LITERATURE REVIEW ON OMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF IDEOLOGICAL RHETORIC IN MTN AND ETISALAT TV COMMERCIALS.

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0     Introduction

This section dwells extensively on theoretical framework (theory upon which this work is based), conceptual review (review of related concepts) and empirical review (review of related studies), which comprise what people had written on the issue and what persons had also done in the particular subject area, including their findings respectively.

Related concepts are reviewed through the use of eBooks, hard books, among others, while related studies are reviewed through previous research on the topic and similar areas.

2.1     Theoretical   framework

The study will draw its theoretical foundation from this approach; critical theory.

2.1.1 Critical theory

          Critical theory was developed by a group of post 1933 émigré scholars from the Marxist school of applied social research in Frankfurt. Among the scholars were Horkeimer and Theodor Adorno critical theory is a social theory aimed towards critiquing and changing society as a whole. It emphasizes on the reflective evaluation and critique of society and culture by utilizing knowledge from the social sciences and the humanities.

          Max Horkeimer and Theodor Adorno analyzed the failure of revolutionary change in the society as predicted by Max. To do this, the looked to the capacity of the super structure (especially ideas and ideologies represented in the mass media). The ideologies of the dominant class had come to condition the economic base, especially by promoting a false consciousness among the working masses.

2.2     Conceptual review

2.2.1 Advertising: A rhetorical practice

Advertising is one of the most conversant form of rhetorical exercise and one that everyone will

point to when asked to pinpoint persuasive discussion. It encourages its audience to take action, whether that action is to buy, to develop a belief in the honor of, or to form an attitude about, a particular product, brand, or even experience. Tom and Eves (1999) citing Leigh (1994) observed that the major goal of TV commercial is not only to inform, but also to persuade. It is not surprising that commercials are sprinkled with rhetorical devices. Aristotle defined rhetoric as the faulty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. His definition makes rhetoric applicable in all field not just politics. Plato disagrees with him, saying that rhetoric influence. Rhetoric, in Plato’s opinion is prerogative.

Primeau (1979) defined rhetoric as strategies used to persuade the audience. It is the study of the selections made by persuaders, informers, and audiences as they work to make meaning and keep human sociality. It is, thus, an art that gets senders and receivers of messages together in an effort to bring effect a change or enlightenment. Bordwell and Thompson (2004) argues that rhetoric presents a persuasive argument. The goal is to convert the audience to adopt an opinion about the subject matter and perhaps to act on that opinion.

Burke (1965) says in terms of identification, you persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his (p.55). Burke says that we build identification by showing how we are like others. Wills (2011) says primary way in which advertising identification is through its narrative devices; such as characters, setting and plot development. It constructs identifications, showing members of the audience how they are like the characters in a particular commercial or how they could become like that character.

Advertising constructs identification by showing the audience that they have a need and that the product can mediate or solve the need.  Rhetorical messages, those intended to have an effect upon an audience, arise as a reaction to the need that the rhetor identifies; the rhetor not only has to detect an exigency, but has to persuade the audience that he has solution to the urgent flaw he has identified. Rhetoric is not constricted to the use of words but it is multi representational and it may seen in any medium. Tom and Eves (1999) holds the view that demonstrations in marketing via its advertising domain can rely more on the nonverbal components: olfactory, visual, auditory and tactile. The use of sense makes it possible for consumers  to experience the fragrance of perfumes and colognes; consumers see pictorial portions of advertisements and packages; chips speak to consumers from the printed page; free products samples offer consumers the opportunity to touch and taste the product.

 Rhetoric is concerned with organized principles of idea development and reasoning, known as invention, organization, style, presentation, and ways to recall information, known as memory, all of which are phenomena that a critic can uncover and observe. It is believed that the success and significance of the messages are related to the methods used to develop and present them.

