Abstract
Nowadays, advertisings can be seen everywhere. Some advertisings display the advantages of products by directly describing them. However, it is in doubt that how many advertisings could impress us and leave in our minds. Metaphor is derived from rhetoric. An ingenious metaphor could bring us joyfulness. In recent years, a few advertisers have started using metaphor to illustrate the claims of products, with the aim to stand out above the other ads and impress consumers deeply. However, metaphorical advertisings involve pictorial metaphor, which is more difficult to comprehend than literary metaphor. Because in literary metaphor, the corresponding of topic and vehicle is obvious (ex. “Time” is “money”), in pictorial metaphor used in advertisings, it is not as simple as the former one. In pictorial metaphor involved in advertisings, consumers have to find out what is topic (the product) and vehicle (the pictorial elements corresponded to product), followed by comparing the characteristics of topic and vehicle. Next, consumers have to find out the appealing of topic (product) and the meaning of vehicle. Then combine both of them so that consumers could figure out the contents of ads. With the complicated process of comprehending, the comprehension of metaphorical advertisings is highly related to individual’s intellect and the capability of logic reasoning. Individual’s intellect and the capability of logic reasoning would change with age. Also, the capability of logic reasoning could be markedly elevated through education. Therefore, the comprehension to metaphorical advertisings may differ from consumers with different age ranges and educational levels. According to the above reasons, this research aims to investigate whether there is any difference exists in the comprehension to metaphorical advertisings of consumers with different age ranges and educational levels. Furthermore, aiming at the specific groups which have obvious differences, this research will probe into the cause of differences by analyzing the comprehending process of consumers in each group. At last this research will present some suggestions about designing metaphorical ads and follow-up research.