Copywriting life hacks: conceptual structure of electronic gadget advertisements in English

Abstract

In the consumerist society of the 21st century, advertisement has become an inalienable part of human life. To create it, copywriters apply various strategies and techniques in order to influence the mind of people urging them to buy the item they promote. The aim of the article is expose these mechanisms of influence by analyzing the conceptual structure that underlies English-language written texts advertising electronic devices. This structure is modeled via employing the notion of semantic roles and the methodology of semantics of lingual networks (namely, basic propositional schemas) and theory of conceptual metaphor. As the analyzed empirical data show, advertising texts contain three informational foci/roles: PRODUCT, CONSUMER, and MANUFACTURER. Each role can be described with the help of multiple characteristics that viewed as predicates of five basic propositional schemas. By highlighting these features advertisers showcase the fortes of the gadget thus attracting attention of potential buyers and triggering their desire acquire it. The article exposes the combination patterns of the roles and the frequency of usage of their features (some of which are described metaphorically) to deduce an ideal formula copywriters can apply in creating texts that advertise electronic gadgets. Such a perfect advertisement text must present a novel and user-friendly but affordable gizmo of small size and minimal weight that displays seamless performance because of its high-tech hardware and state-of-the-art software. It is increasingly human-like in its features and operations, which makes it a perfect companion for people both in work and in games enabling them to leverage the gadget in a whole gamut of functions.