Page 367 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 367
stakeholders in promotional genres:
a rhetorical perspective on marketing communication 367
tion of stakeholder. This is a kernel notion to our approach since we be-
lieve that all texts (either written or spoken) are created in order to car-
ry out an organization activity and achieve its goals. To better describe
the notion of stakeholders and to relate it to those of genre and rhetori-
cal situation, in section 5 we take as examples four promotional texts –
a press release, a brochure, a print ad and a TV commercial. The stake-
holders approach is a valuable tool for teaching how to produce effective
texts, which adhere to the exigency of a given rhetorical situation. In sec-
tion 6 we show how it can be used to make students aware of the situat-
ed character of a text.
2. The Research Gap
As it has been noticed in different works on advertising discourse, in
promotional genres a difficulty in identifying the participants to a com-
munication (particularly, addressers and addressees) is often highlight-
ed. The key question to be answered in order to understand advertising
discourse appears to be “who is communicating with whom?” (Atkin
and Richardson, 2005: 165). The non-coincidence among those persons
who “physically” and actually produce the ad, managers who require the
ad, and the “voice which speaks in the ad” is usually pointed out as a
demonstration of the difficulty in identifying an ad’s addresser(s). As for
instance Corbett and Connors (1999: 3) observe
In most ads, as in most forms of technical writing, the least prominent of the
components is the speaker/writer. Who is addressing us in the ad? Most ads
are composed by the staff of the ad agency that the company or the manu-
facturer hired. The speaker or writer in an ad – unlike the speaker or writ-
er in a speech or an essay – is not a particular person; it is usually a corporate
persona created by the ad agency […].
The actors playing the role of addressers in an advertising text are
defined as “a corpora persona”, a blurred entity whose characteristics are
hard to distinguish. Similarly, Corbett and Connors (1999: 3) point out
difficulties in identifying an ad’s addressee(s). The most straightforward
answer to the question “whom is the ad addressing?” seems to be “‘the
reader of the ad’, referred to frequently by the second-person pronoun
you”. However it appears to be unclear who is you: is it an individual or a
group of people? For instance, in relation to an ad for the Hewlett Pack-
ard printer they are commenting, Corbett and Connors observe that
[O]ne possible candidate as an antecedent for the pronoun you is the admin-
istrative officer of a company that is responsible for purchasing equipment,
such as typewriters or computers or printers for the workers. In that case,
a rhetorical perspective on marketing communication 367
tion of stakeholder. This is a kernel notion to our approach since we be-
lieve that all texts (either written or spoken) are created in order to car-
ry out an organization activity and achieve its goals. To better describe
the notion of stakeholders and to relate it to those of genre and rhetori-
cal situation, in section 5 we take as examples four promotional texts –
a press release, a brochure, a print ad and a TV commercial. The stake-
holders approach is a valuable tool for teaching how to produce effective
texts, which adhere to the exigency of a given rhetorical situation. In sec-
tion 6 we show how it can be used to make students aware of the situat-
ed character of a text.
2. The Research Gap
As it has been noticed in different works on advertising discourse, in
promotional genres a difficulty in identifying the participants to a com-
munication (particularly, addressers and addressees) is often highlight-
ed. The key question to be answered in order to understand advertising
discourse appears to be “who is communicating with whom?” (Atkin
and Richardson, 2005: 165). The non-coincidence among those persons
who “physically” and actually produce the ad, managers who require the
ad, and the “voice which speaks in the ad” is usually pointed out as a
demonstration of the difficulty in identifying an ad’s addresser(s). As for
instance Corbett and Connors (1999: 3) observe
In most ads, as in most forms of technical writing, the least prominent of the
components is the speaker/writer. Who is addressing us in the ad? Most ads
are composed by the staff of the ad agency that the company or the manu-
facturer hired. The speaker or writer in an ad – unlike the speaker or writ-
er in a speech or an essay – is not a particular person; it is usually a corporate
persona created by the ad agency […].
The actors playing the role of addressers in an advertising text are
defined as “a corpora persona”, a blurred entity whose characteristics are
hard to distinguish. Similarly, Corbett and Connors (1999: 3) point out
difficulties in identifying an ad’s addressee(s). The most straightforward
answer to the question “whom is the ad addressing?” seems to be “‘the
reader of the ad’, referred to frequently by the second-person pronoun
you”. However it appears to be unclear who is you: is it an individual or a
group of people? For instance, in relation to an ad for the Hewlett Pack-
ard printer they are commenting, Corbett and Connors observe that
[O]ne possible candidate as an antecedent for the pronoun you is the admin-
istrative officer of a company that is responsible for purchasing equipment,
such as typewriters or computers or printers for the workers. In that case,
