When the Advertised Product Is Not the Target: Multimodal Metaphor in Greek TV Commercials

Abstract

The present paper examines two commercials promoting a Greek airliner, Aegean Airlines. Both commercials involve creative and novel multimodal metaphors through which the specific airline services are compared to the services offered by buses (informing passengers) and the Greek army (catering services and meals). The form and function of the Aegean multimodal metaphors are examined in relation to the generic dimensions of multimodal metaphors in advertising as put forth by Forceville (2007). It is shown that the metaphors in question display, in broad terms, the generic features of multimodal metaphors identified in TV commercials, but violate an established and long-preserved genre-related convention, namely that the target domain of the metaphor coincides with the advertised product. It is argued that the upsetting of generic norms attested in the specific commercials, which introduces the viewer into a counterfactual, albeit wishful, world, has repercussions on the metaphor's conceptualisation and verbalisation. In the paper, the perceived incongruity in the depiction of the main characters ('bus driver' as 'pilot', 'army caterer' as 'air-hostess') is addressed briefly as creating humour.