DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SOME NIVEA ADVERTISEMENTS

Abstract

This paper presents parts of the findings of a recent study carried out with three objectives: (1) to analyze the linguistic features of Nivea advertisements which are designed to attract customers; (2) to discover the discourse strategies used in Nivea advertisements to construct the concept of ideal beauty; and (3) to investigate the social implications of Nivea beauty product advertisements. Fairclough’s three-dimension model was applied on the data sample of 18 Nivea advertisements downloaded from the website https://www.nivea.co.uk. Due to the length restriction, this paper only discusses the obtained results for the first and second objectives about linguistic features and discourse strategies in Nivea advertisements. The research results showed that in terms of lexical devices, Nivea advertisers used both positive and negative vocabulary, scientific terms, foreign or exotic words, second personal and possessive pronouns. Headlines are typically written in short simple sentences and phrases while body copies tend to be longer and more complex with the use of comparison, imperative sentences, active and passive voice, present and future tense. Other linguistic features including the use of such rhetorical devices as repetition and simile contribute to create impression and attraction on viewers. The discourse strategies including negative and positive self-representation, providing scientific proof, puffery, adding appeal to healthy beauty and setting close relationship with customers were applied to build the producers’ beauty concepts, deliver it to customers and persuade them to use the products.