Keywords

Introduction

Radio is a form of mass media that contributes to the delivery of information to society (e.g., through news and entertainment programs). Radio has undergone a long developmental process before emerging as a communication medium in its current shape. It is one of the oldest forms of mass media in Indonesia (Andini, 2009) and remains popular as a form of communication that connects audiences from wide demographic and geographic ranges. Radio has become an effective media form for marketing fast-moving customer goods because it can reach a wide range of listeners of different ages and educational backgrounds living in different geographical areas. In terms of media, radio has also evolved into what is now known as digital media, and many radio broadcast services in Indonesia are offered as digital services. Digital radio requires listeners to have an Internet connection to access the services.

Internet radio (also called web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, or online radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet (Sanghoon, 2013). Unlike conventional radio, Internet radio networks are far-reaching because they have a global range. Conventional radio has a limited reach as it requires an antenna to get the signal. Nowadays, many private radio services in Indonesia use radio streaming as their broadcast platform. With Internet radio, distances and time do not matter anymore. With the availability of the digital platform, operational costs have become cheaper, and as a result, radio services in Indonesia have multiplied.

Radio is also an effective medium for advertising as radio stations generally have specific target markets, and therefore, retailers can advertise their products accordingly. For example, the Gen FM radio station, whose target listeners are young people, aged 18–24, knows exactly what products to advertise to this audience.

Like any other medium for advertising, radio advertisements are diverse in terms of the products advertised and the ways they are advertised. This diversity is due to the increased number of radio stations, to the extent that each station must be more competitive in attracting advertisers to fund their programs. One way to compete with other radio stations is to be innovative in delivering radio advertisements.

One form of radio advertising is adlibs advertisements or adlibs for short. Adlibs are improvised radio advertisements, so radio listeners do not immediately know they are listening to advertisements. At first, radio listeners will have difficulty noticing and distinguishing between an advertisement and a regular dialog between radio broadcasters. Adlibs appear to be part of the program or information provided by the announcer (Andini, 2009). Radio adlibs are widely used today because they have advantages compared with other forms of radio advertising. One advantage is that the announcer usually delivers the adlib in a way that does not sound like an advertisement of a product, so the listeners are more likely to believe in the information given about the product.

Designing a persuasive and informative advertisement requires high creativity, and language plays an important role in the process. Language conveys and delivers the meaning in communication, especially in advertising. With language, a copywriter or scriptwriter can creatively compose many different advertisements. However, human language is a highly elaborate communication system and is unique among all animal communication forms. According to Pagel (2017), human language is distinct from all other known animal forms of communication in being compositional. The feature of compositionality gives human language an infinite capacity for generating new sentences as speakers combine and recombine sets of words into sentences.

How to approach and analyze human language in advertising has become a long-standing issue in both the area of advertising studies and communication studies. Social scientists use content analysis, for example, to examine patterns in communication, including advertising, in a replicable and systematic manner (Alan, 2011). In linguistics, there are several techniques and methods for analyzing advertisements (Machin & Van Leeuwen, 2005; Motaqed & Annapurna, 2016; Pavenkov et al., 2014; Skorupa & Dubovičienė, 2015). Machin and Van Leeuwen (2005) approach advertising language with a combination of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis, to co-articulate a sociological and a linguistic-discourse analytical concept of style. Based on a study of advertising language in Cosmopolitan, a global women’s magazine, they show that advertising authors use style as an expression of identity and values. Pavenko et al. (2014) approached Russian advertisements with the theory of implicature. They found that the theory of implicature was very useful to reveal meanings and structures in Russian advertising. Meanwhile, Skorupa and Dubovičienė (2015) analyzed commercial and social advertisements to uncover their linguistic characteristics. They found that rhyme and alliteration are the most used techniques which help to transmit simple information and make a piece of writing memorable. In the study of the language of advertising, Motaqed and Annapurna (2016) tried to analyze the language of advertising from a linguistic point of view and specify the linguistic methods used in advertising texts.

