Chapter 4 Quantitative Analyses of the Written Data
4.3 Cooperative Principles in Advertisements
4.3.4 Comparison between ways to implement CP maxims
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repair skin flaws, not to change the user’s facial features, it is not surprising that they offer factual statements rather than fantasies. In conforming Relevancy Maxim, the pattern is the opposite, with cosmetic ads scoring slightly higher than skin-care ads.
Also, it is noticed that cosmetic ads, in addition to using terms related to the consequences after using the cosmetics, do use statements related to fantasies.
In violating the maxims, cosmetic ads consistently score higher than skin-care ads. Since cosmetics is presumely associated not only with the camouflage of the skin flaws but also with the emotions and psychological feelings when the consumer’s facial features are changed by the products, it seems reasonable and tolerable that the advertisements exaggerate the effects of the cosmetics, use vague or even irrelevant words, and provide too much or too little information related to the products.
4.3.4 Comparison between ways to implement CP maxims by types of beauty products advertisements
It was anticipated that not all of the four CP maxims are obeyed equally frequently, nor are they violated equally often in the two types of ads. Table 11 describes the result of data analyses.
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Table 11. Ways to implement CP maxims by types of beauty products advertisements (A= maxims of CP; B= types of beauty products; C= ways of maxim implementation, with “+”
meaning maxim conformation, “–” meaning maxim violation) obey CP maxims more frequently than cosmetic ads do.
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Moreover, in cosmetic ads as well as in skin-care ads, Manner Maxim and Quality Maxim are CP maxims that are obeyed most frequently. It is anticipated that Manner Maxim and Quality Maxim are observed more frequently; after all, the advertiser wants to provide correct and clear information to persuade the consumer to buy the products advertised.
Another regularity noticed is that Relevancy maxim and Quantity Maxim are violated frequently. This finding shows that, first, in advertisements, the shared knowledge and context are clear, and both the advertiser and the consumer know that the focus is beauty; therefore, even though the advertiser uses many expressions not directly related to facial beauty, it is expected that the consumer knows what those expressions mean. Another reason why Relevancy Maxim is frequently violated is that the advertiser uses some words which are not associated with skin to draw the consumer’s attention. Next, Quantity Maxim is violated often because in order to attract the consumer’s attention, the advertiser tends to give extra information, namely, the information other than the essential functions of the products, to prove that the
products advertised are good to choose.
4.4 Politeness Principle in Advertisements
The six maxims of Leech’s Politeness Principle (including Tact Maxim,
Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, Agreement Maxim, and
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Sympathy Maxim) can also be used to describe and to explain how cosmetic ads and skin-care ads are constructed. Table 12 demonstrates how these maxims and their submaxims are implemented in advertisements of beauty products.
Table 12. Applicable Maxims of PP in beauty product ads (“+” = obeying the maxims, “–” = violating the
Maximize Dispraise of S NA Minimize Praise of S –
According to Table 12, in the twelve submaxims, only six of them are related to this study, namely, maximizing H’s benefit, minimizing H’s cost, maximizing S’s cost, minimizing dispraise of H, minimizing praise of S, and maximizing sympathy between S and H. Among these six submaxims, four of them are obeyed, and the other
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two are violated. To be specific, in terms of Tact Maxim, the advertiser offers the benefit to the consumer and fulfills her desire directly. Meanwhile, the consumer’s cost is minimized. The advertiser emphasizes that the consumer does not have to buy too many bottles of beauty products, which is also a benefit to the consumer.
Therefore, Tact Maxim is obeyed.
As for Generosity Maxim, the advertiser may mention her cost sometimes in order to show her credibility and sincerity to the consumer; thus the first submaxim of Generosity Maxim is obeyed. On the other hand, the consumer does not care about the advertiser’s benefit or cost, and the advertiser will not mention her own benefit because basically advertisements are consumer-oriented and because the advertiser’s
true benefit which is to earn money from the consumer is the cost of the consumer and is irrelevant to the consumer’s decision to buy the product advertised; thus it is unwise
to mention the advertiser’s benefit, and the second submaxim of Generosity Maxim is not applicable.