Advertising is a rhetorical form of drama which dramatizes social practice. It shows us in narratives, what it means to be human and reveals characters taking actions in a variety of situations. Through these actions, advertising simulates behaviours for us. Advertising replicas ideal attitudes and actions. (Wills 2011).  My work analyses ideological rhetoric in TV advertising. Advertising seeks to demonstrate an audience’s social needs and then suggest how those needs can be reconciled. According to Wills (2011) advertising is eminently social thing and a socializing thing. It identifies and targets each and every person in our society. Its physical nature endeavors to unite target audiences into a joined system of beliefs about products, brands and characteristics of brand names users, but also about human nature, relationships and community and civic duty.

Jefkin (1976), remarks that “advertising is a means whereby information regarding a product, services or ideas is disseminated to a targeted audience using persuasive or informative processes through purchasable media of communication with a reasonable degree of cost effectiveness”.(p.47) Bettinghaus (1973), says that advertising is a deliberate attempt by one individual to change the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours of another individual. This means that the matter and manner of an advertising copy is deliberately positioned to change the consumer, who is faced with the problem of decision making in a world full with goods and services. While persuasion is seen as manipulation by some scholars, others see it as a matter of strategy. Some scholars sees consumer as people who are being manipulated without realizing it in the  patterns of our everyday loves.

Foster (1982), observes that advertising persuades consumers into buying certain products, by convincing them that certain products satisfy their needs better than others.

Advertising also tries to create preference for products by focusing attention on the products unique benefits otherwise known as the Unique selling Proposition (USP), which each product offers consumers. Thus, the way in which a product is presented may convey an idea such as, if you buy this Lucozade boost you will run like a lion. Advertising dramatizes the benefit of the product, models socially acceptable values, evoking in the target audience the idea that they too will see similar benefits if they use the product.

2.2.1 Ideology

Representational codes are organized into consistency and social acceptability by ideological codes, such as individualism, collectivity, class, femininity, masculinity, love and mythos. All the codes come together to encrypt an ideal meaning that supports a certain ideology. For instance, family eating together in dinning table shows love and unity. More broadly, in commercial, luxury is a code for the ideology of class. On the news, the stock market report is a code for the ideology of capitalism. There is no guarantee that a different cultural analyst will make the same meanings or even find ideology at all. The process of understanding and finding meaning gives the viewer a certain kind of pleasure in decrypting.

According to Giannetti (1999) ideology is defined as a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. The term ideology generally associated with politics and party platforms, but it can also mean a given set of values that are implicit in any human enterprise – including commercials. Bordwell and Thompson (2004) defined ideology as a relatively coherent system of values, beliefs, or ideas shared by some social group and often taken for granted as natural or inherently true. McQuail (2005) sees ideology as organized belief system or set of values that is disseminated or reinforced by communication.

Critics have debated art as having a dual function: to teach and to provide pleasure. Some commercials that emphasize on the teaching functions simply preach at the audience. Such commercials try to sell us a bill of goods like TV commercials. Many meanings of TV commercials are in the long run ideological that is, they spring from systems of culturally specific values and beliefs about a particular society. Family love, friendship, determination, good humour, individualism, collectivism, family relationship – all these establish our ideological frame of reference. Thus TV commercials could be analyzed for ideological implications. We can differentiate a commercial’s ideology by focusing on some key values and analyzing how the characters relate to them. The following values systems are merely roadmaps that can be helpful in determining a commercials ideology.

2.2.2 Ideological value systems

Mythos: refers to the appeal to cultural beliefs of a group of people, in a rhetorical situation. Cultural beliefs are depicted in advertisements. The audience is easily persuaded when they can identify, or recognize a situation in the advertisement as being similar to their situation. Commercials cultivate values in a culture. They nurture, propagate, and help the culture to maintain and adapt its values, to spread them among its members, and thus to bind these members with a shared consensus. Fisk (2006) quoting Gerbner (1956).

Class: this refers to a social rank in the society. We have three major classes in our society and they are: the bourgeois, the middle class, and the preliterate (workers). Class addresses the way human inequalities in wealth, prestige, source of income are accepted in the society. People who are wealthy are powerful and control the means of production and distribution. They are privileged and also dictate between good and evil.

