Using Language as a Persuasive Tool in Promoting Alcoholic Drinks in Ghana ()
1. Introduction
Language is very important in our everyday life. Language is used by both manufactures and advertisers to promote their goods and services (see also Martin et al., 2002 ). Without language, it will be difficult for manufacturers and advertisers to reach out to their customers and consumers. Advertising comes in different forms: magazines, newspapers, billboards, email, leaflets, catalogues, television, radio, etc. Advertising on billboards constitutes one of the main avenues through which advertisements are made. For instance, billboards are one of the simplest and least expensive forms of advertising tools. They can be used in urban as well as rural communities. Billboards are therefore one of the main media along television, radio, newspapers, magazines and cinema used in advertisements. Billboard advertisements make a very good use of multi-semiotic modes: pictures (motion and still); texts (spoken and written) of communication to reach consumers.
Industries and organizations exist to satisfy the needs of their customers. These needs are attained largely through advertisements. Most manufacturers depend largely on advertisers to sell out their products. The purpose of advertisement is, therefore, to persuade people to purchase a product. Advertisements are therefore, persuasive in nature and are meant to inform, direct attention and influence people to make decisions on the advertised products (Melchenko, 2003) . Leech (1972) , for example, believes that advertising purports to change the will, opinion or attitudes of audience towards the goods and services advertised. Leech sees the persuasive element of advertising in terms of attention value, listenability/readability, memorability and selling power. Among such fantastic competition, the producer wants to reveal the uniqueness of his products by differentiating it from the rest. To achieve these, language must be used persuasively, and this is normally done by manipulating language by breaking the rules and conventions of language in a way that calls attention to itself (Leech, 1972) . Manipulating language, according to Leech, affords the copywriter the opportunity to unlimited means of expression and also to tap into communicative resources that are not available in the day-to-day functions of language.
Copywriters use persuasive techniques like unorthodox use of language to attract consumers’ attention which is normally unexpected and surprising (Leech, 1972) . Leech likens a copywriter who uses unconventional linguistic means to attract a consumer’s attention to the legendary customer in a crowded restaurant who stood on his head to attract the waiter’s attention. These violations are at the level of orthography, syntax, lexis, semantics and context, and have the propensity to arrest consumers’ attention, put them in a suitable receptive frame of mind and imprint the message on their memory.
As said earlier, advertisers employ both linguistic and non-linguistic features to achieve their goal; to drive and compel consumers to purchase goods and services, whether good or bad. This paper therefore focuses on written texts used largely by advertisers to reach their customers. Texts constitute linguistic features that carry important communicative functions. For example, texts are believed to create different versions of reality in the society. The advertising texts have to be more desirable and more unpredictable: they should catch the interest of the audience in order to discover the product. Generally, uncommon, surprising and interesting texts with catchy slogans or phrases are created to persuade the consumer. According to Sinar (2018) , the analysis of visual texts in semiotic analysis is important because the verbal meaning obtained in the visual content becomes the source of representation that shows the grammatical dynamics in the text. Alcoholic drink companies use persuasive language to attract consumers to patronise their drinks. These linguistic items used to describe alcoholic drinks do communicate a lot to the reader. An advertising text provides information and also serves as a means of communication (Leech, 1972) . Leech believes that these texts have more than just linguistic elements-they have elements that interact with the consumer. To Halliday and Hasan (1989) , the textual content can additionally be intertextual such that references are made to textual contents or conditions that outdoor the verbal or visible texts. Intertextual texts can be interpreted based on the context of culture and context of occurrence.
The textual content is a structured unit consisting of smaller units: it is a stretch of language which makes coherent feel in the context of its units, it might also be spoken or written and it may also be as lengthy as the book or as brief as a cry for help (Quirk & Greenbaum, 1990) . The textual shape can no longer be studied solely from the view of the connection of the sentences that make up a text; it can be viewed from the informational factor. It is by this capacity that we can shape devices of records inside the utterances. The textual content shape of the drink, “Atadwe” or “ᴐdehyeԑ”, for example, is the informational content material, and what motivates that form of textual utilization is its communicative cost for the reader or the viewer. Linguists believe that if we are in a position to shape devices of facts inside an advertisement, then the textual content has to preserve its informational structure.
