International Journal of Language, Literature and Culture 2015; 2(3): 39-47 Published online June 10, 2015 (http://www.openscienceonline.com/journal/ijllc) Persuasive Communication in Social Media Advertising: A Case Study of Polish and English Anna Kuzio * Department of Humanities, Univeristy of Zielona Gora, Zielona Gora, Poland Email address [email protected]To cite this article Anna Kuzio. Persuasive Communication in Social Media Advertising: A Case Study of Polish and English. International Journal of Language, Literature and Culture. Vol. 2, No. 3, 2015, pp. 39-47. Abstract The communication of humanity has changed throughout the ages. Not only the language appears to become more and more compact due to the lack of time in ever changing societies, but also it serves different aims than it used to serve in a remote past. People tend to use modern technological devices which accompany them in their everyday routine as the tools enhancing their instant communication. There appears to be a declining tendency in once popular text messaging, that has given its way to modern means of distant communication by use of social media. These may be perceived as more convenient from the point of view of speaker (or in this case writer), because he can exchange information not only by phone, but also with the use of computer whomever he wants to. These appliances enable constant and rapid contact regardless the place one occupies. The research aimed at presentation of major persuasion techniques used in online mass market cosmetics advertisements, uploaded in the form of Page Post Ads on the social platform called Facebook. Five global skin-, hair-, and body-care brands have been analyzed i.e. Avon, Garnier, Max Factor, Maybelline and Olay by means of persuasive rhetorical devices, functioning on semantic, syntactic and pragmatic levels. An analysis has been inspired by theories by many linguists mentioned in the practical part, as well as additional resources. The study was conducted in a way, to determine whether among the same number of similar commercials in Polish and English, some analogies may be observed, and whether persuasive techniques seem to be international, thus universal. Additionally, the research aimed at the specification of possible similarities and differences between these two languages, categorization, exemplification, description of applied rhetorical figures, and drawing conclusions from analyzed material. Keywords Deceptive Communication, Social Media, Advertising in CMC, Intercultural Communication 1. Introduction During the last decade there has been a significant emergence of platforms on the Internet which are called social media. This term, according to Ray Poynter (2010, p.160), is difficult to define, but easy to recognize. Poynter draws the distinctive line between social media and standard types of media, describing those former as rather paradigm based on the many-to-many model, contrary to the one-to-many model of those latter. He states that there is a vast range of types of this phenomena that embrace: “blogging, micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter), social networking (e.g. Facebook, Mixi, Cyworld),Wikis (e.g.Wikipedia, the collaborative encyclopaedia), social bookmarking (e.g. Delicious and Digg), photo sharing (e.g. Flickr), video sharing (e.g.YouTube), voice networking (e.g. Skype), music sharing (e.g. Last FM), product and service reviews (e.g. TripAdvisor), virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life and World of Warcraft), and multiplayer games (e.g. Farmville).” (Poynter, 2010 p. 160). The kinds of social media listed above create an unbelievably broad scope of possibilities for Internet users. They can there watch videos for free, download e-books and articles, subscribe to different channels in order to regularly follow new posts uploaded on them, listen to the music on-line, play games with other players without leaving home, as well as share their own products such as photos, works of art etc. All platforms which include the word “sharing” in their name depends depend mainly on uploading and downloading various items which have been created by internet users. This activity gives them an
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International Journal of Language, Literature and Culture 2015; 2(3): 39-47
Published online June 10, 2015 (http://www.openscienceonline.com/journal/ijllc)
Persuasive Communication in Social Media Advertising: A Case Study of Polish and English
Anna Kuzio*
Department of Humanities, Univeristy of Zielona Gora, Zielona Gora, Poland
To cite this article Anna Kuzio. Persuasive Communication in Social Media Advertising: A Case Study of Polish and English. International Journal of Language,
Literature and Culture. Vol. 2, No. 3, 2015, pp. 39-47.
Abstract
The communication of humanity has changed throughout the ages. Not only the language appears to become more and more
compact due to the lack of time in ever changing societies, but also it serves different aims than it used to serve in a remote past.
