2.3 Differences at the lexical level

    2.3.1 Gender identity in advertisements

While we found quite a lot of similarities in the choice of words, we have also found some delicate differences in the choice of words in the three types of advertisements as classified before: daily consumer goods ads, technical equipment ads, and service ads.

Language, as a communicative tool, is not only to impart information, to communicate ideas about a product, etc., but also to convey information about the relationship between the addresser (advertisement) and the addressee (the audience). An intimate relationship between the advertisement and the audience is always hoped to achieve. So according to different audience, language applied is different.

What constitutes a female and a male identity, according to advertising? Table 1, based on the language of advertising (Torben Vestergaard & Kim Schr der, 1981:74), gives the commodity profile of two gender-identified magazines: Women and Playboy and also provides the distribution of the different types of advertisements.

Table 1 Distribution of three types of advertisements

  Percentage of ads

Women (%)

 Playboy (%)

Daily

Consumer

Goods

 Hygiene

 10

 3

Beauty

 18

 1

Clothes

 12

 14

Food, Detergents

 31

 -

Tobacco

 8

 15

Beer, Spirits

 -

 25

Leisure

 -

 3

Technical

Equipment

 Vehicle

 -

 27

Radio, hi-fi

 -

 4

Computer

 -

 7

Service

 Insurance, banking

 2

 -

Others

 19

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