For instance, rules are sometimes broken at the orthographic level where words are spelt differently for the purpose of drawing attention to themselves. Leech (1972) explains that this is a popular practice in advertisement where product names are spelt differently to provide products with distinctive written symbolization. He discussed examples like Brylcreem and Rice Krispies with the elements, “cream” and “krisp” by spelling differently the English words Cream and Crisp. To him, the misspellings give the names unique orthographic image and at the same time remain meaningful linguistic elements. Leech also discussed orthographic violations which though do not affect particular spellings; violate the general rules of English orthography. For instance, ScotTowel violates the rules that capital letters do not occur in the middle of a word, with small letters on either side. This kind of violation is very effective because it can be easily perceived by the audience and so helps in making such product names memorable.
Another work that discussed linguistic violation in advertisement is Harris (1989) . He explains that manufacturers and advertisers manipulate linguistic forms and structures to undergo certain change and transformation, and this has the effect of surprising the audience. This is done with the purpose of providing a means of directing the audience’s attention directly onto the subject and substance of the particular discourse in which the manipulation occurs. Harris points out that in print advertising for example, grammatical rules are systematically broken so that maximum persuasive effect is achieved for the product or service. Just like Leech (1972) , Harris indicates that the very structure and form of language is manipulated. That is, rules are intentionally and systematically broken at all levels simultaneously to achieve a more persuasive effect on the reader or viewer. By this, Harris confirms Leech (1972) that the number of possible linguistic violations is unlimited since any rule of language can be broken in several ways. He even adds that it is rarely if ever the case that one component such as sound or word-form or lexical item is manipulated in isolation. This means that in advertising, rules are broken at several levels simultaneously.
Recently, a number of studies have been conducted on semiotics and advertisements. Najafian and Ketabi (2011) and Faizan (2019) looked at the relationship between advertisement and ideologies embedded in the use of linguistic and semiotic modes. Others like Afreh (2017) and Anim-Ayeko (2011) also looked at the use of conceptual metaphors in advertisement and how to explore both the visual and verbal mechanism for the realization of these metaphors. Unfortunately, most of these works focused on the semiotic modes of advertisement without any consideration to the linguistic features in the text. It is clear that alcohol has negative effects on the human body. Drinking of alcohol is, is for example, compared to drinking of poison in Ghana. The local gin, “Akpeshie”, for example, is called “kill me quick”, which means that people are aware that alcohol can be deadly. Interestingly, the number of people who takes in alcohol on daily basis keeps increasing. One may wonder why the increase. One thing that becomes obvious is the names of the alcoholic drinks and how they are advertised. Unfortunately, none of these studies links the in-take of alcohol to the names of the alcoholic drinks and how they are advertised. This paper therefore examined the linguistic features of six alcoholic drinks in Ghana and their communicative functions.
2. Objective
The purpose of this paper was to examine the linguistic features of the names of six alcoholic drinks manufactured in Ghana as well as their communicative functions. It specifically sought to find out how language is used by the alcoholic drink manufacturers to persuade audience to patronise the alcoholic drinks.
3. Methodology
The study used pictures of 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 from three metropolitan assemblies, Cape Coast, Takoradi and Ho in Ghana. A total of fifty-four (54) advertisements (three each from each metropolitan assembly) of each of the drinks advertised on billboards were used for the study. The pictures were taken randomly with a digital camera from the three metropolises. All the pictures were taken during the day for clarity and were subsequently transferred onto a laptop for analysis. The names of the drinks found on the billboards were sorted out from each assembly according to the type and subsequently analysed qualitatively.
4. Results and Discussion
Words are powerful. They have the power to change the thoughts of people. Manufacturers and advertisers are aware of this fact; therefore, advertisement is normally called “the business of words”. For example, it is said that about 50 to 75 percent of selling power lies in the words of advertisement (Ke & Wang, 2013) . In this paper, we discussed the syntactic and lexical features of the names which constitute the most essential linguistic elements found on the alcoholic advertising billboards in the three metropolises. The first one discussed was lexis or vocabulary.
