¶ … advert employed psycholinguistics in its aim to manipulate readers to buy the product. The 'Fairy Soap' advertisement was used and investigated for the use of concrete imagery -- a strategy of psycholinguistics. Psycholinguistics says that concrete imagery not only forges associations but also makes imagery more vivid and helps reader comprehend and faster remember words. Analysis of the advert in terms of the concrete imagery used showed that all applied. Discussion sums up result and concludes that that readers can be more readily manipulated into buying the product -- unless they were aware that they are being deliberately manipulated by people who know how to make words sound psychologically appealing. The Concrete Appeal of Soap

None of us wish to be manipulated, but unfortunately, advertisements -- the world of marketing -- uses techniques that indiscernibly manipulates us and influences us in certain way. People tend to think that is only certain cultures that indoctrinate their products -- not Western cultures. However, most of us fail to realize the creeping influence that advertisement has on our hearts and minds. Marketers are well versed in psychology of marketing and in semiotics that have a psychological impact. They use these to create their text and pictures. Understanding the subtext of psycholinguistics can help us not only get ahead of the game and fail to be influenced but can also help us create our own persuasive copy.

Advertisements also reduce people -- feminists say, women -- to objects. We can become dehumanized by advertisements and brand names. Understanding this may make us less immune to the results. As example, Janice Winship (1981) cites the humorous example of a poster for a car which proclaimed: 'If it were a lady it would get its bottom pinched', and which was defaced with this rejoinder; 'If this lady were a car she'd run you down'. Advertisements reduce us to the status of objects. For this reason, too, insight into psycholinguistics may reduce their impact. (SEMIOTICS AND IDEOLOGY)

Some of the most important theoretical models of language processing (include the trace model, the cohort model, and phonological neighbour and sound similarities. These are auditory models. The trace model refers to repetition of units and connections for the same semantics / chain...

The cohort model says that upon hearing the start of a word, all consequent candidates become activated and those that are dissimilar drop out. The word has to be unique for speed of recognition.
Phonological refers to the sound patterns of the language.

Visual models include those by Vanden et al. (1987) and Klink (2000) who point out that brand names are more likely to begin with a consonant and vowel or plosive in order to be remembered more easily. People too like sound symbolism in brands., As regards meaning representations of words, this is how language is used in a social context.

There are numerous strategies that marketing experts us to 'push our head under the water' and cause us to absorb the message. For this essay, I will only use one:

Concrete vs. abstract -- psycholinguists point out that recognition takes place faster for concrete than it does for abstract words. Concrete words are also more positively associated with comprehension and association (Larry, 1982). Concrete words furthermore provide us with imagery value and this in turn, according to consistent research, enhances communication. Words that have concrete value are easier for reader to understand than terms that do not. Larry (1982) quotes the research of Williams (1979) who found that high imagery syllogisms were faster and more accurately solved than the same syllogism made up of low imagery value words.

Concrete semiotics is especially used in terms of comparison where one company wants to place itself as more superior to the other.

This essay will provide an example of just such an advertisement and how it uses concrete semantics of psycholinguistics in its attempt to influence the reader to buy its product.

Method

I conducted an online research to find an advertising copy that used concrete words to enhance its image. I especially looked for one that used comparison and employed concrete words to embellish its distinction. I focused on the predictable products: soap, planes, drinks (particularly coke), cars, motorbikes, washing powder, and food. I was unable to find one that boosted itself in comparison to another. I found many, however, that used concrete words -- often feminine ones, and all too many that used a woman as part of their imagery. I noticed,…