Advertising Language analyses the ways advertisers use language to gain and retain the attention of their audience, with particular emphasis on puns and metaphors. The book contains a unique chapter on images of women in Japanese advertising and is the only book to contrast British and Japanese advertising, subsequently revealing penetrating insights into these two cultures.

Keiko Tanaka offers an analysis of the linguistic devices that are used in advertisements, looking at the stratagems which advertisers employ to gain and retain the attention of their audience. Using Relevance Theory as a framework, she sets out the key aspects, then applies these to the language of written advertising in Britain and Japan. Particular emphasis is placed on "covert communication" and puns and metaphors, and the book contains a unique chapter on images of women in Japanese advertising. It is fully illustrated throughout with recent contrastive advertisements drawn from the two countries.