Abstract

The aim of this qualitative study is to explore discursive strategies used in manipulating the opinions of people about purchase of different commodities through TV advertisements. The use of visual and linguistics means persuade people psychologically to motivate them to use their product. Twenty advertisements of everyday commodities were selected purposely to address the above-mentioned aim of the study. Data are elicited from different Pakistani TV channels. For undertaking this task, purposive sampling is selected for scrutinizing different kinds of advertisements of different commodities of everyday use. Norman Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis (2001) is used as theoretical lens to analyze the selected ads. The findings revealed that various persuasive strategies are employed to manipulate the audience. Furthermore, it is also found that the selected ads attempt to shift “wants” of the consumers to “needs” which in many ways perpetuate emotional, logical and ethical appeals to the target group to buy what they do not want to buy.

Key words: critical discourse analysis, advertisement, persuasive strategies, electronic media. advertising discourse.