusions and songs etc，which can easily enter into consumers memories and arouse their association.So，advertisers should imitate the famous，popular and fashionable language which is not only humorous but also can be easily kept in audiences mind.Furthermore，the language in the advertisement should be succinct and the form or structure should be original.In this way，this kind of advertising made by meme can succeed in promotion of products.

6.Conclusion

Nowadays，advertising slogans can be seen or heard nearly everywhere such as on television，clothes，bus and internet etc.In addition to helping consumers to know the product，the ad also lure them to purchase these products.Thus，how to create the unique and attractive advertising slogan is very significant.By analysis of the memetic phenomenon in advertising language，we can arrive at the conclusion that advertising slogan can get more attraction，easily be memorized and become popular by using the strong meme.So the advertisers can adopt this way to plan and design advertising slogans.In this case，advertisers can propagate the product successfully and effectively.

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