Using Language as a Persuasive Tool in Promoting Alcoholic Drinks in Ghana

Abstract

This paper did a linguistic analysis of names of Ghanaian alcoholic drinks as well as their communicative functions. The study used six alcoholic drinks: "Adonko Atadwe Ginger Bitters", "Kasapreko Alomo Bitters", "Herb Afrik Gin Bitters", "JOY DADI Bitters", "Kpo keke" and "ᴐdehyeԑ Beer", advertised on billboards in three metropolitan assemblies: Cape Coast, Takoradi and Ho in Ghana. The texts on the billboards were taken randomly with a digital camera and stored on a computer, and were subsequently analysed qualitatively. All the fifty-four (54) advertised texts were used for the study. The study has shown that the names of the six alcoholic drinks are mostly concrete nouns made up of a group of words having either Beer or Bitters as the headwords. These headwords, Beer and Bitters, were modified by other nouns and adjectives borrowed mostly from the indigenous languages, Akan and Ga, and are also complemented by imperative sentences. It is clear from the study that the concrete nouns used to name the drinks are to create in the minds of the audience a mental image about the drinks, and also to make them develop some kind of taste and feeling for the drinks. The indigenous (local) words used as modifiers of the "Beer" and "Bitters" are to give a brand name and an identity to the dinks as well as make the audience have some kind of local attachment (a sense of Africanism) and a-we-feeling for the drinks. The imperative sentences are used to command, direct and order the audience, and therefore, compel them to buy the drinks. Finally, we can say that the manufacturers of the six alcoholic drinks used language skillfully to compel and persuade the public to patronise the alcoholic drinks. The increase in the in-take of alcoholic drinks in Ghana is, thus, largely due to the kind of names given to the drinks and how they are advertised on the billboards.