Love: refers to a very strong affection for something. It is a great liking for a thing or a person. Love could be manifested through actions such as sharing, caring, kindness, and support for one another. Many manufacturers want their product to be connected with love. The effect the want to achieve in the audience that as soon as the products name is mentioned, it will be associated with love.

Masculinity: Masculine is a society where masculine values such as toughness, harshness, achievement and ambition are dominant. And there is a distinction of gender roles. Masculine society tilts towards winning mentality and results. In commercials of masculine society achievements are depicted more.

Femininity: is a society where feminine values such as caring, tender love, joy are dominant. There is no clear division of gender role. For instance in a family a man can cook and a woman can equally cook. Cooking is not a role for any particular person in the family. Feminine cultures are service oriented. It does not focus on winning and respect values. Safety, protection, care are more depicted in feminine advertisement.(Hofstede 2005)  

Individualism: individuals in this kind of environment are restricted to themselves. They are not open and take decisions on themselves without consulting anybody. Relationships among people in individualistic societies are loose and everybody is expected to take care of their own families. In commercials privacy is more cherished in individualistic cultures.

Collectivism: The emphasis here is equality. Collective society believes that a society’s resources should be distributed in roughly equal portions. Authority figures are merely skilled managers and not intrinsically superior to the people they are responsible. Here also other groups and subgroups exist pleasure and production for their members.                              

2.2.3 Television rhetoric

Television  rhetoric is  the study of technically enriched symbol systems and images through which the senders (commercials producers, writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, set designers, and so on) try to restructure knowledge, motivate understanding, create identification, and influence the viewing behavior of the receivers (the television audience).

Bordwell and Thompson (2004) believes that television entertains, informs, persuades, and portrays the real and imagined worlds to its audience. Both fiction and nonfiction television have the ability to generate identification from viewers. Television has specific rhetorical features that use verbal, visual and aural symbols. McQuail (2005) argues that most rhetorical aspect of television is that viewers take part while they watch it and afterwards. They observe, construe, and accept or reject images as presented; they react with amusement, surprise, apprehension, recreation, and reassurance.

2.2.3.1        TV Commercial and values

Television incorporates the values of a society, the values of the people who create television programs, and the values of the audience. Values are important to understanding television because they are a crucial part of our belief systems.

 Values of the mass audience are depicted in television situation; especially in commercial and other nonfiction programming. Ifeanacho (1998) quoting Spencer (1979) observed that cultural value is something that is widely believed in a community, to be desirable or worthy of esteem for its own sake. 

It is an lasting belief that a specific way of conduct is personally or socially preferable. Specifically, a value is a prescriptive belief that judges whether or not a means or an end is desirable or undesirable. Some of them are seem in concepts with which all of us are familiar: good and evil, pleasant-unpleasant, duty, obligation, self-interest, altruism, truth telling, promise-keeping, honesty, fairness, courage, law-observance, utility, right and wrong, and the like. They become visible in general statements called rules of conduct, regulations, laws, codes, principles, and moral maxims. Values may, of course, be very personal and private, but they are public as well, for they are portioned and taught to others. Because values are important, they function as measuring sticks against which behavior is measured and goals are obtained. Will (2011) is of the view that television’s fictional characters and their stories encourage audience values, teach values to the audience, and use values as reasons for supporting resolutions of conflict. Television commercials frequently express values such as the work ethic, fair play, optimism, determination, sensibility, justice, happiness, and good humor, love, friendship, compassion, kindness, decency, family relationship.

2.2.3.2         The Codes of Television Production

 In television studies, code refers to a variety of audiovisual systems that have the ability to create meaning. Fiske regards television as the bearer, provoker, and circulator of meanings and pleasure; he believes that television is filled with latent meanings. Because a desired meaning is intended in television commercial, the conventional codes of values link the commercial and the audience.  Fiske (1987) defined code as “a rule-governed system of signs, whose rules and conventions are shared amongst members of a culture, and which is used to generate and circulate meanings in and for that culture” (p. 4). Fiske organized categories of codes into three levels: reality, representation, and ideology.

