The past as a means of persuasion: Visual political rhetoric in Finnish dairy product advertising

Abstract

This study investigates the role of advertising and visual rhetoric in political persuasion. Analysis of Finnish dairy product video advertisements from 2010–2016 focuses on those that exploit time as the main reference framework. A better understanding of how advertising is used as a tool of political persuasion is sought by exploring the following questions: How are advertisements used in political communication? How is time used as a means of persuasion in advertising? What role do visual rhetoric and social representations have in the process of persuasion? The analysis shows how advertisements objectify work as a tradition and anchor it as a Finnish value. The results show how advertisements employ enthymeme as a major rhetorical tool to assert that the tradition of Finnish employment is under threat but the consumption of Finnish dairy products and favouring a pro-agrarian policy would ensure that the tradition is transmitted to new generations. The contributions of the study are twofold: First, the combination of social representations theory and classic rhetoric provides a theoretical and analytical perspective for the analysis of visual rhetoric in political persuasion. Secondly, by exploring the advertisements as political communication, the study shows how commercials are used to advocate ideological and political projects, such as certain kind of agricultural policy – an angle largely overlooked in the previous research of social and political psychology.

Persuasion Through Bitter Humor: Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Rhetoric in Internet Memes of Two Far-Right Groups in Finland

“…On the third level of analysis, we combined the analyses of content and form, analyzing the images in their immediate and broader argumentative context. Following the example of Hakoköngäs and Sakki (2019), we argue that interpretation of these elements together is a way to interpret the rhetorical functions conveyed by the material. In the analysis of persuasion, our focus was on the rhetorical organization of the memes, that is, what the rhetorical forms were, such as, factuality- and credibility-enhancing strategies (e.g., Potter, 1996), and strategies of persuasion, such as, out-group derogation or enhancement of in-group identity (e.g., Pettersson & Sakki, 2017), and what the memes made use of and for what purposes.…”

Mobilizing collective hatred through humour: Affective–discursive production and reception of populist rhetoric

“…Such temporal narratives and historical references are valuable in political argumentation, because they concern issues like social identity, tradition, and a sense of continuity (e.g. Hakoköngäs & Sakki, 2019; Levinger & Franklin Lytle, 2001; Sani et al ., 2007).…”

Empowered but endangered? An analysis of hegemonic womanhood in Indian gender advocacy campaigns

“…The present study understands multimodality as meaning construc tion contributed by moving images, verbal and textual narration and music and sound (Kress, 2010). de Rosa (2014) and more recently, Hakoköngäs and Sakki (2019) and Martikainen (2019) have suggested that the social representations theory (SRT) is well suited to answer these questions as it gives importance to the iconic dimension of knowledge formation. More broadly, SRT focuses on how ideas, values and beliefs around topical phenomena are negotiated and communicated in society (Moscovici, 1961(Moscovici, /2008(Moscovici, , 1984.…”

“…These qualities are exploited by advertisers to appeal to their audiences. Producers of social justice campaigns may seek to elicit donations and also change social values, ideas and practices, thus uniting rhetoric and social representations as images in a way that can be used persuasively to trigger the formation of new representations (Hakoköngäs & Sakki, 2019;Martikainen, 2019). Simultaneously, images are products of existing social representations held by those creating and disseminating them (de Rosa & Farr, 2001).…”

“…While all images are technically multimodal in nature, further nuances are likely in moving images as the latter usually contains sound and text in addition to visuals (Adami, 2016). Hakoköngäs and Sakki (2019) illustrate how advertisement videos on social media subtly convey ideological meanings and employ all dimensions of multimodal communication, namely sound, voice, text, and moving image in persuasion. Hence, when considering anchoring, objec tification and naturalization in relation to representations of dangers to women in campaigns disseminated through YouTube, it is essential to pay attention to the relationships across different modes of communication (see also : Kress, 2010).…”