The word 广告 (guǎnggào, "advertisement") is formed through a direct and logical combination of its two component characters: 广 (guǎng), meaning "broad" or "wide", and 告 (gào), meaning "to inform" or "to announce". When placed together, they create a compound where the first character modifies the action of the second, pictorially conveying the core concept of "broadly announcing", that is, spreading information to a wide audience, which is the essential function of an advertisement.