The language of persuasion in McDonald’s advertising campaigns during the last 10 years

Abstract

This thesis aims to study persuasion language used in advertisement based on data collected from audio-visual and multimodal texts. The synchronic nature of this study aims to analyse the change in language over time as well as to focus on the different themes used to sponsor the same product and how they have changed with society over the last 10 years. Eighteen advertisements were analysed, which in turn were grouped into three major thematic areas: 1. Environmental themes 2. Themes of social interest 3. Food quality and supply The chosen themes aim to emphasise how the company feels involved in society and the problems it faces. The language of each of them was analysed in detail in search of persuasive language. It can be seen that this is a crucial point in the lexical and linguistic choices of the brand, not only to give prestige to the company's image, but also to demonstrate to its customers, or future customers, that transparency, involvement in sensitive or socially considered issues and quality are at the forefront of McDonald's concerns. But what is the true purpose of the company? Does it really want to improve the world we live in or simply communicate a different self-image, that is innovative and open to change, in order to grab the complete trust of its customers?