Stylistic Analysis Of Automobile Brands Advertisement In Covid-19

Yuli Astuti
A1A170249
English Language and Literature Study Program, Faculty of Literature
Al-Ghifari University Bandung
2020

[email protected]

Abstract
As countries across the world are coming to terms with what is now referred to as the ‘new normal’,
automobile brands, one of the most affected sectors due to the pandemic, have been reviving
communications to raise awareness around social distancing to stay relevant among the consumers.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many advertisements displayed on the theme of Covid-19. Because
this pandemic has a very strong impact on the economic sector and where advertising is a method of
marketing a brand. In this study, researcher will examine the advertising Stylistic used by automobile
manufacturers in the theme of Covid-19. Stylistics is the study of style used in literary,and verbal
language and the effect the writer/speaker wishes to communicate to the reader/hearer. Some of the
automobile brands that researcher will analyze are:Jaguar,BMW,Mercedes,Honda,Volkswagen.The
advertising media that researcher will use in youtube/www.youtube.com.

Keywords : Stylistic,Covid-19,Advertisement

Abstrak

Ketika negara-negara di seluruh dunia mulai sepakat dengan apa yang sekarang disebut sebagai “New
normal”, merek mobil, salah satu sektor yang paling terpengaruh karena pandemi, telah menghidupkan
kembali komunikasi untuk meningkatkan kesadaran seputar jarak sosial agar tetap relevan di antara
konsumen.Selama pandemi Covid-19, banyak ditampilkan iklan bertema Covid-19.
Karena pandemi ini berdampak sangat kuat terhadap sektor ekonomi dan dimana periklanan merupakan
salah satu metode pemasaran suatu merek. Pada penelitian kali ini,peneliti akan mengkaji tentang
Stylistic (Gaya bahasa) iklan yang digunakan oleh pabrikan mobil bertema covid-19
Stylistics adalah studi tentang gaya yang digunakan dalam sastra, dan bahasa verbal dan pengaruh yang
ingin dikomunikasikan oleh penulis / pembicara kepada pembaca / pendengar. Beberapa merk mobil
yang akan peneliti analisa adalah: Jaguar,BMW,Mercedes,Honda,Volkswagen. Media periklanan yang
akan peneliti gunakan adalah youtube/www.youtube.com.

Kata Kunci : Gaya Bahasa,Covid-19,Iklan

 CHAPTER I

1. INTRODUCTION

Advertising is news or messages to persuade and encourage people to be interested in the goods
or services offered, advertisements are usually promoted through advertising media such as
television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the internet, etc. This research uses internet media
advertising, youtube site, which displays various kinds of car brand advertisement. However,
the advertisements that will be reviewed in this research are public service advertisements
which are not for commercial purposes, but rather contain information about socialization or
enlightenment to the public about a particular issue or topic. The public service advertisements
displayed on YouTube are appeals to the public about things that must be obeyed during the
Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic has been going on for a long time since the
beginning of 2020, a pandemic that has claimed many lives from various parts of the world.

Therefore, many media, especially in the advertising industry, such as public service
advertisements from various commercial brands display or make covid-19 themed service
advertisements. The purpose of this study is to analyze the language style used in each car
brand that displays public service advertisements with the theme of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this study, advertisements will be analyzed using stylistic theory in which the research
focuses on the language style used in these public service advertisements.Stylistic is a critical
approach that is not confined to the analysis of literature (Barry: 2002) This study uses non-
literary work as the data.The analysis also consist of linguistics features. It is defined as the
linguistic context inside a text that refers to the surrounding features of language such as the
typography,sounds,words,phrases, and sentences which are relevant to the interpretation of
other linguistic elements (Verdonk:2002).
Based on the explanation above, this research will be beneficial in understanding the linguistic
features in the advertising language.

CHAPTER II

2.1 THE PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Researchers have several references related to research from

several previous studies conducted by Dewi Anggita (2017), Cita Mustika, Dien Novita, Ria
Nirwana (2018),Joy Samantha Suwondo (2018), Romanenko (2014), and Rashid and Hattab
(2015)with data of title and grand theory as follows:
 Previous Research

No Researcher Year University Title Grand theory

Universitas Stylistic features on women
Galperin (1977)
1 Dewi Anggita 2017 Al-Ghifari, skincareTelevision
Stylistics
Bandung advertisement
Verdonk
Cita Mustika, Universitas Stylistics Features on (2002)
2 Dien Novita, Ria 2018 Padjadjaran, Television Advertisement Stylistics is the
Nirwana Bandung about Men Treatment study
of styles
Gillian Dyer
(1995)
Linguistic Analysis of Advertising as
Charles
On-Line communication,
3 Romanenko 2014 University in
Advertising in Angela
Prague
English Goddard (1998)
The Language
of Advertising
G. N. Leech &
Linguistic and
M. H. Short
Stylistic
(1981) Style in
Features of
Fiction: A
Rashid and Baghdad the
4 2015 Linguistic
Hattab University Advertisement
Introduction to
Language and
English
their Effect on
Functional
Customer
Prose.

