Analysing Symbiosis between Advertising and Discursive Practices through Celebrity Endorsement in Selected Indian Gaming Apps

Abstract

Popularity of gaming apps is gaining momentum across the globe. The locale of this paper is Indian scenario wherein the symbiosis of advertising and discursive practices has been gauged. The aim of this paper was to fathom the nuances of advertising praxis having celebrity endorsement as its locus. The paper uses Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as research methodology to analyse the linguistic (verbal and non-verbal) and ideological aspects of the selected eSports and Gaming advertising campaigns. A field survey was conducted on 500 college going students to study the impact of sample advertisements on the target audience. It was found that celebrity endorsers influenced lifestyle and buying behaviour of the target audience. The trends in brand endorsement are changing due to two reasons; first being the rising popularity of YouTubers over Bollywood stars and other sportspersons over cricketers and second being the guidelines issued by ASCI.