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1、The Memes in Advertising SlogansI. IntroductionCultural evolution, including the evolution of knowledge, can be modelled through the same basic principles of variation and selection that underlie biological evolution. This implies a shift from genes as (replicating) units of biological information t
2、o a new type of (replicating) units of cultural information: memes. Memetics is a new theory for interpreting cultural evolution. A meme, invented to suggest a strong analogy with genes, is a unit of cultural imitation, a self-propagating idea much like a biological or computer virus. The contagious
3、 nature of memes has such a natural affinity with advertising that it drives many marketers to conduct their advertising research from the perspective of memes. In order to use language effectively and strategically, advertisers may resort to different devices, such as idioms, proverbs, common sayin
4、gs, famous remarks and classic poems and so on. Those successful ad slogans are mostly the result of the operation of memes.II. The Basic Concepts and Relevant Theories of Memes2.1 The Definition of Memes In 1976, Richard Dawkins, an eminent Oxford zoologist, first coined the word “meme”in his best-
5、selling book The Selfish Gene. At the end of the book, he radically proposes that biology is not the only field where evolution is at work; human culture also evolves and changes. Gene is the biological replicator, so by analogy, “meme” is the cultural replicator which drives the culture evolution.
6、Dawkins invents the word “meme” form the Greek “Mimeme” which means imitation, but shortens it to sound like “gene”. In this book, Dawkins further elaborates it as follows: Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes p
7、ropagate themselves in the gene pool by leading from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. (Dawkins 1976:206) Now several authoritative dictionaries have embodied
8、 the term: according to Oxford English Dictionary, meme is an element of culture that may be considered to be passed on by non-genetic means, esp. imitation, while the American Webster Dictionary defines it as an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.Geo
9、ff Ayling first gives the definition of meme in advertising, “in the context of advertising, a meme is an idea or concept that has been refined, distilled, stripped down to its bare essentials and then super-simplified in such a way that anybody can grasp its meaning instantly and effortlessly”. (Ay
10、ling 1998:4)2.2 Three Features of Strong Memes Dawkins lists three criteria for any strong memes: (1) Fecundity: the faster the rate of copying is, the more the replicator will spread.(2) Copying-fidelity: the more faithful the copy is, the more will remain of the initial pattern after several round
11、s of copying. Fidelity here doesnt mean the phototype is transmitted invariably, but means the essence of the original is handed down.(3) Longevity: the longer any instance of the replicating pattern survives, the more copies can be made of it. Dawkins suggests that fecundity is the most important a
12、spect for a memes survival. 2.3 The Development Cycle of MemesMeme, as a new replicator, has driven the evolution of culture, which can be inherited like a gene and spread and mutate like a virus. To be replicated, a meme must pass successfully through four subsequent stages: The stage of assimilati
13、on comes first. To be assimilated, a successful meme must be respectively noticed, understood and accepted by the host. Noticing requires that the meme vehicle be sufficiently salient to attract the hosts attention. Understanding means that the host recognizes the meme as something that can be repre
14、sented in his or her cognitive system. To be understood, a new idea or phenomenon must connect to cognitive structures that are already available to the individual. The second stage of memetic replication is the retention of the meme in memory. By definition, memes must remain some time in memory, o
15、therwise they cant be called memes. The longer the meme stays, the more opportunities it will have to spread further by infecting other hosts. The third stage is expression. To be communicated to other individuals, a meme must emerge from its storage as memory pattern and enter into a physical shape
16、 that can be perceived by others. This process may be called “expression”. The most obvious means of expression is speech. Transmission is the end of cycle. To reach another individual, an expression needs a physical carrier or medium which is sufficiently stable to transmit the expression without t
17、oo much loss or deformation. This physical shape may be called the meme vehicle. For example, meme vehicles can be books, photographs, artifacts or CD-ROMs.III. Memes and Cognition of Advertising Slogans3.1 Foundation of the Advertising Slogans CognitionIn order to make an ad slogan emerge from its
18、competitors as a strong meme, sloganeers must make negotiable choices to make it adaptable well to its surroundings. In this part, we sort the primary contextual correlates of replication for strong memes into three categories: cognition, emotion and culture.3.1.1 CognitionThe understanding of adver
19、tisement requires people to make efforts on inference and association to seek the optimal relevance between the advertising text and the advertising context. If the advertising text can produce enough contextual effects, and readers only need to pay the smallest processing diligence for this, then i
20、t has the optimal relevance. With different standpoints, readers may produce many kinds of association as for the same advertising text, and under this circumstance, the principle of relevance then is helpful to them to make the proper choice among all the possibilities. 3.1.2 EmotionNowadays, many
21、sloganeers spread their slogans by arousing audiences emotional response. Ogilvy in his book Ogilvy on Advertising (1998:109) said that “advertisement with a strong content of nostalgia, charm and sentimentality can be enormously effective and that humor can be effective as well”. Memes are emotiona
22、l button-pushers. Everyone has deep-seated desire for sex, safety, power, etc. The key for a sloganeer is to identify an appropriate button and embed it into their slogan, or find a strong emotional meme and attach the slogan to it. According to Maslow, there are general types of needs which best de
23、scribes the emotional needs we have: physiological needs, such as food, sex, clothes, etc; safety needs, which include protection from harm, employee benefits, etc; belonging needs, which contain acceptance, affiliation with work groups, family, etc.; and esteem needs, which include recognition, app
24、roval of theirs, status, increased responsibilities, etc. Bearing these basic human needs in mind, the sloganeer can choose the corresponding buttons relevant to his product, infiltrating it in his design, therefore making the slogan more adapted to these needs.3.1.3 CultureThere are various definit
25、ions of culture. According to Blackmore (1999), culture in memetic theory is an aggregate of many different meme sets or memeplexes shared by the majority of a population. In human society, almost any cultural entity can be seen as a meme: religions, language, fashions, songs, techniques, scientific