The first research, Dewi anggita (2017) conducted a research which is entitled Stylistic features on
women skincare Television advertisement. The reseach used stylistic theory by Galperin (1977)
states the analysis of stylistic make the classification and interpretation of additional meanings
which is carried in message and aesthetic value on the text from the advertisement.The researcher
used stylistic features that were used mostly in US and Indonesian woman skincare television
advertisement are phonological and syntactical features.

The second research,Cita Mustika, Dien Novita, Ria Nirwana (2018) conducted a research which is
entitled Stylistics Features on Television Advertisement about Men Treatment. The reseach used
stylistic theory by verdonk (2002) Researchers analyzed advertisements for skincare products or
men's care products with ad samples taken from www.youtube.com

The third research, Romanenko (2014) conducted a research entitled Linguistic Analysis of On-Line
Advertising in English. The researcher used theory advertising from Gillian Dyer (1995) and theory
of advertising language from Angela Goddard (1998) as the grand theories. The theories
used to analyze the types of linguistic devices in online advertising in English. The study found that
the most frequent linguistic devices in slogans are personal pronoun “you”, ellipsis, alliteration,
imperative sentence type, puns, and personification.
 The forth research, Rashid and Hattab (2015) conducted a research entitled Linguistic and Stylistic
Features of the Advertisement Language and their Effect on Customer. The grand theory which is
used in this research is from G. N. Leech & M. H. Short (1981) Style in Fiction: A Linguistic
Introduction to English Functional Prose. The analysis focused on the restaurant advertisement and
study found that simile and metaphor are techniques used to attract and encourage the customers to
buy the products either with the use of ‘effective’ expression.

2.2 THEORITICAL FOUNDATIONS

Acording to the Verdonk stylistics as the analysis of distinctive expression in language and
description of its purpose and effects (2002).Stylistics brings different style according to each
individual in a way they would like to deliver the message of the text to the readers. To create
purpose and effect,the data of this analysis will match with this approach because the main purpose
of the data itself is to persuade the readers since it is about advertising language which is expected
to create the readers interest and attention.Thus, theory of foregrounding is also needed in the
analysis. According to Verdonk, foregrounding is a psychological effect that is shown by the
readers which later rouse the readers’ interest or emotions (2002). Stylistic approach is related to
the linguistic features and according to Verdonk, there are four levels of structure of language
which create particular textual patterns to provoke and give the representational effect to the reader
(2002). The levels are outlined as follows;

a.Graphology →→ typographical features

b.Phonology →→ rhyme,metre,assonance,alliteration
c.Lexis →→ vocabulary,metaphor,and other figures of speech
d.Syntax →→ grammatical structures

In approaching the analysis,this study identifies the linguistic features by “focusing on third of
these four levels different patterns inside the collected data”.Those are graphology,phonology,and
lexis, which thereafter, perceive the possible effect to the readers when particular features are
found.

1. Graphology

According to Wales, graphology means the writing system of a language as it is seen in the related
features and typography. It notices in graphological features such as size of print,capitalization,
and punctuation (2001). The capitalization and punctuation are applied, the reader are most likely
attracted to read the written advertising language that applies graphological features in advertising
the product as long as graphology is applied in the writing systems.

a. capitalization
According to Ehlich, the first word of every grammatical unit that is in a sentence is always
capitalized (1987). He adds that proper noun and adjectives are also capitalized. “ A proper noun is
the name of a particular person,place,or thing. A proper adjective is an adjective derived from a
proper noun” (1987).
b. punctuation
According to Fromkin,Rodman,and Hyams,languages vary in regard to how much punctuation
is used in writing. English language uses language uses punctuation to set apart sentences and
phrases to indicate questions,intonation,stress,and contrast (2011)
There are so many punctuations in the common sentences. However,this study analyzes some of
the punctuation such as (.) Full stop, (,) comma, (‘) apostrophe, (?) question mark, (:) colon, (“…”)
quotation marks, and (!) exclamation mark.

