Charles A. O Neill's The Language Of Advertising

Mutual funds company marketing executive Charles A. O’Neill seeks to address the common misconceptions and negative connotations associated with the advertising industry in his essay “The Language of Advertising”. In this scholarly essay, O’Neill writes to the American consumers who are actively targeted by advertisements upwards of 560 times a day, in the hopes of elucidating the strategies that advertising firms employ. Advertising is a form of marketing communication with the purpose of promoting and selling a product efficiently. By cultivating awareness with unique, concise, and attention-grabbing advertisements, companies gain the competitive advantage over their opposition in the market. O’Neill sets out to separate the art of advertising

While R.J. Reynolds might argue that their animated companion is a noticeable and effective advertisement and they are simply exercising their right to free speech, many would contend that the right to free speech is less important than the health and safety of the general public. However, O’Neill jumps to defend the advertisement, blaming society’s unwillingness to accept advertising for what it is. To give the reader a better understanding, O’Neill begins posing rhetorical questions, such as “How does advertising work?” and “Why does it raise such concern?”, as a means of establishing the topics to be discussed throughout his essay and provoking the reader to think about advertising more critically and objectively. He begins giving the reader insight into the objectives of advertising from his perspective, explicating that its purpose is to generate revenue for its firm through carefully chosen words and visuals that convey a message and grab the consumers attention, not through deception and connivery. He establishes the main characteristics of an advertisement: edited and purposeful, rich and arresting, involving, and