«Actualizing the glamour concept in English advertising discourse»

Y. V. Saraniuk
«Actualizing the glamour concept in English advertising discourse»
Science and Education a New Dimension. Philology, vol. 41, n.º 145 (2017)

Science and Education a New Dimension. Philology | Society for Cultural and Scientific Progress in Central and Eastern Europe | Budapest | HUNGARY


Extracto de páginas 44 y 45-46 de la publicación en PDF. Véanse las referencias en la publicación original del texto.

«Glamour is one of the key concepts of modern culture, more precisely, of the layer which is formed by the media. Today the word ‘glamour’ is quite common in the adver-tising context, its main advertising idea being everything that culture endows with value - happiness, beauty, youth, health, material success, love, belonging to a prestigious social group - can be achieved through the purchase of the product. In modern linguistic studies of mass-media discourse, it is customary to distinguish its various genres using the functional criterion as a basis for classification. The fac-tual material reveals that the GLAMOR concept is actual-ized in the following genre varieties of English mass-media discourse:

»1) journalistic discourse (this genre variety is distinguished by a number of researchers [7, p. 17; 10, p. 8]),

»2) advertising discourse (we distinguish this genre kind after [7, p. 17; 10, p. 8]);

»3) an entertaining show described as one with a status of a separate genre in [10, p. 10],

»4) society columns (this genre variety has been substantiated by [6]). This article will consider the actualization of the GLAMOUR concept in one of the above-mentioned genres, i.e. advertising discourse.

»[...]

»All in all, the research has revealed that advertisements where the GLAMOUR concept is objectified tend to perform a dual function: first, they promote a product and secondly, they promote glamour as a quality to be strived for. In this respect, different brands compete with one another, trying to sell their goods, which inevitably leads to their promoting glamour as a social and cultural phe-nomenon. This agrees with the fact that advertising media discourse inherently is designed to “create certain mind-sets in the audience that induce it to carry out certain actions” [7, p. 19]: advertisements of glamorous products plant in its recipients the idea of glamour as desirable or even necessary feature in their lives and this desire en-courages the purchase of glamorous goods and, conse-quently, “glamorization” of their image. Depending on the price, a certain glamorous product may be available to a wider or a narrower circle of con-sumers.

»In an advertisement of a product affordable to a wide range of consumers, they are encouraged to buy this product with the help of a promise addressed directly to the recipient (which is the case in This is a real beauty! This amazing black dress in V neck is a charm and you will love it! This glamorous dress will get you praises and is perfect to flaunt the style” [12] where the second per-son pronoun you is used (This glamorous dress will get you praises). If the cost of the goods is rather high, then the price should be justified to convince buyers that the product is worth the money. For example, the advertisement of lip-stick “CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN CREATED THE MOST GLAMOROUS LIPSTICK EVER” [9] emphasizes that the best things are expensive: “At $90 each, they don’t come cheap, but the best things rarely do” [9]. When the cost of an advertised product or service is too high for the average consumer, as the cost of staying

»Thus, glamour is promoted as a prestigious, socially desirable and appreciated quality in advertising discourse and advertising manifests itself as a means of producing glamorous images, that is, ideal images that express val-ues and norms affecting the consumers’ behavior and making them purchase goods.»