An Analysis on Advertising Language from the Perspective of Memetics

RAN Shi-wei

【Abstract】Memetics is a new theory to explain the formation and development of language. It is of great importance in the development of advertising language. The paper is going to study advertising language from the perspective of memetics and at the same time try to study and summarize the sources of advertising language as well as the characteristics of language use. The study will provide the advertising designers with a strong theoretical basis for advertising creation and help us understand memetics deeply.

【Key words】Memetics； meme； advertising language； characteristics

Chapter1 Introduction

A meme is a postulated unit of cultural ideas practices or symbols that can be transmitted from one mind to another through speech， writing， riturals， gestures or other imitable phenomena. We can define memetics as an approach that tries to model the evolution of memes. Besides memetics believes that words， phrases， sentences， paragraphs or even texts are replicated through imitation then they can be called memes meanwhile language is a kind of meme， too. However， the replication capacity of linguistic memes differs from one another， and new vocabulary and expressions compete with each other vigorously in order to be accepted by human beings or to be translated in different languages. From the perspective of memetics， language meme reveals the way that language spreads.

A successful advertising should be remembered， repeated and even imitated continually by people. That is to say the process of creating a successful advertising is the process of selecting language， which is the process of transmitting meme as well. The advertising language need to be simple enough to be preserved in the memory of the consumers in limited time and space. And it is the function of meme that is to make advertising language spread quickly and widely to achieve its socialization. So this paper tries to analyze and study advertising language meme， and thus can offer the advertising creaters a strong theoretical foundation for advertising creation.

Chapter2 Meme and the Creation of Advertising

In the process of replication and transmission， the performance of the same information sometimes may be same and sometimes may be different but their content are same all the time. Besides in the different context， the same information can be transmitted in different form. For example， they prefer to quote classic lines， famous aphorism， slogans and so on. These quotes could make the advertising easier to spread and inherit since they can make the audience feel that they are personally on the scene. The advertising using the sentences which the audience are familiar with could establish closer relationship with audience and at the same time stimulate consumption.

For example， a famous brand Darley Garden produces drinks and cakes. And its advertising slogan is “ Tuan Tuan Yuan Yuan”， which means to reunion， to have a warm get-together. And this is a Chinese idiom without changing anything. We always drink or eat cakes in a party especially a family party， and this advertising slogan made people feel warm， and want to reunion. Besides， it is also easy to remember， since it is an idiom that everyone knows and it is also catchy. Another example is that a drinks brand called Dukang liquor and its advertising slogan is that “How dispel melancholy， only has the Dukang liquor.” This is a famous poem written by Cao Cao. The moment audience heard the advertising slogan， they would remember it. We could find that the effect is brilliant and this advertising could be called a successful advertising.

Analogy of the sound is also a common way to create a successful advertisement. Analogy could produce many new kinds of memes by adapting to the sound. It is common that English proverb memes can be replicated and transmitted by the mean of analogizing the same sound and retaining the original structure. For instance， an English proverb meme—“all good things come in pears” is created by replicating the English proverb meme—“all good things come in pairs”. The replicated English proverb meme makes use of the relationship that ‘pear and ‘pair have the same sound， but the different meaning to leave a deep impression on customers.

Chapter 3 Conclusion

As the unit of cultural transmission， meme benefits the development which also plays a vital role in our life. People now pay more and more attention to memetics which could be applied in many areas especially advertising creating. This paper just tries to analyze advertising language from the perspective of meme. Thus we can find that this study is of great importance and significance in reality.

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