In this study, we use Gricean pragmatics to analyze adlib advertisements. According to Grice (1975), to create a favorable speech situation, speech participants need to adhere to cooperative principles. Grice formulated the principles of cooperation into four maxims: quantity, quality, relevance or relation, and manner. According to the maxim of quantity, a speaker should aim to be as informative as possible and provide information as needed, and no more. The maxim of quality specifies that one should aim to be honest and not give information that is false or not supported by evidence. The maxim of relevance requires a speaker to be relevant and say things that are related to the interaction. The maxim of manner specifies that one should attempt to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says and avoid vagueness.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, people do not always apply these principles in their communication. For example, as Chaer (2007, p. 17) noted, in humorous discourse, the speech actor deliberately violates the cooperative principle to create an atmosphere of humor. Violation of the cooperative principles generally concerns the maxim of relevance. In some situations, however, the addition of new, irrelevant information becomes important. This aligns with Sperber and Wilson’s (1994) theory of relevance. Sperber and Wilson introduce different levels of relevance. Although speakers add unrelated information, a speech situation can still be relevant if the speaker and listener share the same knowledge, beyond the immediate context. In most cases, the violation of a maxim creates a humorous situation, as in the following example:

Y[1]:

Saya juga pengen punya hand phone yang depannya ada kameranya

 

(I also want to have a hand phone with a camera at the front.)

X[1]:

Iya

 

(Yes)

Y[2]:

Adanya gerbang

 

(But there is only a gate at the front.)

X[2]:

Iya gue juga teras, di belakang kamera gak ada, kolam renang adanya

 

(Yes, I have a terrace; there is no camera at the back, there is a swimming pool instead.)

From Grice’s Cooperative Principle, it can be regarded as irrelevant; however, the new information added by the speaker not only informs the audience but also creates a humorous situation.

With regard to adlibs, this form of advertising requires a certain degree of improvisation on the part of the announcer (speaker) when reading the prepared script, to make the advertisement sound spontaneous and natural. Frequently, in an attempt to improvise, the speaker violates the cooperative principle. Our paper focuses on how violations of these principles are manifested in adlibs.

Method

This study used a qualitative research method, defined by Creswell (2014, p. 21), that relies on text and image data, applies unique steps in data analysis, and draws on diverse designs. In this research, data are elaborately explored and analyzed to reveal the meanings of adlib radio advertisements. For this reason, not all radio advertising is chosen to be included in the data.

For this study, the data consisted of adlib radio advertisements from the program Semangat Pagi (Morning Spirit), aired by the Gen FM station, a station with the largest number of listeners in Jakarta, which is approximately 4,148,000 (Radio Gen FM Jadi Nomor Satu, Divisi Penyiaran Mahaka Media Melesat, 2011), and therefore, the ads that were aired were representative of adlib advertisements on Jakarta radio overall. We analyzed 13 adlibs from the program, aired on March 14 and 31, 2016. The 13 advertisements were chosen because they were presented by two speakers and conveyed product information very well. After the data selection, a transcription was undertaken using Rosenfelder’s (2011) convention, with some adjustments.

Violation of Cooperative Principles in Adlib Advertisements

This section discusses the violation of the cooperative principles that occurred in the adlib advertisements. Our analysis has revealed several violations, including the maxim of quantity, quality, relevance, manner, and other violations, and showed the following patterns of violation pairing: quantity–relevance, quantity–manner, quality–relevance, and relevance–manner.

The number of instances of violation is 21, with the most common being the violation of the maxim of relevance (ten occurrences) and the maxim of quantity (nine occurrences). Example (1) shows the violation of the maxims of relevance and quantity.

(1)

McDonald’s-3103

 

Y[1]: Dengan sarapan terbaru di McDonald’s,

 

          (With the new breakfast menu at McDonald’s,)

 

Y[1a]: masa lalu gak perlu dilupakan, tapi jadikan itu suatu pelajaran untuk masa depanmu

 

          (The past doesn’t have to be forgotten, but make it a lesson for your future.)

 

X[1]: Gitu

 

          (So there)

 

Y[2]: Jadi sobat gen, gausah sedih inget yang dulu-dulu

 

          (So, gen friends, don’t be sad about the past.)

 

X[2]: Jangan dong, coy

 

          (Yeah, don’t do that.)

 

Y[3]: Iya, mending move on

 

          (Yes, it’s better to move on.)

 

X[3]: He eh

 

          (Yes)

 

Y[4]: Move on lah dengan sarapan terbaru dari McDonald’s, sosis wrap and egg and cheese muffin

 

          (Move on with McDonald’s latest breakfast menu, sausage wrap, and egg and cheese muffin.)

