‘Advertorials’: A genre-based analysis of an emerging hybridized genre

Analysis of paralinguistic features

For different genres, we expect different visual arrangements. When we think of academic papers, we expect to see no color other than black as well as a consistent typeface throughout the text. When we think of advertisements, we expect to see many colors and other visual elements such as pictures and photos. Advertorials make the situation even more complicated. At first glance, no big differences can be detected by readers and it is not easy for readers to distinguish advertorials from other reports, especially as advertorials are usually not appropriately labeled and are designed to look like news articles. Designers create advertorials to meet the expectations that readers have for news stories or editorials in magazines and newspapers. However, when taking a closer look, several distinct paralinguistic features can be identified and an overwhelming number of the visual elements or layout arrangements tend to present advertorials as logical, unbiased and authentic texts.

Layout

Some advertorials are quite long, some even more than 10 pages. Observations suggest that both long and short advertorials are divided into a number of sub-articles with separate titles and topics or themes. The sub-articles, although not very long, are often further separated into sections with numbered or bold headers. The clear-cut structures are intended to appear in more authentic papers such as scientific reports or academic articles. Obviously, by resembling such a structure, the writers attempt to construct a logical argument on paper. The visual signals of sub-titles and headers present a logical, confident argument and mislead readers into believing what they see as authentic and trustworthy information.

Another feature deserving attention is the use of bylines. Normally, news stories have bylines while advertisements do not. In the corpus, eight out of 11 advertorials from Forbes and 100% from the International Herald Tribune are with bylines. One out of five articles in Fortune uses a byline. All the articles from Business Week, Newsweek and South China Morning Post are without bylines. The statistics show that the byline feature is highly variable but in general fairly common.

Letter shapes and color

The fact that letters have shapes and we associate different letter shapes with different text types makes the design of letter shapes a main strategy used to construct the visual image of a text. Mainly, there are two large categories for typefaces: the decorative type and the type for extended reading. Decorative typefaces are normally used to attract readers’ attention and are largely used in short, important phrases, such as the title or headers. The other type is for extended reading and does not function to attract attention per se. Besides the typeface, letters can be bold, italic, bold italic, underlined or colored. Samples of advertorials in the corpus are of high uniformity and consistency in this aspect: almost all letters in body texts are of one consistent typeface and are all colored black. Most of the headers and titles are also black or blue, with only a few cases in other colors. Blue and black are commonly viewed as comparatively ‘serious’ colors and readers associate them with power and truth: authentic papers, such as government reports, news articles and academic articles are usually in black or blue. Advertorials are actually designed to simulate the style of serious reports. Advertorials in newspapers have more standard and consistent letter shapes and colors compared with those in magazines. In the data set of this study, advertorials in newspapers are all in black and white.

Other visual elements

A distinctive feature of visual elements in advertorials is the tendency to present photos of important persons, or spot pictures related to the companies or factories in the report. In the corpus, 15 out of 31 advertorials from magazines and five out of six from the South China Morning Post presented photos of the heads or leaders of the company. Advertorials from the International Herald Tribune did not contain any photos. In addition, advertorials which didn’t include photos of important people presented pictures of successful business people. Thus, advertorials have an overwhelming tendency to present photos of leaders or successful business people as illustrations, which, I assume, is to project a sense of authority. Another distinct contextual feature of advertorials is the frequent use of graphs and charts, which are tools typically used in scientific or academic reports. These features provide a strong academic flavor to advertorials, and again, construct an authoritative, trustable and undeniable image.

Analysis of linguistic characteristics

Linguistic characteristics of a written genre can be analyzed from different perspectives. At the macro-linguistic level, analysis usually focuses on the organization or structure of the text. On the micro-linguistic level, analysis is on such aspects as the lexicon and grammar. The present study analyzed linguistic characteristics of advertorials on both the macro-level and the micro-level. On the macro-level, the generic structure of advertorials was examined by adopting the ESP school’s approach of move analysis. On the micro-level, the evaluative aspect of language as a prominent feature of advertorials was explored with the guidance of appraisal theory.

Generic structure of advertorials

Drawing upon previous proposed structures of advertisements, news stories and editorials, this study proposes a generic structure of advertorials based on an examination of 12 samples selected from the corpus of 55 advertorials. Analysis demonstrates that advertorials are typically organized in the following moves and steps (see Table 3). Two structures are identified in the body part. The structures suggest most advertorials explicitly display the products or services and some only aim to build a positive image of the sponsors.

