Comparative stylistic analysis of Commercial advertising and charitable advertising

Xie+Ke

Introduction

Advertising is something that we are all exposed to everyday. It has penetrated every corner of society. We are confronted with advertisements all the time. However， the variable advertisements are different actually. People may focus more on the artful words， colorful pictures and attractive voices filling in these advertisements， which you can see， hear and feel directly， but technically， there are distinctive types of advertising. According to the target audience and the ultimate purpose， advertisements can be classified as two main kinds： commercial advertisements and charitable advertisements.

The sample ads that the author selected to investigate are a charitable television ad about saving wild rhinoceros and a commercial ad of GREE. The advertiser invites three celebrated people Yao Ming， Prince Harry and David Beckham as the spokesmen for the first ad， and Jackie Chan is the spokesman for GREE.

At the graphological level

Firstly， the core information of charitable ads and the unique features of the products， which are the most significant messages the advisers want to deliver， are often put in the most prominent positions. For example， “The buying stops， the killing can， too”， which is the core idea of the rhinos-saving ad， is the only visible words in the end of the video.

Secondly， the advisers often take advantage of art to create an attractive visual effect. In the sample of charitable ad， there are a herd of rhinos crowding into a football stadium and the three celebrities walking beside them. The artistic design of the ad vividly shows the audience how many the wild rhinos exist in the entire world. When audiences recognize the wild rhinos become less and less from this way， the purpose of the ad has successfully achieved. In the sample of GREE， calligraphy and kongfu， which are the two main symbols of Chinese traditional art， are perfectly used in the ad. Jackie Chan integrates calligraphy and kongfu artfully.

At the syntactic level

As is shown in the samples， most sentences in the ads are colloquial and simply structured. In the charitable ad， imperative sentences are frequently used. For example， “Ask your friends and family， never to buy rhino horn” and “Together we can save our wild rhinos”. The imperative sentences directly indicate what the responsibility people should take and how people should do in the future， which makes audience correctly and clearly catch the point of the ad—saving the endangered rhinos. In the other sample， the advertiser employs declarative sentences to make a statement： “Chinese people going to the world cant depend on the showy but not practical martial art”. The sentence seems like it just conveys an objective truth， however， the following sentence proves that it is just the bedding of its commending the product as “GREE， master of core technology！”

At the level of purpose

The fundamental deference of the commercial advertising and charitable advertising is the purpose. Charitable ads often appeal to people to do good things for the society， the country and even the world. Usually， the advertisers are the people or government who sponsor the advertisements voluntarily. Therefore， the purpose of charitable advertising is to make the world a better place. For example， the purpose of the sample ad is to save the wild rhinos and other endangered animals. The only purpose of commercial advertising is to sell the products. In order to sell the products， the advertisers try their best to make advertisement as vivid， artful， attractive and effective as possible. For example， in our sample， the advertiser seems to stand in a high position to indicate how a country can be competitive， but what he wants to say is just： Come and buy our GREE air conditioners.

Conclusion

From the above analysis， we can see the samples of charitable and commercial advertising have many similar and distinctive features. At the graphological level， they both put the core information in the prominent position； the advisers often take advantage of art to create an attractive visual effect； celebrities show up in the ads. But the scenes and words of commercial ads always revolve around the products and brand. At the syntactic level， advertising tends to be grammatically simple. The sample charitable ad includes more imperative sentences， however， the sample commercial ad uses more declarative sentences. At the level of purpose， they are totally deferent. The non- profit charitable ads are serving for the people， whereas the commercial ads are for themselves. As a result， charitable advertising and commercial advertising， as the two main brunch of advertising， are almost similar but still exiting distinctions in some ways.