People tend to use modern technological devices which accompany them in their everyday routine as the tools enhancing their
instant communication. There appears to be a declining tendency in once popular text messaging, that has given its way to
modern means of distant communication by use of social media. These may be perceived as more convenient from the point of
view of speaker (or in this case writer), because he can exchange information not only by phone, but also with the use of
computer whomever he wants to. These appliances enable constant and rapid contact regardless the place one occupies. The
research aimed at presentation of major persuasion techniques used in online mass market cosmetics advertisements, uploaded in
the form of Page Post Ads on the social platform called Facebook. Five global skin-, hair-, and body-care brands have been
analyzed i.e. Avon, Garnier, Max Factor, Maybelline and Olay by means of persuasive rhetorical devices, functioning on
semantic, syntactic and pragmatic levels. An analysis has been inspired by theories by many linguists mentioned in the practical
part, as well as additional resources. The study was conducted in a way, to determine whether among the same number of similar
commercials in Polish and English, some analogies may be observed, and whether persuasive techniques seem to be international,
thus universal. Additionally, the research aimed at the specification of possible similarities and differences between these two
languages, categorization, exemplification, description of applied rhetorical figures, and drawing conclusions from analyzed
material.
Keywords
Deceptive Communication, Social Media, Advertising in CMC, Intercultural Communication
1. Introduction
During the last decade there has been a significant
emergence of platforms on the Internet which are called
social media. This term, according to Ray Poynter (2010,
p.160), is difficult to define, but easy to recognize. Poynter
draws the distinctive line between social media and
standard types of media, describing those former as rather
paradigm based on the many-to-many model, contrary to
the one-to-many model of those latter. He states that there is
a vast range of types of this phenomena that embrace:
“blogging, micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter), social networking
(e.g. Facebook, Mixi, Cyworld),Wikis (e.g.Wikipedia, the
collaborative encyclopaedia), social bookmarking (e.g.
Delicious and Digg), photo sharing (e.g. Flickr), video
James Bennet, 2014; and Dictionary.com, 2014). Not only
ingredients-based naming may be observed in the
cosmetics branch, but also founders names often serve as
the stem for the trademark, e.g. Alfred Garnier was the first
to produce in 1904 a hair tonic for Laboratories Garnier,
similarly to Maksymilian Faktorowicz (aka Mr Max Factor),
a Polish make-up artist who established in the Golden Age
another famous company known even in Hollywood.
Contrary to the first one whose name serves the whole
trademark, the other company name hinges on mimetics
(the Polish spelling was altered into an English one, where
‘ks’, and ‘k’ were rewritten into ‘x’ and ‘c’), as well as
founder nickname that was a back clipped shortening of his
name and surname (Nowekosmetyki.pl 2009; and
DemandMedia 2014). On the other hand, the creator of the
label of Avon Products Inc. was inspired with “the beauty of
the countryside surrounding Stratford-on-Avon”, which is
an English town on the Avon River, also known as the
birthplace and burial place of Shakespeare (Avon Products
Inc. 2013; and Dictionary.com 2014).
Cosmetics names recognised while analysing were based
on sensory language (“Miracle dry oil for hair, body and
face”), professional commodities and services (“Planet Spa,
Heavenly Hydration”) , constituted power words evoking
the associations of “beauty”, “luxury” (“Gilded Treasures
Makeup Set”, “Luxe”) and exaggerations (“False Lash
Effect”). As customers mainly seek for quick effects,
producers came up with “Overnight Peel”, “Skin Renew”,
and for those urging to get a “many-in-one product” AVON
presents “AVON FAB in 5” line, “Mega Mix ‘N Go Palette”
(makeup palette), and Max Factor offers “Glossfinity” nail
polishes, or “Lipfinity” lipsticks for those who prefer
long-lasting results. The nominal phrases listed hereof
represent various word-formation processes, and some of
them may be categorised as follows:
GLOSSFINITY – a blending of “gloss” and “infinity”
LIPFINITY - a blending of “lip” and “infinity”
SKIN RENEW – a conversion of the verb “to renew” into
a noun, nominalisation
OVERNIGHT PEEL – a conversion of the word “to peel”
into a noun, nominalisation
Continuing the subject of word-formation, three informal
nouns have been recognized that may often be spotted in
conversations of youths, resembling the slangy character of
an utterance. These are: ”fab”, “pic” (clipped from
“fabulous”, and “picture”), “goodies” (”suffixed with “–ie”
for “something attractive), as well as “mani” (back-clipped
for “manicure”).
6. Conclusion
This paper consisted of the research related to the
persuasive rhetorical devices working mainly on the semantic
level of the cosmetics advertisements posted in the form of
Page Post Ads on Facebook. Some sample commercials in two
languages have been analyzed in order to categorize,
exemplify and compare similarities and differences between
Polish and English techniques. Since these days brands use
social media to increase brand awareness, find new customers,
engage those existing ones, and increase their loyalty,
companies offer discounts on this type of medium, and
monitor mentions of the brand researching target audience. It
has been stated, that the majority of assessed persuasive tools
were noticed across both languages; thus they might be called
as international.
References
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47 Anna Kuzio: Persuasive Communication in Social Media Advertising: A Case Study of Polish and English
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