Metaphorical Meaning Attached to Liquor Advertisements

Abstract

Advertising may be viewed as the construction of the
 semiotic worlds for persuading purchasers to consume what is
 advertised. Printed advertisement often involves manipulation of
 linguistic forms to achieve the persuasion. In addition. metaphor is
 an effective way to achieve the persuasion role since it is closely
 related to the way of people 's thinking and concept of something in
 their mind. which is fUndamentally metaphorical in nature. The data
 are collected from two liquor advertisements and respondents'
 questionnaires. The two advertisements discussed in this article were
 collected from Maxim magazine. September 2002 edition and the
 respondents' questionnaires were distributed to 20 respondents to
 find out their interpretations on metaphorical advertisements due
 to written language message of advertisements. In addition. the two
 examples of printed advertisements. instances of metaphorical
 advertisements. are reviewed. identified. and explained by using the
 theories of Saussure's Dydical Sign Model to find the process of
 metaphors attached to the advertisements. The results of the study
 show that people's interpretations on metaphors are basically related
 to their experience offered by metaphors. It means that people will
 interpret the meaning of the advertisements based on such
 circumstances in which they have ever been involved in.