Figures of speech are the most frequently used form in advertisement as well as in other writing styles. And there are also many types of figures, such as simile, metaphor, ambiguity and so on, which make up a score or more of figures most commonly used in today’s advertisements. Here, from a semantic view, this article will mainly study simile, metaphor and ambiguity for examples, their effects can be clearly examined by some typical examples of advertisements.

“Light as a breeze, soft as a cloud.” ---(Cloth AD) (Shun 74)
“Ride like a feather in your pocket.”---(Car AD) (Chui 48)
“Go for the Gold, the brightest star in electronics.”(Gold star AD) (Zhao 280)
“Ask for more.” (Shun 75)
“Spoil yourself and not your figure.” (Shun 75)
You’ll go nuts for the nuts you get in Nux. It fills you up and gives you lots of go. (Leech 185)

1.New York Time, 25 Feb.(2002): 15.
2.Fortune, 2 Mar.(1998):25.
3.Leech, Gedffery N. English in advertising. London: William Clows and Sons,1965.
4.崔刚，《广告英语》北京理工大学出版社1993.
5.赵静，《广告英语》. 外语教学与研究出版社，1992.
6.孙小丽，《广告英语与实例》. 中国广播电视出版社，1995.
7.冯翠华，《英语修辞大全》. 外语教育与研究出版社，1995.