A Memetic Study Of Commercial Advertising Slogans

Memetics is a new theory which focuses on the study of cultural transmission and cultural evolution. Meme is a coined word that actually means "a cultural gene". In The Selfish Gene, a book written by Richard Dawkins in 1976, he pointed out that culture is transmitted and passed down from one generation to another with the help of meme. To some extent, we can compare meme, loaded with cultural information, with gene which carries with it biological information that is vital to the existence and continuation of all animal species. Like genes which have to undergo a process of fierce competition, memes also need to go through elimination with an outcome that those strong memes would be singled out. Those strong memes lead the direction and the trend of culture evolution. In order to win the battle of "natural selection", a meme should first assimilate and then try hard to retain a cultural element. To fully accomplish this mission, a meme will have to have a strong endurance so as to survive the process of expression. In a sense, we can make a conclusion that only those strong memes will win out, which result in the progress and transmission of culture. Meme maintains a close relationship with human language and Language is an essential part of culture and human civilization. Meme is also one of the vehicles through which culture can be transmitted and passed down. Language is mainly used to carry forward the task of advancing and transmitting culture. Therefore it is not hard to assume the relationships between meme and language.On the other hand, language is the main means which we rely on to communicate with others. Advertising, as we know, is a communication activity to realize the function of spreading information in an attempt to promote goods and services. As is often the case, advertising professionals would adopt certain techniques and conform to certain criteria to compose advertising slogans which are quite attractive and popular so as to make sure that they have the ability to circulate. Therefore a good slogan should first attract the attention of the potential consumers who then can recall them and express them to other consumers. Only through this way can a slogan maintain its life. Meanwhile, it is also known that a strong meme should also go through a process from assimilation, retention, expression, to the final stage of transmission. From this angle, we can get a glimpse that a strong meme share something in common with the successful advertising slogan.This paper is devoted to probing the characteristics of the three elements of the advertising which include:(1) Why can we apply memetic theory to the analysis of the advertising slogans?(2) What are the characteristics of the products and services that can be explored by a successful advertising slogan?(3) What are the characteristics of a successful advertising slogan?(4) How can an advertising slogan cater to the cognitive, emotional, cultural and social factors of a potential customer?To answer these three questions we will no doubt provide some examples to support my ideas. It is hoped that this paper may provide some hints to advertising professionals for them to conduct their business well.The method used in the composition of this thesis is as follows:we identify the advertising slogan as the target of memetic study. To facilitate the process of analysis, we cut the advertising process into three elements which comprises the product and services, the language expression of the advertising slogan as well as the advertising audience. The language expression of the slogan is actually a middle link which connects the product and services at one end and the slogan audience at the other end. The line formed by these three elements is the horizontal clue of the whole thesis. Meanwhile, the theory of memetics is the vertical clue that penetrates into the actual study of the whole advertising process. In the Vertical direction, meme evolution which is made up of assimilation, retention, mutation and selection as well as transmission will be elaborated. Analysis and Synthesis are the main methods used in the thesis composition. With the careful analysis of the advertising slogan, we expect to distill some useful rules that could have a profound implication to guide the composition of the Advertising slogans.