Reality

Reality is written by certain social codes that connect to appearance, behavior, speech, sound, and setting. Appearance includes skin color, clothing, hair, makeup, speech, facial expressions, and gestures. Speech includes spoken language, accent, dialect, formal or vernacular style, and paralanguage, such as pitch, rate, and inarticulate utterances. Sound includes natural sounds, such as wind or rain, and artificial sounds, such as sirens or music. Indoor settings may symbolize place, such as a living room or a hospital. Objects in the place may signify taste or social class, and could promote certain feelings such as comfort or tension. Outdoor settings may suggest peace and tranquility or fear and danger. Some physical behaviors, such as dancing, kissing, shaking hands, playing sports, fighting, and so on, may be easily recognized as such. Clothing can reveal certain personality characteristics such as formality, casualness, and sexuality. Once again, much depends on the other codes as they are put together to form a whole. Obviously, more information is needed before one can pull conclusions about social codes, and furthermore, different people will deduce these codes in different ways. Social codes, once chosen for a television program, are encoded by representation.

Representation

Representation on television is converted into an understandable sign by camera, lighting, sound, music, and editing to convey the narrative, conflict, character, action, dialogue, setting, casting, and so forth. They are vital to representation on television and are suggested here as types of technical codes that work to encrypt meaning. Representational codes have to combine to encrypt a desired meaning and to appear natural at the same time. A script delivers the setting, narrative, conflict, action, dialogue, and characters, but the actors bring the characters and the plot to life.

 Ideology

Representational codes are structured by ideological codes, such as individualism, collectivity, class, femininity, love, and so on. All the codes combine to encrypt a wished meaning that depicts a certain ideology. For instance, romantic music is a code for the ideology of love.In commercial, luxury is a code for the ideology of class. On the news, the stock market report is a code for the ideology of capitalism. It is not a must that cultural analyst will make the same meanings or even find ideology at all. Viewers of various classes may understand the representation as something altogether different. The process of understanding and finding meaning gives the viewer a certain kind of pleasure.

2.2.3.3   Tools for TV production

Set

Set is a location where television commercials are shot. A set may be constructed or already existing locale may be used as a set. Giannuetti (1999) posit that settings are not merely locale for the action but representative extensions of the theme, and characterization. The setting’s beauty is in its reality. In commercials distortion of set should be regarded as beautification, fake, and therefore does not reflect the reality. What is important in a set is how it expresses the crux of the story and the vision of the producers of commercial. A commercial breaks a set into a series of shots (extreme closeup, close-up, medium shot, long shot) stressing on one aspect of a room then another, based on the needs of the director in finding appropriate visual analogues for thematic and cultural ideas.

In the analysis of set, you must consider whether  it is western, local, poor or rich. Set in most of the television commercials in Nigeria could be local western, poor or rich, this depends on their audience.

Costumes

Costumes are decorations added to enrich an illusion, character trait, theme and culture. According to Giannetti (1999) costumes can reveal class, self image, culture, psychological state, delicacy, dignity and agitation. Costumes, stand for another language system in commercial, a suggestive form of communication that can be as complex and divulging as other language that commercial producers uses. A systematized analysis of a costume includes a consideration of the following features: Western:

Is the costume a western costume?

Traditional: is the costume traditional class. What is the income level of the character?

Colour: What are the representative implication of the colours.

Language

Language is used in sharing meaning between one character and another. Spoken language is advantageous over printed language, because words of a text can be placed side by side with the ideas and emotions of a subtext (implicit meaning). Giannetti (1999) posits movies contain two types of spoken language: the monologue and dialogue. Monologue are connected to documentaries in which a narrator not seen in the screen provides the audience with information together with visuals. Dialogue is a conversation between two or more characters. Dialogues in commercials are not much-images convey most meaning. A number of commercial producers have used the expressive nature of dialects, because dialects is a an origin of meaning in commercials. Speech can divulge a person’s region, culture, and class. A few lines of dialogue can reveal everything about a situation being depicted.

In analyzing language, these features could be considered: foreign language, indigenous language, and accent.