In this example, speakers Y and X provide information on the latest breakfast meal from McDonald’s. Violation of the maxim of relevance begins with Y[1]. In Y[1a], Y says masa lalu gak perlu dilupakan, tapi jadikan itu suatu pelajaran untuk masa depanmu “the past doesn’t have to be forgotten, but make it a lesson for your future.” Then, the adlib proceeds to Y[2] and Y[3]. Y suggests that the latest breakfast menu from McDonald’s helps the listener forget their sadness. This is increasingly made explicit in Y[4] when Y says, Move on lah dengan sarapan terbaru dari McDon-ald’s, sosis wrap and egg and cheese muffin “Move on with McDonald’s latest breakfast menu, sausage wrap, and egg and cheese muffin.”

The urge to “move on” implies that one should forget the past. In Y[3] and Y[4], however, and in Y[1a], Y says that the past should not be forgotten, but used as a lesson for the future. However, the context of the phrase “move on,” uttered in Y[3] and Y[4], is not directly related to “McDonald’s latest breakfast;” that is, feeling sad and a food item on a menu are not immediately associable. Therefore, Y violates the maxim of relevance. But this interpretation can be discounted if we consider the latest breakfast menu as something exciting that can help cheer someone up. Ultimately, this is the association that the advertiser wants the listener to draw.

In example (2), speaker X explains to Y how to search for a mobile phone that has a front-facing camera specification and is sold on OLX, an online shopping website. Up to X[3], X adheres to the maxim of quantity by providing information on how to search for a mobile phone on OLX that has a front-facing camera specification. However, in X[4], X provides additional information, “Kita berdua nyari yang 2M-an lah, ya, Sam, ya.” (let’s search for the one priced around 2 million Rupiahs, right, Sam). Additional information is unnecessary in this instance, but X has provided more information anyway, so the maxim of quantity is violated in this case.

(2)

OLX-1403A

 

X[1]: Lo buka OLX, terus cari di kategori elektronik dan gadget

 

         (You open OLX, and find in it an electronic and gadget category)

 

Y[1]: Iya

 

    (Yes)

 

X[2]: atau ketik handphone kamera depan di kotak pencarian

 

         (Or type “front-facing camera hand phone” in the search box.)

 

Y[2]: Betul

 

    (Right)

 

X[3]: Lo cari deh tuh, harga yang paling pas sama kantong lo

 

    (Then you search for the price that suits you.)

 

Y[3]: He eh

 

    (Yes)

 

X[4]: Kita berdua nyari yang 2 M-an lah, ya, Sam, ya

 

         (Let’s search for the one priced about 2 million Rupiahs, right, Sam.)

The same violation of the maxim of quantity can be seen in example (3). In Y[1] and Y[2], the speaker says that he wants a mobile phone that has a camera on its front, but instead, he finds a gate. Y’s utterance, when analyzed according to Grice’s cooperative principle, is irrelevant because a front-facing camera has nothing to do with a gate. However, X responds to Y with Iya gue juga teras, di belakang kamera gak ada, kolam renang adanya. “Yes, I have a terrace; there is no camera at the back, but there is a swimming pool instead.” X’s seemingly illogical response signals that X understands the context of the comment. Y equates a mobile phone with a house. Just like a (luxury) house, it has a gate and a terrace, and at the back, there is a swimming pool. Because X understands the context of Y’s utterance, the conversation can be deemed relevant.

(3)

OLX-1403A

 

Y[1]: Saya juga pengen punya hand phone yang depannya ada kameranya

 

           (I also want to have a hand phone with a camera at the front.)

 

X[1]: Iya

 

           (Yes)

 

Y[2]: Adanya gerbang

 

           (But there is only a gate at the front.)

 

X[2]: Iya gue juga teras, di belakang kamera gak ada, kolam renang adanya

 

           (Yes, I have a terrace; there is no camera at the back, there is a swimming pool instead.)

In example (4), Y told X about the benefits of drinking Milko cereal milk. X understands and confirms it to X[2] by saying “iya, iya, iya, jadi dua fungsi utama milko susu sereal ini adalah pengganti sarapan dan penunda rasa lapar itu, ya.” (Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the two advantages of Milko’s cereal milk are as a food supplement and a cure for hunger, aren’t they?). From X[2]’s response, it seems that X has already understood the benefit of Milko cereal milk. Then, Y tells X that the information is a secret and only both of them truly understand it. Furthermore, in Y[5], Y adds that you, me, and God know the secret, which makes it more convincing that the information is truly a secret.