2. Phonology

Based on oden, “phonology is the study of sound structure in language,which is different from the
study of sentences structure (syntax) or word structure (morphology), or how languages change
over time ( historical linguistics) (2005).
In advertising language,it is very important to have phonological features appear in the written
description about the product to make it more creative and appealing. This study discusses
alliteration, assonance ,and consonance as the phonological features to analyze the data

3. Lexical Choice

According to simpson,lexicology means the words we use.in other words,it is the vocabulary of a
language (2004). Lexical choice deals with the study of linguistic that consists of all the words in
language that has meaning and grammatical function. In this study,the lexical choice focuses on
the use of adjective in the data.

2.3 THEORY OF ADVERTISEMENT

Advertisement, according to O’Guinn, Allen, Semenik, is defined as a distinctive and recognizable

as a form of communication by its paid sponsordhip,its use of mass media, and its intent to
persuade (2003).

According to Goddard,advertising is not just about the commercial promotion of branded

products,but can also encompass the idea of texts whose intention is to enhance the image of an
individual,group or organization (2001).
 CHAPTER III

3.RESEARCH METHOD

According to Sugiyono (2011), the qualitative research method is a research method based
on the post positivism philosophy, used to examine the conditions of natural objects, (as
opposed to experiments) where the researcher is the key instrument, the data analysis is
inductive or qualitative, and the results of qualitative research emphasize meaning rather
than generalization. Acording to Sugiyono (2011:02) research methods are "The research
method is defined as a scientific way to obtain data with specific purposes and uses "
This research taken from social media youtube, researchers will analyze Covid-19 themed
public service advertisements from several car brands including Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes,
Honda and Volkswagen these ads will be analyzed using stylistic theory by
“(Verdonk:2002) Stylistics as the analysis of distinctive expression in language and
description of its purpose and effects”.

In this theory there are four levels of structure, but in this study it is only focused on three
levels of structure, that is Graphology, Phonology and Lexical Choice.In conducting
research, the researchers uses descriptive writing method. According to Sugiyono (2011:
29) defines that:‟ Descriptive method is a method used to describe or analyzing a research
result but not used to make broader conclusions ''. This descriptive method is a method that
aims to find out properties as well as a deeper relationship between the two variables in a
way observing certain aspects more specifically to obtain data which corresponds to the
problem at hand for the purpose of the study, where the data is processed, analyzed, and
further processed on the basis of the theories has been studied so that the data can be drawn
a conclusion.

3.1 Data Research

The data source from the Stylistic Analysis Of Automobile Brands Advertisement In Covid-19
research comes from several public service advertisements taken from www.youtube.com
all of the advertising data taken by researchers are advertisements in 2020. Because the Covid-19
pandemic period began at the beginning that year. Ad samples are taken from 5 car brand
advertisements, and are in the form of a transcript of the ad.
4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Graphological Features

Table 1
 Graphological Frequency
Mobile Brand Transcript Explanation
Features
a. capitalization
 Jaguar >Together,we will A.) Together,we will get
Beginning Sentences
get through this through this/ 1
>Today we drive Today we drive forward/2
BMW forward without Thanks to everyone who
Beginning Sentences driving at all keeps going/3
Thanks to everyone else for
>Another Mercedes standing still/ 4
Mercedes that stands for Thanks for keeping your
Proper noun & Proper safety social distance/ 5 which is
Adjective
contain Beginning
>Thanks to sentences the Capital letters
everyone who keeps “T” in teh mobile brands
Beginning Sentences going. Jaguar,BMW and Mercedes
and Volkswagen, And
> Thanks to We have stood strong
everyone else for through more than one
Beginning Sentences standing still. crisis / 1 We are
volkswagen and in order to
> The first car overcome/2
Honda commercial it which is contain
Proper noun & Proper
Beginning sentences the
Adjective
> We have stood Capital letters “W”, in the a.) Begin
Volkswagen strong through more mobile brands and
Beginning Sentences ning
than one crisis conventional to capital Senten
letters appears in the ces 7
> We are beginning of sentences,they
volkswagen and in do not have any significant b.) Proper
Beginning Sentences
order to overcome it effect to the netizens as the noun
readers. and
> Thanks for --------------------------------- proper
keeping your social
Beginning Sentences adjecti
distance
ve 2
B.) Another Mercedes that
stands for safety it is
contain a proper noun
” Mercedes” as name and
Proper Adjective
“ Another” because it’s tell
the noun and prefixes with
capital letters “A” which
found in the Mercedes
Mobile brand.

