A Frame Theory Approach To The Relation Between Commercial Advertising Slogans And Gender

As the soul of advertisement, advertising slogans have become a heated linguistictopic due to the booming of advertising industry. So far, scholars have investigatedelaborately its linguistic features, rhetoric,semantic and pragmatic attributes, etc. Inaddition, they have been delving into the study with methodological improvements formore scientific and objective results. However, most of them have not paid enoughattention to the social, cultural and cognitive problems encapsulated in advertisingslogans under the guidance of frame theory. Hence, the present study is going to explorethe relation between Chinese and English commercial advertising slogans and genderfrom this perspective, based on advertising, cognitive linguistics and sociolinguisticswith methods of comparative analysis, componential analysis and quantitive study.There are five parts in this thesis, covering introduction, literature review, theoreticalframework, analysis on commercial advertising slogans of Chinese and English, andconclusion. Among them, the fourth part is the major one. At the beginning, it discussesadvertising slogans targeted at different genders (in short gender-targeted advertisingslogans), which can be divided into two classes, i.e. advertising slogans with explicitgender images and implicit gender images on the basis of frame theory. Then, it probesinto the effects of cognitive function, psychological motivation,conceptual frame,situational frame, and socio-cultural frame on the formation and understanding ofadvertising slogans.Conclusions of the present research show thatfirstly, study on the relationbetweencommercial advertising slogans and gender with respect to frame theory provesthat the theory provides a way of thinking and analysis in the processing of advertisingslogans; secondly, gender-related culture and advertising slogans interact with each other:the former restricts the processing methods of advertising slogan, while the latterperforms as media for transmission and enhances effects of gender-related culture bycharacterizing specific gender images of the target audiences; thirdly, gender-targeted advertising slogans usually convey information of advertised products or services,stimulate audiences’ sense of identity, and achieve aims of promotion in accordance withthe frame of gender-related culture.As part of a marketing campaign, advertising slogans have to be audience-orientated.Therefore, it may need more insight into the linguistic features of advertising slogans andthe rules of its formation and understanding. On the other hand, it may be beneficial tosociolinguistics, advertising and sociology by exploring social, cultural and cognitiveproblems encapsulated in gender-targeted advertising slogans of Chinese and Englishonthe foundation of frame theory.