In a nutshell: persuasion in the spatially constrained language of advertising

Succinctness, a defining characteristic of the discourse of advertising, implies specific sociocognitive and communicative mechanisms. Evidence from the conventionalized medium of advertising catalogs shows that degree of linguistic sophistication in these texts correlates less with the content being advertised than with its location along a glamour-utilitarianism continuum. It is proposed that the need for writers to manipulate representations of status by readers overrides the competing need to present content explicitly. Thus, the language of advertising consists essentially of often propositionally vacuous displays of competitive linguistic sophistication designed to create a largely artificial sense of exclusiveness among status-conscious readers. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.