The first car commercial it

is contain a proper noun
“Car” as thing and proper
adjective “ The” because
it’s tell the noun and
prefixes with capital letters
“T”which found in the
Honda Mobile brand.

b. Punctuation
Jaguar >Stay safe,be
kind,look
forwards(.)
BMW > No period found The following data discuss
The
4.2

Phonolog

Phonological Features
Table 2
Phonological Features Mobile Brand Transcript Explanation Frequency
a. Alliteration Jaguar >Stay safe,be Alliteration is the repetition
kind,look in the initial in the sound of a S-11
forwards. word.The following table is the repeated
>Together, we will result of alliteration sound for all
get through this. found in the data transcript data
from Mobile Brand the
BMW > The only curve following; T-7
that matters repeated
> Stay home and A)“Jaguar found 7 data with for all the
stay safe (S-2,T-3,W-2) data repeated/” data
> Today we drive
forward without B)“BMW found 9 data with W-4
driving at all (T-2,S-3,W-2,A-2) data repeated
repeated/” for all the
Mercedes > Another data
Mercedes that C)“Mercedes found 2 data with
stands for safety.. (S-2) data repeated” A-2
repeated
Honda >Edited and D)“Honda found 2 data with ( for all the
watched E-2) data repeated” data

Volkswagen > We have stood E)“Volkswagen found 9 data E-2

strong through with (S-5,T-2,B-2) data repeated
more than one repeated” for all the
crisis data
> We did this by The function of all the data
standing shoulder alliteration is for build the B-2
to shoulder words the sense of simple to be repeated
> We did this by remembered by the netizens. for all the
being close to each data
other

b. assonance
Jaguar >Stay safe,be
kind,look Madden states that A-2
forwards. assonance is the repetition of Repeated
 >Together,we will vowel sound for example “time for all the
get through this line,free and easy”(2002). data
The data Assonance in the
BMW >The only curve transcript text found in the O-12
that matters Mobile brand the following; repeated
>Is the one we for all the
need to flatten A) Jaguar found 7 data with data
>Stay home and (A-2,O-2,TH-3) data repeated
stay safe TH-5
> Today we drive B) BMW found 12 data with Repeated
forward without (TH-2,E-5,AY-2,O-3)data for all the
driving at all repeated data

Mercedes > Thank you, C) Mercedes found 7 data with E-13

police officers (O-3,E-2,I-2) data repeated Repeated
> Thanks to for all the
everyone else for D) Honda found 6 data with data
standing still (I-2,E-4) data repeated
AY-2
Honda >This might be E) Volkswagen found 9 data Repeated
>To be written with (O-4,I-2,OU-2,E-2) for all the
>Entirely from data repeated data
home
I-6
Volkswagen > We have stood Repeated
strong through In the above is the data for all the
more than one assonance found in the text data
crisis transcript advertisement from
> We did this Jaguar,BMW,Mercedes,Honda, OU-2
together and Volkswagn. Repeated
> We did this by The most occurred assonance for all the
standing shoulder sound in the analysis data is data
to shoulder sound E-13 data repeated.The
> We need to keep message of the function of the
our distance assonance is that the company
would like to communicate can
be delivered as it is expected.

c.consonance

Jaguar >Together,we will

get through this Consonant sound is also used G-2
by the five Mobile brand to Repeated
BMW > The only curve advertise the product. for all the
that matters Madden said that consonance is data
> Stay home and repeated consonant sound
stay safe within one line such as in T-2
“short ad smart, struts and fets” repeated
Mercedes > Another (2002). for all the
Mercedes that Hence the advertising strategy data
stands for safety. by applying consonance is
> Thanks to applied to attract attention of Y-2
everyone else for the netizens. Repeated
 standing still. The data Consonance in the for all the
transcript text found in the data
Honda >The first car Mobile brand the following;
commercial R-6
>Edited and A) Jaguar found 2 data with Repeated
watched (G-2) data repeated for all the
>Entirely from data
home B) BMW found 4 data with
(T-2,Y-2) data repeated L-2
Volkswagen > We have stood Repeated
strong through C) Mercedes found 5 data with for all the
more than one (R-3,L-2) data repeated data
crisis
D) Honda found 7 data with C-3
(C-3,D-2,M-2) data repeated Repeated
for all the
E)Volkswagen found 3 data data
with (R-3) data repeated
D-2
Therefore,the advertiser Repeated
purposively apply the for all the
consonant In the words that data
give detail explanation about
the advertisement to make the M-2
netizens have clear Repeated
understanding about the For all the
message more creative to data.
listen the adds.