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Table 3.

Move structure of advertorials.

Move 1: Introduction
Step 1: Headlines (super-, main and sub-headlines, and captions)
Step 2: Lead
Move 2: Body text
Structure A:
Step 1: Targeting the market
Step 2: Justifying the product or service
By indicating the importance of the product or service or by establishing a niche
Step 3: Detailing the products or services
By introducing the companies or organizations that provide such products or services
By identifying the product or service
By describing the product or service
By indicating the value of the product or service
Step 4: Establishing credentials
Structure B:
Step 1: Background information
Step 2: Introducing a company or an organization or a leader in a company
Step 3: Detailed information to construct a positive image
Step 4: Consequences/reactions
Move 3: Conclusion
Step 1: Summaries
Step 2: Evaluations
Move 4: Soliciting responses
Step 1: Signature and slogan of the company/sponsor
Step 2: Contact details

Introduction (move 1)

Move 1 is an obligatory element for all the samples examined. It is an initiating move to attract readers’ attention. This move usually includes headlines and a lead, following the standard practice of news stories. It functions to provide key information or the topic of the whole article. Specifically, the super- or main headline usually presents the most important information to arouse readers’ interest. The sub-headline is added to give a brief explanation, mention the sponsor’s name and raise a problem. A lead is adopted in most of the advertorials, attempting to give background information for the whole article and justify the prominent or interesting points of the article. It usually uses the simple present tense to highlight the reliability of the information provided. In this sense, move 1 is mainly informative.

Step 1: Headlines

According to the function of headlines, 12 samples could be classified into three groups:

Group 1:

1) Global Financial Services – A key location in the Global Financial Services Industry

2) Cameroon – Moving forward: Building on the Bakassi transfer

3) The Singapore advantage

All the headlines in group 1 present sponsors’ names and explicitly spell out the appeals or benefits of the offers. This strategy is to transfer the major benefits or advantages into the headline, so that even if readers don’t go on to read the whole article, they can at least grasp the essential information.

Group 2:

4) Helping Small to Mid-size Privately Held Companies and Non-profit Organizations Mitigate Management Liability Risk

5) Easing the Corporate Health Care Cost Burden

Examples in group 2 introduce the services that sponsors might provide, instead of presenting names of sponsors. This strategy attempts to target the market and attract the attention of potential customers.

Group 3:

6) Japan 2.0 – The Asian nation has emerged from its punishing post-bubble decade leaner, stronger and wiser, and ready to take on the next generation of challenges.

7) The power to innovate.

Examples in group 3 give neither the name nor the appeals of the products or services provided by the sponsor. Instead, this group of headlines highlights the topic of the whole article, creating a positive image for the sponsors. Headline 6 puts all the Japanese sponsors in a powerful economic setting, while headline 7 applauds all the sponsors for their spirit of innovation and strength.

Step 2: Lead

The leads of advertorials examined can be classified into two categories: the first type includes a detailed introduction or summary of the whole article; the other type raises a problem existing in society. Of the 12 samples, nine were of the first type and three were of the second type. The first type offers readers a whole point of view of the appeals or advantages of the sponsors, while the latter ones make the readers aware of an existing problem and arouse their interest to read further, and thus find the solution. For example:

Type 1:

1) . . . Ireland has emerged as one of the newest and most successful International Financial Services locations in the world. (M25)

2) There are three things that a country needs to be a major player in the brave new world . . . Taiwan has all three – an impressive trifecta that is drawing an increasing number of businesses from around the world to its five free trade zones. (M15)

Type 2:

1) Although health care costs keep rising, there’s finally some good news to report – it could be worse. By 2015, health care costs will eat up 20% of the Gross Domestic Product. Even now, the United States spends 4.3 times more on health care than on national defense. (M04)

2) . . . Hunger, in fact, is the world’s number one health threat. . . . Crises such as war, tsunami, drought . . . and politics deprive innocent people of life-sustaining food. There are 30 food emergencies every year around the world and, and as a result, millions of people need ongoing food aid to survive. (M11)

Body text and conclusion (moves 2 and 3)

As previously illustrated, two different structures were proposed in move 2. Eight out of 12 samples are of structure A with products, services or programs specified in the text, while four are of structure B, just providing information about the sponsors to build a positive image. The conclusion could stand out as a separate section, but it is also common to see the conclusion embedded in the body text. Conclusions frequently contain a summary element and an evaluation element. To illustrate the structure of the body text and conclusion, two samples are analyzed (for full text, see Appendix 3). Tables 4 and 5 provide the results of sample analysis of moves 2 and 3, with textual purposes identified for each step.