4.1. Lexis/Vocabulary
It is clear from the data that most of the names of the drinks are concrete nouns. These names refer either directly to the product; features of the products, parts of the products, or to people and objects connected with them (see also Leech, 1972 ). Concrete nouns describe a person, place, or a thing that has a physical presence that a person can experience with their five senses: sight, scent, taste, touch or hearing. They convey information about the reality of the drinks to the audience. That is, they bring tangibility and reality about the drinks, and also connect the ideas expressed about the drinks to the sense of the audience by talking about what the drinks look, feel, taste and smell like. When the names of these drinks are mentioned, a kind of picture is created in the minds of the audience. The names form certain imagery in the minds of the audience. Interestingly, all the names of the drinks are composed of a group of words, mostly phrases or what is called “noun group”, which have either “Beer” or “Bitters” as their headwords, modified by other nouns. Know that the headwords, “Beer” and “Bitters” do not give us a specific type of the drink, except their modifiers. The modifiers, therefore, give a particular identity to the drinks, their brand name; they help the audience identify the kind of Beer or Bitters. For example, the drink called “Bitters” has four types: “Adonko Atadwe Ginger Bitters”, “Kasapreko Alomo Bitters”, “JOY DADI Bitters” and “Herb Afrik Gin Bitters”. The identities of the “Bitters” and “Beer” are known only through their modifiers. Structurally, the names can be illustrated in the form:
1) Adonko Atadwe Ginger Bitters
pre-modifier Head post-modifier
2) JOY DADI Bitters
pre-modifier Head post-modifier
3) Kasapreko Alomo Bitters
pre-modifier Head post-modifier
4) Herb Afrik Gin Bitters
pre-modifier Head post-modifier
5) ᴐdehyeԑ Beer
pre-modifier Head post-modifier
6) kpo keke
Head post-modifier
The drink called “Bitters” as shown above has the pre-modifiers, “Adonko Atadwe Ginger”, “JOY DADI”, “Kasapreko Alomo” and “Herb Afrik Gin” respectively with “Bitters” as the headword but no postmodifier. Each of these modifiers helps the audience to identify the different types of the drink, “Bitters”, from all the other Bitters. The modifier “ᴐdehyeԑ” of “ᴐdehyeԑ Beer” identifies “ᴐdehyeԑ Beer” from all other beers in the world. The last drink, “Kpo Keke”, is formed from a combination of adverbs: “kpo” meaning quietly and “keke” meaning “somehow”.
Linguistic analysis of alcoholic drinks often focuses on alcohol as an object or as an item described concretely. The modifiers give the drinks distinctive features which make them unique and different from other drinks. This seems to confirm the concept that producers purport to reveal the uniqueness of their products by differentiating them from the rest. The modifiers give the drinks brand names that make them different from other types of, for example, Beers and Bitters. This also confirms Goddard (1998) who indicates that advertisers carefully choose vocabulary to promote positive associations in the minds of the target audience. One significant thing observed here is that most of the words used to modify the drinks (Beer and Bitters) are borrowed from Ghanaian languages. The next section discusses these words.
4.2. Lexical Borrowing
Borrowing is the process whereby new words are formed by adopting words from other languages together with the concepts or ideas they stand for (Pei, 1966) . A careful examination of the data reveals that most of the words used to modify the names Bitters and Beer are predominantly local or indigenous to the people, mostly Akan words. For example, Alomo, ᴐdehyeԑ, Kasapreko, Adonko and Atadwe are all Akan. We also have kpo and keke which come from Ga language. Although we have some other ones like JOY, DADI, Herb and Ginger which are English, we can say that the predominant use of the local words as modifiers is deliberate and has communicative functions. The use of words from the indigenous languages as modifiers of the drinks has a huge implication for meaning. This is discussed in another section of this paper. The next section, however, discussed sentence as a component of the names.
