Emotional Persuasive Techniques in Advertisements on the Coca-Cola Soft Drink Brand of the Coca-Cola Beverage Company

Abstract

Advertising is a structured tool of marketing that is persuasive in nature. The persuasive nature of the language used in advertising is meant to boost patronage of a product, service or even an idea. Consumers’ emotions have a significant influence on purchase and consumption decisions for a wide variety of products including food products. This paper looks at the emotional persuasive techniques used in advertisements of the Coca-Cola soft drink brand of the Coca-Cola Beverage Company. Summative Content Analysis methods of data collection, interpretation and analysis have been used in this study. A sample of five (5) advertisements of the Coca-Cola soft drink brand were obtained from You Tube and analysed for their emotional content. The findings reveal that both lexico-grammatical devices and rhetorical devices are used as emotional appeal techniques in the advertisements. It is the advertising appeal that triggers emotion and grabs the consumers’ attention.