Y’s utterance that the information about Milko milk’s benefit has only been heard by the two interlocutors is obviously not true since they were talking on radio. At the end of the conversation, Y says that “oke, baiklah, sekarang kita kembali lagi on-air.” “Okay. All right. Now we’re going back to be on-air.” For this reason, Y’s speech did not conform to reality, and therefore, it violates the maxim of quality.

(4)

Susu Milko-1403

 

Y[1]: Ya, terus terang aja, ya, milko ini pengganti sarapan dan penunda rasa lapar

 

           (Frankly, Milko is a breakfast substitute and a cure for hunger)

 

X[1]: Oh gitu

 

           (Oh I see.)

 

Y[2]: Asal lo tau aja, gua gak kasih tau ini ke semua orang, ya

 

           (Just so you know, I did not share this information with other people)

 

X[2]: Iya, iya, iya, jadi dua fungsi utama milko susu sereal ini adalah pengganti sarapan dan penunda rasa lapar itu, ya

 

           (Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the two advantages of having Milko cereal milk, you’ll have a breakfast substitute and a cure for hunger, right?)

 

Y[3]: Nah, jadi lu tolong, ini jadi rahasia antara kita berdua

 

           (So, please keep this a secret just between us)

 

X[3]: Oke, baiklah, baiklah

 

           (I got it.)

 

Y[4]: Gak ada yang tahu

 

           (No one else knows)

 

X[4]: Gak ada

 

           (No one)

 

Y[5]: You, me, and God

 

X[5]: Oke

 

           (That is right)

 

Y[6]: Oke, baiklah, sekarang kita kembali lagi ke on-air

 

           (Okay. All right. Now we’re going back to be on-air.)

In example (5), X talks about the advantages of using the ASUS laptop, mentioning that it has a full two-year warranty. In Y[1], Y responds to the information given by X with “Waw” (Wow), pretending to be surprised that ASUS gives such a warranty, as not all notebook manufacturers do. Then, in X[2], X adds the information that this warranty is applicable all over the world. This additional information still fulfills the maxim of quantity because it is still relevant to X[1]’s utterance. Nevertheless, in Y[2], Y also gives the following additional information: Notebook gua kemaren lebih ke dua tahun full global warming. “My last notebook has more than a two-year full global warming.” This additional information can be considered unnecessary as it is purely a joke and does not add useful information. For this reason, we can say that Y has violated the maxim of quantity, as Y has overinformed X and also the listeners.

Moreover, example (5) also violates the relevance maxim. This violation also occurs in Y[2]. This joking utterance is made in response to X[1], ASUS ini punya dua tahun full global warranty. Y wants to compare her/his notebook to an ASUS notebook, but it is not appropriate because global warranty and global warming are not conceptually comparable. Global warranty is a warranty that is valid all over the globe, while global warming is an environmental issue. For this reason, the joke in Y[2] violates the maxim of relevance.

(5)

Asus-1403

 

X[1]: ASUS ini punya dua tahun full global warranty

 

           (This new ASUS notebook has a two-year full global warranty)

 

Y[1]: Waw

 

           (Wow)

 

X[2]: Jadi garansi biaya service dan sparepart-nya berlaku di seluruh dunia

 

           (So, the service and spare part warranty is applicable throughout the globe)

 

Y[2]: Notebook gua kemaren lebih ke dua tahun full global warming

 

           (My last notebook has more than a two-year full global warming)

In example (6), Y provides information about the advantage of the ASUS A456 Series. There are two violations of the quantity maxim in this example. First, a maxim violation in Y[1c], when Y says Dung, dung, dung, dung, nah, biasanya ada gitunya sobat gen, ya. “Dung dung dung dung [imitating the sound of a drum]. Well, usually it is provided with that [feature], Gen FM listeners.” In the example, Y tries to give additional information that in a laptop with an intelcore, we can hear a dung, dung, dung, dung sound when we start the computer. However, the additional information is not essential, and hence in Y[1c], Y has violated the maxim of quantity.