Acting style or expressions   

Acting style is language system through which the commercial producers communicate ideas and emotions. Giannetti (1999) suggests that a character’s voice must be an adjustable trained voice. An actor’s voice must be susceptible to much variety. It is advisable to know which words to stress and how to do them, how to render your lines in an appropriate way, when to stop and for how long, and how quickly or slowly a line or speech should be rendered. An actor’s ability to gesticulate appropriately is required.

Acting styles should suggest—class, culture, occupation, delicacy, and fastidiousness. 

Camera

One of the major tools in TV commercial production is camera. It is the instrument used in telling stories in television. The five dimensions of camera techniques are; the camera shots, the angle at which the camera is aimed, the type of lens on the camera, the focus used, and camera movement.

Camera shots

TV commercials use basic camera shots to tell their story such a;.

Establishing shot – the first full shot of the scene; including the environment.

Long shot – a full shot of a scene or person whether sitting or standing.

Medium shot – an individual shown from head to hips.

Medium close-up – the individual’s head and half the torso.

Close – up – an individual’s head and shoulders.

Extreme close – up - the individual’s face fills the screen.

Each of these different shots has its own rhetorical impact. When we are far from people, we are less involved with them; when we are intimate, we are very close physically as well as emotionally.  Typically, a long shot creates a sense that the subject viewed is distant, merely one small part of the world we are examining; a medium shot is more interactional, conversational; a close-up generates intimacy or, in negative situations, intrusion or threat. Jamieson and Campbell argues that reporters and anchors are shown in the medium close-up and medium shots……..Similarly, news programmes rarely show individuals full length in longer shots at what is public distance. Such distances depersonalize and decrease the emotional involvement of the viewer (p.46).

Camera Angle

Camera angles are traditionally discussed in terms of three basic angles – eye level(the straight-on angles), below eye level(the low angle) and above eye level(the high angle). Kids (1998) quoting Zettl (1973) says” for some time kings, school teachers, preacher, judges, and gods knew that sitting up high had very important effects. Not only could they see better and be seen more easily, but also they could look down on people, and the people had to look up them”. (p.227) The elevation differentiates between the superior and the inferior, the leader and the follower. When we look up with the camera the object or event looks more powerful. When we look down with the camera, the object is less authoritative.

Camera Lens

Camera lenses can be categorized into; normal, wide angle, and long lenses. A normal lens corresponds to the perception of the human eye and presents images with a minimum of distortion, creating the impression that the camera perceives what the eye perceives. Wide angle lens enlarges objects, distorting space, creating the illusion of greater distance than actually exists. Zettl (1973) points out that “relative size is greatly exaggerated by the wide angle lens. Thus, a path actually twenty feet long might appear double or triple that length when photographed with a wide angle lens. The long telephoto likewise distorts perception. Clark Agnew and Neil O’Brien say that “when a telephoto lens is used, the foreground, middle ground all seem to be on one flat plane”.

Camera Movement

To tell an interesting TV story, the camera move from right to left (pan) or up and down (tilt) or alongside the object in any direction-forward, backward, circularly, diagonally or from side to side. The camera can also move above the ground rising and descending- thanks to a mechanical arm that lifts and lowers it (crane). Camera movement reveals objects in a set, environment and actors actions. The movements help us to understand the story being presented in the commercials. Stephen Baker argues that pictures which move away have a “beckoning quality; moving towards the viewer, they make him instinctively draw back”.

Lighting

The good use of light can embellish and dramatize every object. Getting the best-looking image for a television production needs a skilled lighting technician to properly illuminate the scene. Lighting can be a nice way of changing the mood in a film or television show .Lower lighting can suggest a number of darker moods, from horror to sadness. Brighter lighting can indicate happiness, and soft lighting shows romance