In terms of Approbation Maxim, it is logically impossible for the advertiser to praise the consumer. If the advertiser praises the consumer’s skin before using the products, the consumer has no need to buy the beauty products, and the advertiser fails to elicit profits from the consumer. The advertiser only praises the effect of the product. Thus, the first submaxim of Approbation Maxim is not applicable. As for the
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second submaxim, it is violated. The advertiser chooses to point out the consumer’s skin problems to reveal that she sees and is concerned about the consumer’s problem.
Very often it is this concern that helps to persuade the consumer that the products advertised can really help her and that she should take action buying the products. The advertiser implies that she is so empathetic with the consumer’s problem and so eager to help the consumer to resolve the problem that she even risks a chance to offend the consumer. However, in social psychology, the skin flaws should not be mentioned;
hence, these cases are few in the written data.
As to Modesty Maxim, the first submaxim is not applicable because no advertiser would dispraise the product advertised. Instead, the advertiser boosts her product, which explicitly violates the second submaxim of Modesty Maxim. In doing so, the advertiser reinforces the merits of her product and the effect of using it. It is very likely that this reinforcement convinces the consumer that the product is worth buying.
As for Agreement Maxim, it can be merged with Sympathy Maxim. Since the advertiser and the consumer share the same goal, namely, to improve the consumer’s
skin condition and facial appearance, the advertiser’s agreement means sympathy for the consumer; thus, it seems to be redundant to keep both maxims.
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In terms of Sympathy Maxim, the first submaxim, maximizing sympathy between the advertiser and the consumer, is obeyed. In advertising, the advertiser shows concern and sincerity to the consumer, so the advertiser maximizes sympathy.
The second submaxim of Sympathy Maxim, minimizing antipathy between the
advertiser and the consumer, is inapplicable because no advertiser will stand opposite to the consumer’s desire and needs, to provoke the consumer and, hence, hinder them
from buying the products.
Based on what mentioned above, this section will focus on five of the submaxims, namely, maximizing H’s benefit, minimizing H’s cost, minimizing
dispraise of H, minimizing praise of S, and maximizing sympathy between S and H.
4.4.1 Comparison of the types of advertisements by PP maxims
It was anticipated that cosmetic ads and skin-care ads would differ from each other in the application of the maxims and the submaxims of Leech’s Politeness Principle. Results of data analyses are shown in Table 13.
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Table 13. Comparison of the types of advertisements by PP maxims (A= maxims of PP; B= types of beauty products; C= ways of maxim implementation, with
“+” meaning maxim conformation, “–” meaning maxim violation) B ads than in cosmetic ads (53.9% vs. 46.1%, respectively). This pattern also extends to the applications of the four maxims, namely Tact Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, and Sympathy Maxim, with skin-care ads consistently using these maxims more often than cosmetic ads. However, conspicuous gaps between the two types of advertisements locate only in Approbation Maxim and in Modesty Maxim. A possible explanation to these phenomena is that skin-care ads appeal to the effects of the products advertised, and their function is to improve the consumer’s skin
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conditions; therefore, the advertiser obeys Tact Maxim to sustain the consumer’s benefits, and violate Modesty Maxim to uphold the merits of their own products.
In Approbation Maxim, maxim violation is 65.8% in skin-care ads, but only 34.2% in cosmetic ads. The reason may be that, in skin-care ads, the consumer’s skin problems are mentioned directly, and the advertiser’s products can help the consumer improve her skin. In this way, the violation of Approbation Maxim in skin-care ads is higher. As for cosmetic ads, the focus is to put on the perfect skin after the use of the product, so there is not much need to mention the consumer’s skin problems constantly; therefore, frequent violation of Approbation Maxim is needless.
In the application of Sympathy Maxim, maxim conformation is 46.1% in cosmetic ads and 53.9% in skin-care ads. This pattern indicates that in both types of
ads, the advertiser tries to show sympathy and concern to the consumer such as by using pronoun “I” to shift the stance, which suggests that the advertiser stands on the
same side with the consumer.
4.4.2 Comparison of PP maxims by types of beauty products advertisements It was anticipated that not all of the four PP maxims are obeyed equally frequently, nor are they violated equally often in the two types of ads. Table 14 describes the result of data analyses.
