Language of advertising

Aristotle (1991) Rhetorical appeals of persuasion: 1) Logos: logic and facts 2) Pathos: the emotion conveyed or the emotion connected to the issue, plays on the listener’s beliefs and values - Anecdotes: puts the readers in someone else’s shoes - Sympathetic characters: people that readers feel concerned for - Analogy: to simplify a complex idea or concept to something more relatable and understandable by the reader - Vivid imagery 3) Ethos: arguments from personality, trusting the argument or ideas because of trust in the speaker; brands can build ethos when they stand with important causes - Phronesis: the perceived intelligence of the speaker; can be established through the use of titles, accolades or personal experience In her 2013 address to the UN Youth Assembly, Malala Yousafzai used her experience as an assassination attempt survivor to advocate for girls’ education in Pakistan. - Arete: the moral value of the speaker’s argument - Eunoia: the speaker’s likability and accessibility Celebrity advertisements or endorsements, though they may not be experts in the area or the product, people like and have a good impression of them so they will hear what the celebrity has to say. - Ordinary people can also be used in ethos, it is especially common in political advertisements 4) Telos: appeal to purpose 5) Kairos: appeal to timeliness / urgency (Aaker, 1997) 5 general types of brand personality: 1) Brand sophistication: elegance, poise, allure 2) Brand ruggedness / toughness: rebel, powerful, forceful, outdoorsy 3) Brand competence: intelligence, success, reliability 4) Brand sincerity: genuine, honest, caring, authentic 5) Brand excitement: playful, daring, imaginative, youthful - Other types of brand values: sage, dreamer, trail-blazer, rebel… (Fairclough, 1989) How advertisements work ideologically: 1) Building relations with the reader (potential customer) 2) Building images (an ideal that the consumer finds appealing) 3) Building the consumer (by asking who is the ideal consumer) Techniques used in advertisements:

- Reinforcing cultural stereotypes / reflecting changes in society by challenging stereotypes - Companies have realised that audiences appreciate seeing “ordinary” people, not just famous celebrities; changing with the times helps with virtue signalling ethical consumption - (Goddard, 2008) Tricks of the trade - Comparative reference: use of gradable adjectives and lexis with positive connotations - Problem-solution discourse pattern - (Fairclough, 1989) Informalisation of