4.3. Sentence
Sentences perform different discourse functions depending on their type. The use of one form of a sentence or the other is dependent on the intention of the speaker. For example, declaratives are used to inform, interrogatives seek information; exclamatives are used in showing surprise while imperatives largely give commands. Advertising discourses are mostly announcements which are commands or directives and promises (commissives). In this study, therefore, imperative sentences constitute the main type of sentence used in advertising the alcoholic drinks. We have sentences such as “CELEBRATE your ROOTS” and “Drink Responsibly” found on the billboards of “Kasapreko Alomo Bitters” and JOY DADI Bitters respectively throughout the three metropolises. Both sentences are imperative sentences. Just like all imperative sentences, these sentences do not have overt subjects. They, however, have the implied subject “you”, which presupposes that the message is for everyone. We also have “JOO, NOM BI” (Joo, drink some) on the Billboards of “ᴐdehyeԑ Beer”. This is also an imperative sentence although it is directed to someone, JOO. Apart from the imperative sentences observed above, we have the declarative sentence “It has been vetted and approved by the Food and Drug Board (FDA)”. The communicative functions of the names of the drinks found on the billboards of the advertised drinks are discussed below.
4.4. Communicative Functions of the Names
According to Lyons (1981) , ideas or concepts can be transferred from the mind of the speaker to the mind of the hearer by embodying them into a form of language. Cook (1972) believes that advertising language depends crucially on a creative play of language and on cultural discourses of society within which the language is embedded. There are reasons why advertisers and manufacturers of alcoholic drinks employ these techniques (creative language). A figurative language has a more or less positive influence on a hearer or customer in the case of advertisement than literal types of utterances. For example, hyperbole, ellipsis, metonymy, etc. used in advertisements have the potential to convince people to buy a product which ordinarily they would not have bought. An example of figurative language used in advertising the alcoholic drinks is ellipsis. In the data, the advertisers made a very good use of ellipsis as a rhetorical device to achieve their purpose. According to Cook (1972) , the use of ellipsis, for instance, saves space and cost because it avoids drawing attention to features of the message which do not serve the advertiser’s interest.
The omitted or elided elements constitute given information, and therefore focus the audience attention on new information or important information. Ellipsis is possible mainly because of predictability of the meaning and common means of implicit cohesion. An instance of ellipsis found on the billboards is “…the real Oga on top” in the advertisement of “Herb Afrik Gin Bitters”. We can see that something is omitted before and after the noun phrase, “the real Oga on top”. But what is before the phrase, “the real Oga on top” is not known. Similarly, we do not know what the prepositional phrase “on top” that post-modifies the “Oga” refers to. For instance, one sits or stands or sleeps “on top” of something. One can also be on top of ideas, issues, etc. Interestingly, in this advert the audience is not told what “Oga” is on top of; is it ideas or issues? He must be on top of something. Note also that the name “Oga” does not refer to a specific person. The name “Oga” is a Nigerian word which means a very important person. And so, this message is not meant for just anybody, but for special people. The absence of the post-modifier of “top” therefore keeps the audience/reader in a dilemma. Know that by using the ellipsis, the advertiser holds information from the audience. This is also purposeful; it is a way of telling the audience to fill the gap themselves, which keeps them thinking about the drink. As you take “Herb Afrik Gin Bitters”, your position changes; you are either on top of the world, on top of issues, ideas, on top of a woman, etc. The ellipsis in the slogan may thus be taken as a rhetorical strategy used as a stylistic device to enshrine ideation and interpersonal functions that allows the audience to participate in the retrieval and creation of social meaning in the context of the discourse. “…the real Oga on top” can arrest the attention of the reader by communicating to them about the drink. The main purpose of this ellipsis is, thus, to persuade the reader or viewer; it arrests their attention and forces them to buy the drinks. This confirms the claim that advertising language depends crucially on a creative play of language and on cultural discourses of society within which the language is embedded (see Cook, 1972 ).
The concrete nouns used for the names of the drinks equally have a purpose; they create a kind of imagery in the minds of the audience. The names bring about tangibility and reality of the drinks and thus make them memorable. They connect the ideas expressed about the drinks to the sense of the audience by talking about what the drinks look, feel, taste and smell like. The modifiers give the drinks distinctive features which make them unique and different from other drinks. This is in line with Cook (1972) that the persuasive use of language by producers is to reveal the uniqueness of their products by differentiating them from the rest. It also confirms Goddard (1998) who indicates that advertisers carefully choose vocabulary to promote positive associations in the minds of the target audience.