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Table 14. Comparison of PP maxims by types of beauty products advertisements (A= maxims of PP; B= types of beauty products; C= ways of maxim implementation, with “+” meaning maxim conformation, “–” meaning maxim violation) frequently both in cosmetic ads (75.9%) and in skin-care ads (66.3%), and the second is Modesty Maxim (17.5% vs. 25.1%, respectively). The reason may be that advertisements are consumer-oriented and are primarily about consumer’s benefits, so Tact Maxim is involved. Moreover, since in business transaction, the advertiser’s true intention is to sell the commodity to the consumer, the advertiser needs to praise their own products in order to attract the consumer to buy the product. For this reason, Modesty Maxim is violated in beauty product advertisements.
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Other than the two maxims mentioned above, Approbation Maxim is violated more frequently in skin-care ads than in cosmetic ads, but Sympathy Maxim is obeyed more often in cosmetic ads and in skin-care ads. When skin-care ads describe the consumer’s skin flaws, although the advertiser dispraises the consumer, and thus violates Approbation Maxim, the advertiser might mean to show concern and sympathy to the consumer’s problems, which can be taken as conformation of Sympathy Maxim.
4.5 Ideology of Women
4.5.1 Beauty product advertisements as a whole
In advertisement discourse, ideology is one of the crucial factors that would determine how an idea is verbally wrapped. In women’s fashion magazines, gender
ideology prescribes the ways how women should behave and how beauty is evaluated.
In this thesis, ideology of women is divided into three components: physical appearance, psychological status, and social recognition. Physical appearance refers to the skin condition, psychological status indicates emotions, and social recognition includes role, the personal features women have; uniqueness, every woman is special;
identity, the concepts which women identify with, and beauty, women’s being physically attractive. Table 15 demonstrates how these three components are revealed in the data collected.
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Table 15. Distribution of the three components of woman ideology
Physical Appearance 51.1% (194)
Psychological Status 8.7% (33) Social Recognition Role 3.1% (12) Uniqueness 2.6% (10) Identity 2.6% (10) Beauty 31.6% (120) total 40.2% (152)
Total 100.0% (379)
According to Table 15, physical appearance scores the highest (51.1%), followed by social recognition (40.2%) and psychological status (8.7%). This result suggests that the advertiser appeals to physical appearance and social recognition, but women’s psychological status is not the focus. A possible reason is that physical appearance and social recognition are under the control of social norms, which are
collective expectations of the whole society; while psychological status is concerned with an individual’s personal preference. Since the advertiser wants to gain profits
from the general public, it is natural that they choose to comply with the social norms, instead of satisfying her own individual differences. For these reasons, the proportions of physical appearance and social recognition score higher than psychological status.
Moreover, since personal psychological status reflects an individual’s inclination;
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therefore, if the advertisement only takes the consumer’s psychological status into consideration, it can merely satisfy a small number of consumers, and the profit retrievable is small. Thus, psychological status plays the least important role in beauty product advertisements.
4.5.2 Comparison of types of advertisements by woman ideology
It was expected that skin-care ads would put more stress on physical appearance, while cosmetic ads emphasize social recognition. Table 16 demonstrates the results.
Table 16. Differences between two types of ads by woman ideology
(A= components of woman ideology, B= types of beauty products)
According to Table 16, for physical appearance, skin-care ads surpass cosmetic ads (66.0% vs. 34.0%); however, for psychological status and social recognition, it is the opposite, with cosmetic ads overriding skin-care ads (57.5% vs. 42.5%, and 59.2%
vs. 40.8%, respectively). Moreover, the largest gap between the two types of ads lies
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in physical appearance (with a difference of 32%). It is not surprising that skin-care ads put a heavy stress on physical appearance; after all, the nature of skin-care ads is physical. As for the other two components, the gaps between the two types of ads are relatively small. Based on these findings, it seems to be safe to say that physical appearance is the primary factor to define what attractiveness of women is in Chinese culture.
About the four components of social recognition, role means the personal features women have; uniqueness indicates that every woman is special; identity represents the concepts which women identify with, and beauty suggests women’s being physically attractive. A general pattern found in the data is that cosmetic ads are expected to be more functional for the purposes of the four components. In social recognition, cosmetic ads are associated with the social roles women play, the uniqueness which women are urged to chase, and the identity which women are bestowed or dream of. Role, uniqueness, and identity all belong to the concepts which are not physically innate, but social-culturally nurtured. To reach goals as such, cosmetic products are more functional than skin-care products. In other words, when using make-up, women do not just change their emotions and appearance; they also change the way other people treat them. Thus, women, after they change their looks, can play different roles and have different identities. This is why cosmetic ads are
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strongly related to social recognition. As for beauty, the difference between the two types of ads is small. In Taiwan, women’s beauty is emphasized, no matter it is natural beauty, which can be obtained by skin-care products, or artificial beauty, which can be instantly substantialized by cosmetics. Since the use of cosmetics can bring about instantaneous but powerful beauty to women, cosmetic ads score higher than skin-care ads do.
