A Discourse Analysis of Metropolitan Namibia and Sanlam Namibia’s English Print Advertisements in The Namibian newspaper:

A Comparative Study

Abstract

In Namibia, various insurance companies (inclusive of Metropolitan and Sanlam Namibia) place English advertisements in The Namibian newspaper for persuasion purposes. This paper investigates the English language of persuasion leveraged in the two companies’ print advertisements. It equally explores the various advertising techniques that support the English language of persuasion in selected print advertisements. A qualitative approach was used to analyse the advertisements in The Namibian newspaper. A desktop study, which employed discourse and content analysis as data collection methods, was utilised. Data collected were critically examined based on the English language employed in selected print advertisements. The paper was informed by a critical discourse analysis theory which addresses issues of how social relations, identity, knowledge and power are constructed through written and spoken texts in various communities, schools, the media, and the political arena. This study reveals that three language elements are utilised in selected advertisements. The first is the pattern of print advertisement, which focuses on the headline, body copy, slogan and logos. The second is the
language leveraged in each advertisement, with the use of elements like alliteration, repetition, metaphors, similes, puns, personification, adjectives and adverbs. The third is a revelation of various advertising techniques that support the English language used in selected advertisements. These findings suggest that along with most linguistic elements, the Aristotelian elements (ethos, pathos and logos) and the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action) principle of advertising were necessary ingredients of persuasion in the advertisements.