ISPI 9123 San Bartolom

Profesorado de ingls
English Language I
Assignment n 1:
Analysis of an advertisement
Astesiano Solana

Analysis of the advertisement: Complexions Night and Noon, by Palmolive.

This advertisement shows a great variety of both lexical and grammatical devices. As regards
lexical cohesion, we can find examples of lexical repetition, which include the word skin
(thirteen times), lather (eight times) and soap (six times). Note also the words belonging to
the same word family, i.e. words that share a common root: clean, cleanliness, cleansing,
cleanses, cleanser, cleans. The fact that this words are prominent is not accidental, since they
carry the main thrust of the advertisements message and have positive connotations. This is
in fact one of the resources the company uses to emphasize their point (which in this case
would be that their soap really cleans the skin).
Moreover, there are a number of words that are thematically related and which form chains
running through the text, for example: soap, clean, water, fresh, lather (shown in figure 1)
would be one, and skin, complexion, pores, glands, blackheads, blotches (shown in figure
2) would be another. We can find also antonyms (dry-fresh).
Grammatical cohesion is realized by pronouns, which refer the reader back to their referents
(i.e. concepts previously introduced in the text) as in As a facial cleanser, the world has
never found anything better. And it probably never will. Here, the pronoun it in the second
sentence, refers back to the world in the first. There are also some pronouns that do not have
referents in the text itself, but outside it. For example: We bring palm oil from Africa ().
Thus, the referent of we is not retrievable from the text, either before or after, but refers to the
sponsors of the text (i.e. Palmolive). Likewise you in the sentence Then you have done the
outmost() refers to the reader. This is also a kind of cohesive device (called deixis), since
it binds the text to its larger context.
Another form of grammatical cohesion is called substitution, and it is displayed in the
sentence A radiant skin, healthy and glowing, is the very foundation of charm and every
woman can have one.. Where one stands for (or replaces) the proposition expressed before
(i.e.: a radiant skin, healthy and glowing).
There are also some explicit linking words, such as and and but, which are used to connect
clauses inside the sentence. The fact that there arent so many conjuncts suggests that perhaps
the text is so cohesive already that it doesnt need them.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.