HomeTin-awvol. 1 no. 1 (2017)

Concept of Beauty in Television Advertisements: A Phenomenological View on the Linguistics Strategies Used

Madilyn C Ondoy

 

Abstract:

This phenomenological study was designed to generate, describe, and understand the consumers’ concepts of beauty in television advertisements and the linguistics strategies used to influence them. Data were extracted through linguistic analysis of sample videos of television advertisements and through interviews from purposefully selected participants. It was found out that consumers perceived beauty as enhanced, naturally endowed, hygienic and healthconscious, pleasing, socially constructed or culturally-based, tangible and observable. Further, it was observed that television advertisements utilized lexical, morphological, phonological, syntactic, and semantic strategies to influence consumers’ concept of beauty. Consumers were influenced by securing their interest, building their desire, obtaining action, establishing trust, promoting novelty, and invoking humor. Finally, the insights gained from the study were that natural beauty was more appreciated, advertisements must communicate to the consumers, consumers must be wise, exaggeration created doubt to consumers’ minds, and language influenced the buying behavior of consumers. The findings of this study would contribute to the body of knowledge by providing linguistic awareness to the readers; thus, educators, other governing bodies, and future researchers interested in studying language and consumers’ behavior may utilize this study as a reference or guide for an in-depth inquiry and for further studies.