26、 theories and concepts, conventions, traditions, etc. In most cultures, the reproductive success of memes is partly determined by previously internalized memes, which shape mental susceptibilities to new memes. Here we just discuss several main factors of culture that influence the consumers purchas
27、ing behaviors. National CultureDifferent nations shaped different characters and temperaments in the long history of national development. For example: The idea of “using a countrys symbol to serve as a brand of a product in that country” can be regarded as a strong cultural meme, since it has a lon
28、g tradition and a wide acknowledgement in that country. Value In a nutshell, values are ideas about what are good or bad. Different kinds of values that most people hold for a long time are actually various memes. Many scholars argue that the best ads are those that express and affirm core cultural
29、values, therefore, ad slogans must be compatible with the value memes held by the target customers, otherwise, they will be rejected. For example: One core American value is individualism. Conversely, Chinese culture thinks highly of collectivism, which predisposes the interest or welfare of organiz
30、ations before individuals. Thus, in order to borrow the power of the kind of memes to spread, they must deal with different peoples separately. The Way of Thinking Different nations have different ways of thinking. Generally speaking, Chinese people are used to thinking in a screwy way while western
31、 people are used to thinking in a linear way. From memes eye view, whether you can handle these kinds of cultural meme or not is also the key of entering that countrys market. 3.2 The Cognitional Mechanism of Memes and Advertising SlogansMemes dont always work alone. Just as a set of genes can work
32、together, a group of memes can also work together and get transferred together to reinforce each other. Lynch regards meme as a kind of information graph and puts forward an idea that is to use a set to explain how some simple memes can change into a meme complex. It can be described with the pictur
33、e as follows: Meme B Meme A As shown in the figure, its difficult to say the information included in meme A is more than meme B. But we can say that meme AB complex (meme A and meme B) contains more information than meme A. Thus we can assume that meme complex can play more function than simple meme
34、. Different memes will compete with each other, but similar memes will be in harmony, and would have a further promotion, possibly, a bigger meme complex will be formed.If we take meme B as a persons cognitive system, then the more two ellipses overlap, the more the meme would be successful. That is
35、 to say, the person has understood a new idea(meme) and also be willing to believe it, the longer the meme stays, the more opportunities it will have to spread further by infecting other people. In the structure of advertisement, the two unconnected things can be mentioned in the same breath, just b
36、ecause people have the similar association in their cognitive system. Meme, as a basic element of culture evolution, originates from response that people identify with world known information. People usually cognize an object with the aid of the known things, thus people can build the inter-relation
37、ship among various conceptual fields. Once such relationship is accepted by a person and the information is stored in his brain, the meme (the information) would be activated in a special situation, which can be propagated quickly and widely. . Category of Memes in Advertising The way of memes trans
38、mission is diversified from the perspective of memes.(Blackmore 1999:62) There are two types of language memes, one is genotype, which refers to a meme with the same content, but different structure, the other is phenotype, which refers to a meme with the same structure, but different content. 4.1 G
39、enotypeThe genotype refers to the phenomena that people copy the idioms, common sayings, famous remarks and classic poems completely. The whole advertisement is the direct quotation of the original sentences without any other components added. The sloganeers can often achieve the best effects by the
40、 skillful use of original quotations. The genotype memes can show its unique fascination if they are used properly.4.1.1 Direct Transmission of the Same Information Such information can be directly used in advertisement without any changes. They have become successful memes replicated and transmitte
41、d by means of direct quotations. They quote the popular and admired sentences which make the target audiences feel very warm and friendly. The sloganeers embed such information in such popular linguistic environment and associate the idioms, popular sayings, famous remarks and poems with main functi
42、ons of the advertised products emotion. Thus the subject of advertising can be highlighted and the prospective customers can be induced to take purchasing actions. Look at the following examples:(1) Practice makes perfect.The copywriter of this Toyota advertising quoted directly a proverb which alwa
43、ys encourages people to make more efforts to do better. Thus, the readers get an image that Toyota has the same quality. This quotation enables the people to have a knowledge of their products and let the audiences realize the memes propagating functions unconsciously.(2) No kidding! Tempur-Pedic wi
44、ll HELP you relax.The word “help” in advertisement is an eye-catching point. It is a popular word in ads which means “be conducive to”, but its definite effects are not clearly indicated. From psychological standpoint, everyone wants to be helped, especially when they are caught in a dilemma, suffer
45、ing from pain or waver between choices. With the word “help”, the readers of the advertising are inclined to feel that their needs are satisfied with the present products or services. In this way, the copywriter wins the favor of readers by making only an indefinite promise.(3) 我的眼里只有你！ 娃哈哈纯净水(Only
46、you in my eyes!- Wahaha Purified Water) It is a slogan in an advertisement for purified water (Wahaha Company), which comes from a popular songs name -我的眼里只有你(Only You in My Eyes) . When you read it, you would feel a tremor of joy because you are being loved. The advertiser uses it artfully to be a
47、slogan here, which has not only increased the brands popularity, but also unconsciously made closer the interpersonal relationship between the target audiences and the company. The song that ever rose to the top helped the Wahaha brand to be known to every household and individual. From the memetic
48、point of view, I think it touches the emotional factors of people, the slogan gives a recognition to the target audiences through the song at first, which seems to say that youre my God, then people would feel very kind, very warm and respected, so they would like to accept it whole-heartedly. Therefore, the meme can be propagated and transmitted.(4) 送人玫瑰，手有余香 公益广告 (Rose is presented, fragrance is remained in hand- an advertisement for public welfare) This is an ad for public welfare. I