Bordwell and Thompson (2004) isolate four major features of film lighting: its quality, direction, source, and colour. Lighting quality refers to the relative intensity of the illumination. Hard lighting creates clearly defined shadows, crisp textures, and sharp edges, whereas soft lighting creates a diffused illumination. The direction of the lighting in a shot refers to the path of light from its source or sources to the object lit. We have frontal lighting, side-lighting, backlighting, underlighting, and top lighting. Frontal lighting can be identified by its tendency to get rid of shadows. Backlighting comes from behind the subject filmed. Used with no other sources of light, backlight tends to generate silhouettes. Combined with more frontal sources of light, the technique can create an illuminated contour.  The use of backlighting is called edge lighting or rim lighting. Underlighting suggests that light comes from below the subject.  It is used to produce dramatic horror effects. Top lighting indicate light coming from above the subject. The two light sources are: key light and a fill light. The key light is the primary source, supplying the dominant illumination and casting the strongest shadows. A fill is a less intense illumination that “fill in”, softening or eliminating shadows cast by the key light. The use of lighting in TV commercial production can be overemphasized. It shows the hour the actions took place. It helps in establishing the mood of the scenes and the actors.

Sound

Sound can direct our attention quite specifically within the image. It can guide us through the images, pointing to things to watch. Sound can actively shape how we perceive and interpret the image. It has the power to alter our understanding of images. The audience will construe the same images differently, depending on the sound track. Sound captivates sense mode. Sound can be used to arouse our emotion in a TV commercials. Robert Turnbull (1951) pointed out that “Psychology has its place in the understanding and use of sound effects. As the human mind develops, it forms definite habits of association. These associative patterns can be utilized to arouse emotional reactions….” Some of the sound manipulations he emphasized are: a steady sustained sound gives a feeling of directness, continuous movement, formality, stability, and if a quiet sound, one of repose and tranquility, an undulating sound, varying in pitch or rhythm, expresses insistence, purposeful movement, or perseverance; an intermittent sound conveys informality, indecision, disorder, and lack of purpose or leadership; sounds that suddenly gets higher in volume reveals a feeling of climax, intensity, concentration, impatience, and aggressiveness; sounds that gradually gets higher in volume shows a feeling of relentlessness, suspense, progress, patience, pursuit, gathering strength, resolution; sounds that suddenly diminish indicate a feeling of cowardice, fear, lack of purpose, loss of strength, or defeat; sounds that gradually fade express a feeling dejection, temporary defeat, possible regrouping of forces, and suspense.

The most prevalent of intermediated sounds is music because its strong impact, according to Patrick Marsh, is emotional: Since the subject matter of pure music is mood rather than thought, music provides one of the quickest and surest ways of controlling the moods of its listeners. Music is basically used in TV commercials to influence the audience. It is used to transmit and teach ideologies.

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and putting individual shots together to produce a whole product. The editor has great power in terms of what standard editing devices are used, what information is omitted or included, and how the information is sequenced. Jamieson and Campbell (1983) says that editing techniques have assumed certain standard meaning: “slow motion footage is considered tender, even romantic; jumpy images are considered dramatic; extreme close-ups are considered intense and dramatic”. Agnew and O’Brien (1958) offer other examples: “When many fairly brief shots are used, a feeling of excitement and tension tends to be created, and at the other extreme, a long, unbroken shot may be helpful if a leisurely and restful atmosphere is wanted”

Standard editing devices allow directors to create particular effects:

·        Cut – an instantaneous change from one image to another.

·        Dissolve – a slow change from shot to shot, involving a moment when the two images blend.

·        Fade – the picture vanishes gradually to black (fade-out) or appears gradually on the screen from black (fade-in)

·        Wipe – an obvious removal of one image by another by one rolling the other off the screen in one direction or another.

·        Defocus effect – one shot ends out of focus; another begins there.

·        Freeze frame – movement in the sequence is stopped, creating the effect of a photograph.

·        Zoom in and out – a character photographed in a long shot suddenly is zoomed into a close up or vice versa.

             Slow motion – characters seem to move at an abnormally slow pace.

·        Speeded up motion – characters move very fast in jerky sequences reminiscent of silent movies.

·        Montage – many images are put together to create a single impact; often used with music for poetic or advertising effect.

·        Metric Montage – images change with the music beat.

The director also controls, which shots will be utilized and which will be left on the cutting room floor (or on the unedited tape) and how long the viewer will focus on one scene rather than another. A scene may be lengthened, for instance, by adding reaction cuts, the response of one character to another.

