Below is what we wrote as our comment on this advertisement before. You
can see that the advertisement is based on graphological deviation and
we actually used the term 'graphological deviation' in explaining it.
The basis for this advert, for the 'dot.com' company
ntl, is a clichéd expression to do with being successful
in social and business terms - 'It's not what you know but who you know'.
The advert re-enlivens the cliché through its use of graphological
deviation. The 'www' which we see at the beginning of web-page addresses
is used at the beginning of the two words beginning with 'w' (but not
for the occurences of 'w' at the end of the word 'know'). The advertisement
is thus about who you need to know (i.e. ntl) in order to get
on in the electronic business world. The deviant triple 'w' helps bring
out the contrast implicit in the cliché expression between the
'what' and the 'who', a contrast which is usually indicated in pronunciation
terms by contrastive stress on those two words.
There are two other graphological deviations in this
advertisement. First of all, the word 'ecommerce' is a relatively new
invention meaning 'electronic commerce' (formed via analogy with the
earlier 'email'), and secondly the whole slogan is underlined. This
will almost certainly remind readers who use email with the fact that
if someone sends you an email with a web-address in it, if it us underlined
you can usually click on it and go straight to the relevant site.
Deviation
within the "It's not wwwhat you know ... it's wwwho you know"
advert