Storytelling as a discourse strategy in printed advertising

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of printed advertisements that employ a discourse strategy of storytelling in their body copies. Stories are a rich source of positive imagination-enhancing material. Their employment in ads seems natural. Due to space limitations of ads, presented stories rarely contain detailed plot-lines or developed characters. They are often incomplete or only hinted at, which is especially the case of fictional accounts. What allows recipients to perceive even incomplete narratives as stories and thus start the desired processing is advertising story-related cues. This paper maps the employment of time-sequencing, characters and location as story-telling cues. Details of their incorporation are noted and related to the types of stories and preferred advertising strategies.