2.2.4  Importance of Advertising

Advertising bridges the gap between the produced goods and services on one hand and the customers’ patronage on the other. For instance, it provides information about the goods and services to the customer that leads to action.

 Emery & Agee (1975) are of the view that Advertising does In distribution, what the machine does in production. By the use of machines, the production of goods has been made in large scale. By the use of mass media, advertising covers a wide range and makes large scale sales. Advertising is the great accelerating force in distributions. Advertising speeds up sales, turns prospect into customers in large numbers and at high speed.

From the above, it can be deduced that low patronage or low sales could be attributable to the fact that many people are not aware of the existence of such products; or that they find it difficult abandoning already known brands for ones which they have heard little or nothing about. The need for commercial is therefore essential to the economy of any country. This is because commercials is a great accelerating force in distribution of goods and services that reach many people at a low cost.

Advertising is however, rarely able to create sales by itself, for it is not the only force acting on the buyer. The purpose of TV commercial as Kotler (1972), argues is “to make potential buyers respond more favourably to the firms offering” (p.884). It seeks to do this by proving information to customers, by trying to modify their desires and by supplying reasons to prefer a particular company’s product.

According to Jefkins (1973) Advertising serves to:

·        Announce a new production or services;

·        Expand the market to new buyers;

·        Announce modification;

·        Announce a price change;

·        Announce a new pack;

·        Make a special offer;

·        Maintain sales;

·        Educate consumers (p.3)

To achieve these goals advertising must first, according to Alaje (1993) attract attention, maintain interest, are credible, arouse desire and provoke action. Advertising has an important role in informing and influence consumers.

Advertising performs one of the main functions of a salesman providing some advance information about products and services to consumers before they reach the place of purchase. Turnvey (1971,pp.35) points out that “advertising pulls goods through the distribution channel by pre-selling. To the consumer so that he or she has a relatively high degree of product Knowledge and purchase determination prior to entering a retail store. Lack of advertising, however, implies that the retailer must push the goods to the consumer, pass on product knowledge and assist in brand selection. (p.35)

Since the major effort of most advertising is to provide the consumer with needed information, it is only expected that the more effective an advertising message is, the more effective it generates sales.

Advertising also plays an important role in pricing by making the consumer aware of the price and price change. Without advertising, the cost of the consumer searching out all selling prices is much. Similarly, advertising aims at maintaining sales. Agbana (2013) argues that advertising is  used  to transmit culture. Through advertising one or more traits of our culture is transmitted to the general public. The overwhelming amount of advertising and its prevalence in the mass media lead many critics to argue that advertising plays a major role in influence and transmitting social values.

2.2.5 Criticism of Television Commercial

Some scholars who focus on the morality and aesthetics of Advertising have criticized Advertising in many ways. Most criticisms of Advertising center on the following complaints;

·        Advertising is intrusive

·        Advertising persuades consumers to buy goods and services they cannot afford

·        Advertising demeans and corrupt culture

·        Advertising appeals to consumers emotions, rather than their intellect

·        Advertising is biased

·        Advertising is deceptive

·        Advertisers expose children to sexy ads, alcohol drinks

·        Advertising perpetuates stereotypes of people

·        Advertising encouraging materialism

Hoggart (1988) maintain that “Advertising consists of exploiting human weaknesses through language and that and that it is at best a stupid waste, a wicked on use of other people” (p.54). Wallis (1970) believes that “the most widely accepted tenet of the Advertising ideology is the idea that we are physically manipulated by the mass media to crave for more and more consumer goods” (p.76). The view of Wallis was by earlier put forward by Galbraith (1978) as he maintains that “One cannot defend production as satisfying wants if that production creates wants. Advertising would unnecessary if people had independently determined desires. Therefore, Advertising creates wants that would not otherwise exist” (p.153)

Kleppner (1976) disagrees with these critics. He sees Advertising as an act which allows the consumer a free hand in deciding on what to do.

