Abstract:With the increasingly rapid development of social economy, advertising has already become the essential constitute in our daily life. No matter in newspaper, magazine or television, we can see the various kinds of ads everywhere. An advertisement is the lubricating oil of the modern commodity economy, is the catalyst of the economy development, as well as the link and bridge of the production, supply and sale of a product.

What is advertising? American Marketing Association defined that Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. 

According to this definition, the essence of the advertising is the communication of information. The success of an advertisement lies in its ability to make the audience produce a sense of trust to the brand and have the desire of purchasing the products advertised. 

An English advertisement usually has three parts: headline, body text and slogan. The headline is the most important part, which is the soul and core of the advertising. David Ogilvy, a famous advertising expert, according to his experiences, points out that, on average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. The headline is with eighty cents of an advertising dollar. Therefore if you haven’t done some selling in the headline, you’ve wasted 80% of your money.

The functions of a successful advertising copy are to attract, to induce and to inspire its readers. The rapid development of marketing economy makes the speed of work and life increase, and most of people do not have time to read an advertisement word by word. So the headline should demonstrate the essential information of the products. 

Besides, the headline may attract the attention of readers and induce them to read the body text. Finally, the headlines should inspire readers to purchase the product they propagandize.

To sum up, the headline is the concentration of the thesis statement about an ad and it determines its value and the successful sale of a product.

Therefore, the study of the functions and features of the advertising headlines is crucial to the success of advertising.

Key words: Advertising; Headlines; Features; Functions

摘 要:随着社会经济的高速发展，广告已经不知不觉渗透到社会生活的各个层面，成为我们日常生活中极其重要的一部分。小到报纸杂志，广播电视的商业广告，大到公共场所建筑物的户外广告，各式各样的广告随处可见。广告已经成为现代经济的润滑剂，经济发展的催化剂，也是生产和销售的纽带和桥梁。

什么是广告呢？美国市场营销协会为广告作了如下定义：广告是由特定的广告主，以付费的方式通过各类传播媒介对产品﹑服务和规划主题等信息进行具有劝导性质的非人员推广介绍或传达。

根据这一定义，广告的本质就是信息的交流。一则广告成功与否，关键在于它能否使受众对其所宣传的品牌产生信任感，形成消费动机和欲望，最终使他们在众多的品牌中选择广告所宣传的品牌。

英语广告一般来说主要由标题，正文，口号三部分组成。而广告的标题是广告中最重要的部分，是广告的灵魂，核心，是对广告主题的凝结和提炼。著名广告学家大卫·奥格威认为：“标题是大多数平面广告最重要的部分。它是决定读者是不是读正文的关键所在。读标题的人平均为读正文的人的五倍。换句话说，标题代表着为一则广告所花费用的80%。”

一则成功广告的标题应把其提示﹑诱导﹑促动作用发挥得淋漓尽致。市场经济的快速发展必然带来人们工作节奏和生活节奏的加快，读者很难对那些与己无关的广告产生兴趣，所以广告标题就为读者提供一个信息精华。

标题还应抓住读者的注意力，激发读者的阅读兴趣。另外，标题应煽起读者的强烈的购买欲望，促成读者购买商品的行为。

总而言之，广告标题是广告的生命，是广告主题思想的浓缩，其语言措词和内容描述要具有强大的感染力、说服力和视觉冲击力。创作出简明、通俗、新奇、针对性强的广告标题决定着一则广告的存在价值，决定着所推销产品销售的成功与失败， 关系着其企业的兴衰与存亡。

因而，研究和探索广告标题的作用和特点以及其创作方法是成功广告的关键所在。

关键词：广告，标题，特征，作用