Figurative Language Entry

Figurative language is often seen in advertising slogans as a way of obtaining consumers in an appealing way. Specifically, this is seen in the use of cereal box slogans. Kellogg’s slogan “Eat a bowl of sunshine” is an example of metaphor. Sunshine is not an edible word to use but Kellogg uses it because it sounds appealing to customers who may buy the product. Naturally the word sunshine is desirable to people and brings happiness to them. By using this slogan, Kellogg’s is telling its customers that by eating its cornflakes, they will be eating a bowl of goodness that pleases them. Figurative language is also seen in TV commercials. In an 80’s Diet Coke commercial women in an office take a specific “Diet Coke Break” at 11:30 to look of the office building down at the attractive construction worker who has his shirt off and is drinking a diet coke. The song in the background is saying not to work all day and to make love. The background song combined with the actual commercial gives watchers a sense that you will be thought of as attractive if you drink Diet Coke. Further, at the end the commercial the line “THIS IS Refreshment” is displayed in front of the man drinking the Diet Coke. “THIS IS” refers to the attractive man saying that he is refreshing which is appealing to viewers. Another commercial that is an example of figurative language is one for Lenovo powered by Intel. The commercial displays a large group of sumo wrestlers walking down a city street where they bang hard on the pavement representing how heavy they are. However, at the end they become light and fly into the air in the shape of a plane which represents how while they are heavy they can be light too and fly. The narrator closes the commercial by saying, “Heavy on features, light on weight”. This ties the sumo wrestlers being both heavy and light, with the computer having heavy features with an appealing light weight. This commercial displays metaphor and comedy to appeal to its viewers and potential customers. These three examples show how figurative language is used by advertising all over to gain customers.