In meeting the needs of psychological status, cosmetic ads (57.5%) score higher than skin-care ads (42.5%). This consequence results from the attribute of the cosmetic ads. Women use cosmetics to make themselves more attractive, which makes them feel confident and delightful about themselves and about the way they are treated. Their emotional status is linked with their appearance after change. In other words, if they want to change their emotions or the way other people look at them, they only have to use cosmetics to make up a mask, no matter how they look originally. In this aspect, women’s psychological status is more strongly influenced by cosmetic ads than by skin-care ads.
4.5.3 Comparison of components of ideology by types of advertisements
It is anticipated that different components of woman ideology will perform differently. Table 17 shows the results of data analysis.
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Table 17. Comparison of components of ideology by types of advertisements (A= components of woman ideology, B= types of beauty products) psychological status (8.7%). In social recognition, beauty (31.6%) scores the highest, followed by role (3.1%), uniqueness (2.6%) and identity (2.6%). A possible explanation is that beauty is on the surface, which can be judged easily; while role,
uniqueness, and identity are underlying concepts, which can not be appreciated easily.
Since women’s being beautiful is a basic social expectation of women, it is anticipated
that the advertisements of beauty products comply to this social norm. When a woman has attractive appearance, she is unique and is thus given an identity. Women have been so strongly conditioned by this social norm that they fail to look at themselves through their own eyes. In beauty product advertisements, sexism on females is so
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well reflected
When types of beauty products are taken into consideration, in cosmetic ads, social recognition (51.5%) scores the highest, followed by physical appearance (37.7%), which is followed by psychological state (10.8%); however, in skin-care ads, it is physical appearance that scores the highest (62.7%), followed by social recognition (30.5%), and then psychological status (6.8%). As for psychological status, in cosmetic ads as well as in skin-care ads, it is attended least frequently. This tendency results from the viewpoint that psychological status belongs to personal preferences, and since each consumer has different preferences, if the advertiser appeals to change women’s psychological status through the use of beauty products, they fail to cater to the potential consumer’s needs, and thus loose the chance to gain the potential profits.
4.6 Linguistic Devices
In this section, two linguistic components are examined, namely, the referential contents of the advertisements and the use of hedgers and boosters.
4.6.1 Referential contents
There are four types of referential contents emerged in the beauty product advertisements—time, singularity, annexation, and scope. Time includes instancy, duration, and simultaneity; singularity refers to the first appearance and
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distinctiveness of the product; annexation indicates the additional function of the product; scope contains width and depth. Table 18 presents the distribution of referential contents in beauty product ads.
Table 18. Distribution of referential contents in beauty product ads
Time Instancy 8.8% (12) (18.5%), first of singularity (2.9%), and width of scope (27.4%) score the highest in each of the categories. These results indicate that scope, time, and annexation are emphasized in beauty product advertisements; whereas singularity is the least important category in referential contents. Singularity is the least related to the effect of the beauty products, while scope, time, and annexation are all related to the effect,
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gives the distributions of the types and subtypes of the referential contents found in the two kinds of advertisements.As Table 19 indicates, cosmetic ads and skin-care ads show similar patterns in the expression of time and singularity, but differences between cosmetic ads and skin-care ads in annexation and scope are conspicuous. All of these referential contents aim at two goals: efficiency and effectiveness, with time related to efficiency;
and singularity, annexation, and scope related to effectiveness. Results of data
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analyses reveal that there is little difference between the two types of advertisements, except annexation and scope in depth. Skin-care ads score higher than cosmetic ads in annexation and depth. This result indicates that skin-care ads use a lot of terms about
analyses reveal that there is little difference between the two types of advertisements, except annexation and scope in depth. Skin-care ads score higher than cosmetic ads in annexation and depth. This result indicates that skin-care ads use a lot of terms about