TITLE:
Using Language as a Persuasive Tool in Promoting Alcoholic Drinks in Ghana
AUTHORS:
Lena Awoonor-Aziaku, John Kobla Attiye
KEYWORDS:
Alcohol, Billboards, Advertisement, Promote, Negative, Language
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.9,
September
13,
2023
ABSTRACT: This paper did a linguistic analysis of names of Ghanaian alcoholic
drinks as well as their communicative functions. The study used six alcoholic
drinks: “Adonko Atadwe Ginger Bitters”, “Kasapreko Alomo Bitters”, “Herb Afrik
Gin Bitters”, “JOY DADI Bitters”, “Kpo keke” and “?dehyeε Beer”, advertised on billboards in three metropolitan assemblies: Cape
Coast, Takoradi and Ho in Ghana. The texts on the billboards were taken
randomly with a digital camera and stored on a computer, and were subsequently
analysed qualitatively. All fifty-four (54) advertised texts were used for the
study. The study has shown that the names of the six alcoholic drinks are
mostly concrete nouns made up of a group of words having either Beer or Bitters
as the headwords. These headwords, Beer and Bitters, were modified by other
nouns and adjectives borrowed mostly from the indigenous languages, Akan and
Ga, and are also complemented by imperative sentences. It is clear from the
study that the concrete nouns used to name the drinks are to create in the
minds of the audience a mental image about the drinks, and also to make them
develop some kind of taste and feeling for the drinks. The indigenous (local)
words used as modifiers of the “Beer” and “Bitters” are to give a brand name
and an identity to the dinks as well as make the audience have some kind of
local attachment (a sense of Africanism) and a-we-feeling for the drinks. The
imperative sentences are used to command, direct and order the audience, and
therefore, compel them to buy the drinks. Finally, we can say that the
manufacturers of the six alcoholic drinks used language skillfully to compel
and persuade the public to patronise the alcoholic drinks. The increase in the
in-take of alcoholic drinks in Ghana is, thus, largely due to the kind of names
given to the drinks and how they are advertised on the billboards.