Second, a violation also occurs in X[2] when X says Batre alkaline lebih awet, ya, Mal? “An alkaline battery is longer-lasting, isn’t it, Mal [the broadcaster’s name]?” This utterance is produced in response to Y[1e]’s utterance, Dengan baterai lipolimer umur batre jadi panjang, panjang umur. “With a li polymer battery, the battery lasts a long time, and has a long life.” In X[2], it seems that X compares an alkaline battery with a li polymer battery—or more correctly a lithium-ion polymer battery—mentioned by Y, which is a very different type of battery. In Y[1e], Y wants to give information that the ASUS A456 Series is longer-lasting because it is equipped with a li polymer battery. However, X offers additional information that an alkaline battery is better. This additional information is unnecessary as the laptop they mentioned is not equipped with an alkaline battery. For this reason, we can say that X has violated the maxim of quantity.

(6)

Asus-1403

 

X[1]: Sobat gen, tuh, semua, tuh

 

           (Hi, Gen FM listeners, all of you.)

 

Y[1]: Coba lo cek deh ASUS A456 Series

 

           (Please check the ASUS A456 Series out.)

 

Y[1a]: Notebook terbaru ASUS dengan intelcore generasi ke-6 terbaru

 

           (A new notebook from ASUS with a new 6th generation intelcore)

 

Y[1b]: Didukung dengan intelcore i56200u dengan kecepatan hingga 2.8 GHz

 

           (Supported with i56200u intelcore with a speed up to 2.8 GHz.)

 

Y[1c]: Dung, dung, dung, dung, nah, biasanya ada gitunya sobat gen, ya

 

           (Dung dung dung dung [sound imitation]. Well, usually it is provided with that [feature], Gen FM listeners.)

 

Y[1d]: Dengan memori yang gede banget, 4 GB DDR 3L, yang bisa di-upgrade sampe 12 GB

 

           (Provided with a huge random access memory, 4 GB DDR 3L upgradable up to 12 GB.)

 

Y[1e]: Dengan baterai li polimer umur batre jadi panjang, panjang umur

 

           (With a li polymer battery, the battery life becomes very long-lasting)

 

X[2]: Batre alkaline lebih awet, ya, Mal?

 

           (An alkaline battery is longer-lasting, isn’t it, Mal [the broadcaster’s name]?)

In addition, in example (6), a violation of the relevance maxim also occurs in X[2], when X says Batre Alkaline lebih awet, ya, Mal? “An alkaline battery is longer-lasting, isn’t it, Mal [the broadcaster’s name]?” As already mentioned, the utterance is a response to Y’s utterance, that is, Dengan baterai lipolimer umur batre jadi panjang, panjang umur. “With a li polymer battery, the battery life is long-lasting, and has a long life.” X’s response to Y is irrelevant because X is comparing a lithium-ion polymer battery to an alkaline battery. In such a situation, X did not need to respond to Y’s utterance by comparing lithium-ion polymer batteries and alkaline batteries. First, a lithium-ion battery is a rechargeable battery, while an alkaline battery is not. Second, since an alkaline battery is not a rechargeable battery, portable personal computers or notebooks never use alkaline batteries for their power supply source. For this reason, in this context, X has violated the maxim of relevance.

So far, examples (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5) illustrate the broadcasters’ creative efforts to make the advertisement sound like part of a casual conversation. In these efforts, it seems that the speakers deliberately commit maxim violations. However, even when analyzed according to Grice’s cooperative principles, maxim violations are found mainly in relevance, in which additional information usually leads to a humorous situation so that listeners do not feel they are listening to an advertisement. According to Sperber and Wilson’s theory of relevance, therefore, these conversations are still considered relevant.

Conclusion

Several points can be concluded from this study. First, even though the speakers broadly follow the principle of cooperation, the additional information provided in the ads violates the maxim of relevance. The violation of cooperative principles, discussed in this study, generally is of two types: violation of a single maxim and violation of multiple maxims. The first type includes violations of the maxims of quantity, relevance, quality, and manner. Violation of multiple maxims concerns maxims of quantity–relevance, quantity–manner, quantity–relevance, and relevance–manner.

Second, the most frequent violation was the violation of the maxim of relevance. In general, the violations occurred because the additional information provided by the speakers did not add to the information already given and was not directly related to the topic. Nevertheless, when the examples are evaluated according to relevance theory, the information can still be considered relevant. The addition of relevant, but out-of-context information, makes radio listeners feel like they are listening to a casual conversation rather than an advertisement.

Finally, the broadcaster’s role, as a speaker in adlibs, becomes important in ensuring the saleability of the products. The broadcaster is expected to create a positive atmosphere when delivering an advertisement during the broadcasting programs. Generally, the broadcasters tried to make they tried to make the ads sound more like ordinary conversations than advertising programs.