The usage of imagery in advertisements issued in The Jakarta Post

Concerning with the imagery within advertisements which bring vivid description of an object of human’s senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, move, and feel; the advertisements are designed to generate consumption of products and services. There are 7 types of imagery such as internal imagery, visual imagery, auditory imagery, tactile imagery, olfactory imagery, gustatory imagery, and kinesthetic imagery. The language brings readers’ senses to think economically and then decide to buy.

In line with it, this study is very important to be conducted as it is focused on the types and the use of the types of imagery in advertisements. Furthermore, this study used descriptive-qualitative method design since the data are in the form of words or utterances rather than numbers. The data were taken from the columns of the advertisement of The Jakarta Post issued on April 1st to 24th, 2008 editions for several reasons; first, in linguistics study, the language of the advertisements is included transactional discourse since its stress is on the message from advertisers to consumers. Second, advertisement is a form of written communication that develops at the same time with the advance of technology, whether in oral or written ways. Third, the language of advertisements, which is compact and persuasive, is different from the most of the other language used in every day life, i.e. the language is discrete. The numbers of the data were 79 columns of advertisement. After identifying those data based on the characteristics of imagery types, the researcher reduced it into 50 columns. The researcher herself became the instrument in the process of data collection and data analysis.

Thus, this study was aimed to find out the imagery types and the use of imagery types in advertisement of The Jakarta Post issued on April 1st to 24th, 2008 editions. Intensive reading was the most appropriate step in analyzing the columns of advertisement to find out the imagery types. To confirm the 7 types of imagery that is identified, the researcher explained the keyword in the texts of advertisement in The Jakarta Post by giving a symbol of imagery based on the characteristics identified. Furthermore, the researcher was interpreting messages in each advertisement. The last is drawing conclusion based on the research findings.

Based on the researcher’s analysis, the researcher concluded that internal sensation; visual imagery; gustatory imagery; olfactory imagery; auditory imagery; and kinesthetic imagery were found in the advertisements of The Jakarta Post issued on April 1st to 24th, 2008 editions. In addition, internal imagery was the most effective imagery that is used in the advertisements of The Jakarta Post issued on April 1st to 24th, 2008 editions. However, tactile imagery does not found in the advertisement of The Jakarta Post issued on April 1st to 24th, 2008 editions. In accordance with the findings that some kinds of imagery were used in advertisements as specific detail word that brings effectiveness and efficiency. Imagery strengthens the readers’ concreteness in the composition of text description.