The local words used to describe the drinks have a huge implication on the audience as well as on the products. Firstly, they give a particular 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. They are also used as stylistic and symbolic identity construction tool to enhance the attachment of the audience for the drinks. The audience is able to relate well to the drinks and so can have a better feeling for the drinks. The borrowed words, therefore, create some connection between the drinks and the audience. Similarly, capitalizing “CELEBRATE your ROOTS” on the billboards of “Kasapreko Alomo Bitters” is purposeful. It foregrounds the drink, and therefore draws or catches the attention of the reader, and also brings to their notice the need to recognize and appreciate their beautiful African culture which is enshrined in the drink.
This text shows that the traditions or the roots (the origin) of Ghanaians cannot be celebrated without the “Kasapreko Alomo Bitters”. It also gives the reader as well as the consumer a sense of belonging to the African society. Drinking Kasapreko Alomo Bitters is, thus, not just drinking of an alcohol but it is a way of paying homage to one’s African origin. Similarly, the “Herb Afrik” seeks to bring to the notice of the audience as well as educating them on the medicinal purposes of the African herbs such as sexual potency and fertility in women, which are believed to be gained from taking the drink.
Another interesting meaning to talk about is the meaning derived from a combination of the words “Adonko, Atadwe, Ginger and Bitters”. A combination of these words has a connotative meaning which is beyond its literal or denotative meaning. For example, denotatively, alcohol makes the drinker lack coordination in movement. So, a drink which is “Adonko” meaning “seesaw”, is purposely to make the drinker lack coordination and thus moves like someone doing seesaw. The name “Atadwe” added to the Bitters shows that the drink has medicinal value. Taking a drink that contains “atadwe” which has the potency of making a man “strong” sexually (a notion among Ghanaians), together with ginger in bitters carries a lot of meaning. What this means is that anyone who takes the drink, “Adonko Atadwe Ginger Bitters” will be strong sexually and can “swing” (will Adonko/will seesaw) in bed during sex just like how children swing to different directions on a seesaw. The drink “Adonko Atadwe Ginder Bitters” has the potential to induce the drinker to swing a woman in bed, bearing in mind the fact that the drink contains the same effects as the seesaw children play on.
This idea is the same expressed in the “kasapreko Alomo Gin Bitters”. Alomo is an Akan word which means “a woman who is loved and cherished”. In Twi when a man says “m’alomo” to a woman, he means “my wife” or “the woman I love so much”. The message being sent through this drink is simple, “love the drink just like you love your wife”. The intention for naming “ᴐdehyeԑ Beer” is not different from the two drinks discussed earlier. The name “ᴐdehyeԑ” in “ᴐdehyeԑ Beer” is an Akan word which means a very important personality, a person from a royal family or lineage. Denotatively, “ᴐdehyeԑ” means someone with good social standing or someone from a royal family as it is symbolically signified on the bottle of the drink. An “ᴐdehyeԑ” is someone from a royal family. If the text “ᴐdehyeԑ” is used as a brand name for a drink, then it means the drink is very valuable; it is as important as the “ᴐdehyeԑ”. Naming a drink “ᴐdehyeԑ” has a communicative purpose. That is, anyone who takes “ᴐdehyeԑ” drink is equated to an “ᴐdehyeԑ”. The drinker of “ᴐdehyeԑ Beer” automatically becomes part of a royal class. The metaphorical construction employed in this linguistic item is, therefore, to bring out the meaning intended for the audience; the purpose is to get the attention of the reader and thus compel them to buy the drink.
Apart from the names of the drinks, there are other texts found on the billboards that complement the names. The advertisement of “Adonko Atadwe Ginger Beer”, for example, has “made with love” added to the name. This seeks to complement the brand name. Interestingly also, it could mean that one has no choice than to love the drink if they take the drink or one will be filled with love after taking it. This is therefore purely romantic.