4.3 Lexical Features

Table 3
a. Adjective Mobile Brands Transcript Explanations Frequenc
y
Jaguar Stay safe,be In this study, the vocabulary
kind,look forward focused on the adjective
sentences contained in the ad
No Adjective text transcript.
BMW Found The adjective word is
the word used to describe a
No Adjective noun (noun) or pronoun
Mercedes Found (pronoun) which can be a
person, a place, an animal, an
The first car object or an abstract concept
Honda commercial (thing). This English adjective
 is one of the eight parts of
Entirely from speech.
home In the text transcript, the
following adjective words are
We are many found in the mobil brands
Volkswagen We have stood adds:
strong through
more than one A)Jaguar found Adjective text
crisis ( Be kind) Kind is the
We did this by Adjective
being close to each
other B) Honda found (Commercial 6
& Entirely) is the adjective Adjective
Texts
C) Volkswagen found from all
We are many,stood strong and the data
by being close with the
adjective is ( Many,strong and (Kind,
close) Commerc
ial
For BMW and Mercedes is no Entirely,
Adjective found in the adds many,
text. Strong
and close)
The function of having an
adjective in an advertisement
sentence is to give a more real
impression in the text and
pleasant to be heard by
netizens.
b. methaphor
Jaguar No methaphor Majas metafora masuk
found kedalam daftar analisis
vocabulary.
BMW No metaphor found Majas metafora atau juga
disebut kiasan adalah adalah
No methaphor frase kiasan yang
Mercedes found menggunakan gambar, cerita
atau contoh nyata untuk
No methaphor mengekspresikan kualitas atau
Honda found kualitas yang dimiliki oleh
seseorang atau sesuatu, atau
We did this by untuk mewakili hal yang
Volkswagen standing shoulder kurang nyata.
to shoulder (1)
In this research, only one Methapho
sentence that contains r
metaphorical figure Found in
(Standing shoulder to the
shoulder) Mobile
is found in the Volkswagen car brands
brand advertisement where the adds.
sentence has a figurative
 meaning, which has real
meaning helping each other.

CHAPTER IV

5. CONCLUSION

Based on the results of research on Mobile brand advertisements with the theme of Pandemic Covid-19, the
linguistics features applied in Five Mobile brand advertising post in www.youtube.com within Graphological
Features that’s Capitalization with 9 transcript text adds contain 7 Beginning sentences and 2 proper noun and
proper adjectives,Punctuation contain full stop (.) from 4 transcript and 4 times full stop (.) found in the
adds,comma (,) from 8 transcript and 10 times comma (,) found in the adds.For apostrophe (‘) ,question mark(?)
,colon(:), quotation marks(“…”) and exclamation mark (!) is no founded in the transcript text adds.The
phonological fatures is contain Alliteration with ( S-11,T-7,W-4,A-2,E-2,B-2) repeated for all the data found in
the text adds, Assonance with (A-2,O-12,TH-5,E-13,AY-2,I-6,OU-2) repeated for all the data found in the text
adds,Consonance with ( G-2,T-2,Y-2,R-6,L-2,C-3,D-2,M-2) repeated for all the data found in the text adds. Last
is Lexical fetures is contain adjective which found 6 adjective text from all the data and Metaphor which found
1 data from all the transcript text in the adds.

In the summary of the analysis ,the use linguistics features in advertising language contribute the deliverance of
the advertising message in a more appealing way that leads to the possible effects which has persuasive intention
to the netizens as the target. In this study, the possible effect are formed according to the dominant linguistics
features which Is called as foregrounded fetures.

APPENDIX
(Trancript text)

JAGUAR
Stay safe,be kind,look forwards.
Together,we will get through this.
BMW
The only curve that matters
Is the one we need to flatten
Stay home and stay safe
Today we drive forward without driving at all
MERCEDES
Another Mercedes that stands for safety.
#Stayhome
Thank you, cashiers
Thank you, firefighters
Thank you, medics
Thank you, police officers
Thank you, caregivers
Thanks to everyone who keeps going.
Thanks to everyone else for standing still.
HONDA
This might be
The first car commercial
To be written
Directed
Edited and watched
Entirely from home
Until we drive again
#Stayhome
VOLKSWAGEN
We are Volkwagen
We are many
We have stood strong through more than one crisis
We did this together
We did this by standing shoulder to shoulder
We did this by being close to each other
We are colleagues, friends, a family
We now face another crisis
We are volkswagen and in order to overcome it
We need to keep our distance
Thanks for keeping your social distance

REFERENCES

Thesis of Stylistic features on women skincare television advertisement thesi by dewi anggita

A journal Stylistics Features on Television Advertisement about Men Treatment Cita Mustika, Dien
Novita, Ria Nirwana
https://www.ilmubahasainggris.com/definisi-dan-contoh-penggunaan-metaphors-dalam-bahasa-inggris/

https://www.intraxenglish.com/proper-adjective/

www.youtube.com