Genre Analysis of Advertisements of Skin Care Products

Abstract

This is a study on the move-structure of skin-care advertisements in local English women’s magazines. The nine-move structure for advertisements introduced by Kathpalia (1992) is adopted as the framework for analyzing the samples in this study. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of the nine-move structure in analyzing the structures of skin-care products advertisements and to identify the representative move structures for this type of advertisements. This study also looks at the different aspects of visuals in the sample advertisements. Thirty advertisements of ten brands of skin-care products are collected from four local English women’s magazines. The moves found in each advertisement are identified and the frequency of occurrence of each move is recorded. Those moves which have a frequency of occurrence of 50% or above are prominent moves. The results of the findings show that Kathpalia’s nine-move structure is useful for investigating the structure of skin-care products advertisements. Out of the nine moves, only Offering Incentives and Pressure Tactics are not significant in the samples. The six significant moves are Appraising the Product, Establishing Credentials, Justifying the Product, Targeting the Market, Endorsements/Testimonials and Urging Action. Headlines, like body copy, should be viewed as part of the organization of an advertisement, not a move. The common linguistic features found in skin-care advertisements are interpersonal pronoun ‘you’ and possessive adjective ‘your’, adjectives, binomial/ multinomial expressions, nominals, repetition, ellipsis and imperatives, which are closely related to the realization of different moves. The findings also show that the visuals in the samples have close relationship with the unique selling point of the product being advertised. It is hoped that, with this study, a better understanding of the structure of skin-care products advertisements can be achieved. Kajian ini merupakan suatu kajian struktur ‘move’ iklan produk jagaan kulit dalam majalah wanita Bahasa Inggeris tempatan. Struktur analisis Kathpalia (1992) yang terdiri daripada sembilan ‘move’ telah digunakan sebagai rangka kerja untuk menganalisa sampel-sampel dalam kajian ini. Tujuan utama kajian ini adalah untuk mengenal pasti struktur utama dalam genre tersebut dan kesesuaian struktur Kathpalia dalam menganalisa struktur iklan-iklan produk jagaan kulit. Kajian ini juga menyelidik pelbagai aspek visual dalam sampel-sampel iklan. Tiga puluh iklan daripada sepuluh jenama produk jagaan kuit dikumpul daripada empat majalah wanita Bahasa Inggeris terbitan Malaysia. ‘Move’ dalam setiap iklan dikenal pasti dan kekerapan kewujudan setiap ‘move’ direkodkan. ‘Move’ yang mempunyai kekerapan kewujudan sebanyak 50% atau ke atas adalah ‘move’ penting. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa struktur Kathpalia yang terdiri daripada sembilan ‘move’ amat sesuai dalam analisis iklan-iklan produk jagaan kulit. Antara kesemua sembilan ‘move’ itu, hanya Offering Incentives dan Pressure Tactics tidak begitu penting dalam sampel-sampel yang dikaji. Enam ‘move’ yang penting ialah Appraising the Product, Justifying the Product, Establishing Credentials, Targeting the Market, Endorsements/Testimonials dan Urging Action. Headlines, seperti ‘body copy’, seharusnya dipandang sebagai sebahagian daripada organisasi iklan dan bukan sebagai ‘move’. Ciri-ciri linguistik umum yang terdapat dalam iklan-iklan produk jagaan kulit ialah kata ganti ‘you’ dan kata adjektif ‘your’, kata-kata adjektif, penyataan binomial/multinomial, nominal, ulangan, elipsis dan kata perintah. Kesemua ciri-ciri linguistik berkait rapat dengan realisasi pelbagai ‘move’. Hasil kajian juga menunjukkan bahawa visual dalam sampel-sampel mempunyai hubungan yang erat dengan ‘unique selling point’ produk yang diiklankan. Diharap dengan kajian ini, pemahaman yang lebih mendalam tentang struktur iklan-iklan produk jagaan kulit dapat dicapai.