The use of “Drink Responsibly” observed on the billboards of “Kasapreko Alomo Bitters” and “Adonko Atadwe Ginger Bitters” serves as a form of caution to the consumer. This confirms the fact that alcohol has negative effects on the drinker and that the advertisers are aware of the dangers it poses to the drinker. “JOO, NOM BI”, meaning “drink some” or “try some” in the “ᴐdehyeԑ Beer” is equally communicates to the reader. This text is very symbolic; unlike the others, it is directed to someone, “JOO” as a referent. But anyone could also be JOO. We can say that someone is being persuaded to take the “ᴐdehyeԑ Beer” in order to feel or have that royal experience the speaker is having. There is no reason to doubt that this text is to compel the audience to buy the drink; you try to take in some and see how it tastes. It is therefore enough to convince someone to take in the drink. The use of the declarative sentence “It has been vetted and approved by the FDA” used in the advertisements with “Adonko Atadwe Ginger” and “Kasapreko Alomo Bitters” equally seeks to give the medical approval and authenticity of the drinks.
5. Summary
In this paper, we did a linguistic analysis of names of six alcoholic drinks manufactured in Ghanaian as well as their communicative functions. Fifty-four (54) billboards were selected randomly from the three metropolises. The pictures of the texts of the drinks were captured on cameras. The texts analysed included the lexical and syntactic features of the names as well as their communicative functions. The data were analysed qualitatively, that is, through content analysis. The study has shown that the manufacturers of the six alcoholic drinks used mostly concrete nouns to name the drinks. These names are made up of a “Beer” and “Bitters” as the headwords, modified by nouns mostly from the indigenous languages, Akan and Ga. These were complemented with sentences, mostly imperative sentences. All of the names, as noticed, have some communicative functions, and their choice was deliberate. In the first place, the concrete nouns give the drinks a kind of branding. They also create a kind of image in the minds of the audience. For example, they bring tangibility and reality about the drinks, and thus connect the ideas expressed about the drinks to the sense of the audience.
The concrete nouns also make the names of the drinks memorable and force the audience to meditate on the drinks and talk about what the drinks look, feel, taste and smell like. The use of the local words as modifiers of the Beer and Bitters is equally not for fun. They give the drinks distinctive features which make them unique and different from other drinks. The borrowed words, especially from Akan, make the audience see the drinks as local and so create some kind of connection between the drinks and the audience. They make the audience have some kind of local attachment and we-feeling for the drinks. The use of the ellipsis was also deliberate; we believe it is meant to save space and cost, and then keep the reader in a dilemma, holding information from the audience by making them keep meditating on the drinks as they try to fill that gap.
We also noticed that capitalizing some of the words on the billboards is a way to foreground the names in order to catch the attention of the reader and then bring to their notice the need to recognize and appreciate their beautiful African culture. You celebrate your roots as you take in the alcohol. It also gives the reader as well as the consumer a sense of belonging to the African society. The names seek to bring to the notice of the audience as well as educating them on the medicinal purposes of the drink.
Naming the drink “ᴐdehyeԑ”, which in our local parlance connotes prestige, is deliberate as well. For instance, this name has the tendency of making the audience feel that by drinking “ᴐdehyeԑ Beer” they will become members of prestigious class. This can compel the audience to buy the drink. The name, “Alomo”, that pre-modifies “Bitters” is equally persuasive; you have no choice than to love the drink, or you will be filled with love after taking the drinks. What is more persuasive in the data is the imperative “JOO NOM BI”, on some of the billboards. Asking the audience to try some of the drinks cannot have any other intention than a persuasive one. It is also interesting to read the caution “drink responsibly” directed to the audience. This means that the manufacturers are aware of the dangers of drinking alcohol. We can, therefore, say that manufacturers of alcoholic drinks in Ghana choose language deliberately when naming their manufactured drinks, and the intention is to persuade consumers to patronise the drinks. This study has implication for further research. It calls for more research to be done on the names of other alcoholic drinks in the same metropolises and also on the same drinks in other metropolises in the country.