Belch &Belch (2001) are of the view that Advertising does contribute to our materialism by portraying products and services as symbols of status, success and achievement and by encouraging consumption. They also argue that Advertising creates and perpetuates stereotypes through its portrayals of women, ethnic minorities, and other groups.

Some scholars maintain that advertising consists of exploiting human weaknesses through language  and it is at best a stupid waste. That manipulates the audience  to crave  for more and more consumer goods. Even though some critics are of the view that Advertising forces consumers into buying products that they really do not have need for Kleppner (1976) disagrees with these critics. He sees advertising as an act, which allows the consumer a free hand in deciding on what to do. He maintains that  the remarkable  thing about adverting is that it can make people to buy a specific  advertised product voluntarily. It gas no authority to compel people to buy any excesses. No occult  power. Apparently, however, people are buying as a consequence of advertising. (p.65)

Some scholars are of the view  that Advertising play a major over in development of economy Baran (2004) affirms that.

Advertising supports our economic system; without it new products could not be introduced and development in other could not be announced. Competitive advertising of new products and business powers the engine of our economy,   fostering economic growth and creating, jobs in many industries. (P.389).

2.3 Empirical review

Adeela Majid (2013). “Cultural influence in Advertising: A comparative Analysis between Telenor TV Advertisements in Sweden and Pakistan.”M.A Thesis, University of Gothenburg.

This research is based on qualitative approach for gaining more in depth knowledge and to get clear picture from describing existing data. The study was conducted over a period of three years (2010 -2013).

It covered 10 Adverts five from Sweden and five from Pakistan. The study looked into how values and characteristics of Swedish and Pakistani adverts differ on basis of cultural differences; are there any similarities?

 Moreover Sweden and Pakistan are located in two different continents and differ to a great extent in geographical locations, thinking patterns, political and economic conditions and inclinations towards religion and gender portrayal.

And findings showed that in all Swedish advertisement the main message is communicated with aspect of humour whereas in all Pakistani advertisements the main message is communicated emotionally with combination of emotional vocals and expressions. In Pakistani advertisement, values such as respect and advice are depicted in the advert. This is reflected where elders are not called by their names and where younger ones listens and acts upon the advice of the elders. Whereas in Swedish advertisements every character is calling the other character by his/her name without taking age into consideration.

Women role are also one of distinguishing feature in advertisements. In all Pakistani advertisements women is either doing household i.e. cooking whereas men are either doing work or reading newspaper. However no clear gender roles are reflected in Swedish advertisements, which are considered as one of characteristic of feminine.

Pakistani advertisements are comparatively long detailed with truth building and indirect communication styles to convey message, whereas Swedish advertisements are shorter in length with less focus on product details, more focused on technology and features and directly addressing the target audience regarding the features of product.

Magid concluded that by exploring the cultural differences and detailed discussion and comparisons, it can be concluded that the values of individualism and femininity are more prominent in Swedish advertisements whereas values of collectivitism and masculinity are more prominent in Pakistani adverts. Pakistani TV advertisements seem to be influenced by cultures as compared to Swedish TV advertisements.

Majid study has given the researcher insight into TV rhetoric. Majid’s study and this study share same similarities, both analyze rhetorical contents. Maji analyzed values applied to the Tv commercial to establish a connection to the brand. Maji also observed that through identification, pathos and logos the target audience is persuaded.

However they have dissimilarity; Majid focuses on ideology as a form of rhetoric. While this study focuses on .

Laura Tippet. “Rhetorical Analysis: Subaru “Love” campaign”

The objective of this research was to examine what makes the campaign effective. Using Burke’s dramatistic pentad. The pentad consists of five parts; the scene, act, agent, agency and purpose. The act is what is done, the agent is who commits or performs the act, the scene is where and when the act occurs, the agency is how the act is accomplished, and the purpose is th emotive for the act. The study covered  Subaru Love campaign over five years, comprising of so many TV advert such as “Baby Driver” “Best Friend” “Backseat Anthem” “Rendezvous” and “looking for Gold”.

Findings show that the Subaru Love campaign was successful because of the application of rhetorical appeals such as pathos and logos in the campaign. Also through identification the target audience is able to form a connection to the brand.