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Topic 1 (session A) - Levels of language: Linguistic levels, style & meaning > Levels of language & advertising slogans > Advert for Perrier water

Levels of language & advertising slogans

Advert for Perrier Water

Let's have a look at an advertisement for Perrier water:

Apart from the label on the Perrier water bottle, this advertisement only has one word, 'Aphreaudisiac'. This word is graphologically deviant because of its strange spelling. There is a word in English that has roughly the same pronunciation as the word here: 'aphrodisiac'. An aphrodisiac, of course, is something which turns you on 'sexually'. So, 'aphreaudisiac' has that meaning, but also a bit more. The 'o' in the middle of the standard word is replaced by 'eau', the word for water in French. This may well change your perception of its pronunciation so that it sounds more French.

Compare the different different pronunciations:
Aphrodisiac & Aphreaudisiac

Given that the French are associated more often with 'l'amour' than most other nations in the western world, the graphological deviation is nicely appropriate. But there have been a whole string of advertisements for bottled water by Perrier (a French company, of course) and so the deviant spelling also associates the idea of an aphrodisiac with Perrier water. This theme is also related to the picture of the oyster. Oysters are themselves a well-known aphrodisiac, and where we would expect the pearl to be in the middle of the oyster we see a small bottle of Perrier water, with its distinctive shape. Thus Perrier water is associated in the advertisement not just with aphrodisia, but with beauty, high-value and exclusivity. The one-word deviant spelling, when linked to the picture, is thus the basis for a careful and quite complex bit of associative engineering.

Some texts for you to analyse

As we emphasised in the introductory session, we believe that the best way to learn is "by doing". So, we've included four extracts from different advertisements, and we'd like you to try and analyse them.

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