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Table 4.

Structure A: Move analysis of sample M31.

	Step	Description (sentence no.)	Textual purposes
Move 2	Step 1	Targeting the market (1–5)	Targeting small and mid-sized companies
	Step 2	Justifying the product or service (6–12)	Listing possible risk faced by small and mid-sized companies
	Step 3	Detailing the products or services (13–20)	Listing what D&O insurance could do to minimize the risks
	Step 4	Establishing credentials (21–22)	Highlighting the benefits of D&O
Move 3	Step 1	Summary (21–22)	Summarizing and posing a strong evaluation gesture
	Step 2	Evaluation (21–22)

D&O, directors and officers.

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Table 5.

Structure B: Move analysis of sample N18.

	Step	Description	Textual purposes
Move 2	Step 1	Background information (1)	Providing general information of the efforts Singapore put into R&D support
	Step 2	Introducing a company or organization or a leader in a company (2–11)	1. Introducing three companies with detailed information of R&D in each company
	Step 3	Detailed information to construct a positive image (2–11)	2. Providing information about emerging industries
	Step 4	Consequences/reactions(12–14)	Illustrating that efforts have been paying off
			One company is set as an example
Move 3	Step 1	Summary (15)	Summarizing the efforts and achievements by and of Singapore
			Giving evaluation by quoting

R&D, research and development.

Soliciting responses (move 4)

Eight samples include soliciting response elements. Interestingly, soliciting elements don’t appear in the body text section, but rather stand separately. Some soliciting-response elements are designed in a rather hidden way. For instance, an internet address could be given at the bottom-right corner of the text page. Sometimes, they provide the address right after the text ends but it stands as an attached part of the text, as illustrated in Figure 2 from M24.

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Figure 2.

Soliciting responses (M24).

A more explicit way is to set an independent page or another short article with a sub-title simulating an ad and soliciting responses. For instance, one advertorial is followed by another page with a picture occupying two-thirds of the space, and one paragraph soliciting responses at the very end of the page, as illustrated in Figure 3 from M31. A third way to solicit responses is to make an independent section of the text. For instance, Web Dictionary gives the internet address of the sponsors in the corner, as illustrated in Figure 4 from M11.

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Figure 3.

Soliciting responses (M31).

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Figure 4.

Soliciting responses (M11).

Evaluative aspect of language

Evaluative resources may be divided into three sub-systems: attitude, engagement and graduation. Under the system of appraisal theory, all the evaluative elements may be identified and classified into their corresponding categories in an accurate way. This study initially examines the first paragraph of each sample for appraisal analysis of the language. Some samples have a paragraph above the whole text and this paragraph is usually in a larger size and another color, which is normally regarded as a lead. The first paragraph here means the first paragraph of the text, not considering the lead paragraph above the whole text. The first paragraph was chosen from each sample for two reasons: first, some advertorials are quite long, lasting more than 10 pages. Some are short with only one page. Some advertorials include all the moves and some do not. So it is problematic to examine the language of one particular move. Second, there is no information on which part of the advertorial is more evaluative or which part is less evaluative. However, evaluative force of language in later parts is supposed to grow, or stay at more or less the same level. Appendix 2 lists all the first paragraphs of the 12 samples, with various lexicogrammatical elements marked according to different categories of evaluation.

The analysis of the evaluative aspect of advertorials reveals that all three types of evaluation resources – attitude, engagement and graduation – are used. When expressing attitude, appreciation is used more frequently than judgments and affects, while the strength of evaluation is controlled by gradable words and expressions. At all times, the authors take a positive stance toward the sponsors by using positive appreciation (excellence, promise, attractive, new, successful, etc.). There are some negative appreciations but their evaluation targets are not the sponsors. These negative evaluations mainly contribute to the sponsors’ target clients (e.g. the small and mid-sized companies) or comparisons against the sponsors (for example, the laggard Hong Kong in the past). In addition, high strength of evaluative expressions appears frequently. A good deal of superlative adjectives and nouns in the data are found, all of which are used to highlight the positive image of the sponsors, such as newest, top priority, top quality, excellence, distinctly, one of the most, real. In all, it is noticed that the language in advertorials is neither neutral nor objective; instead, it is projecting the evaluative voice of the writers on a highly gradable scale.

As a means to give a full view of the evaluative stance in one complete advertorial, one sample is chosen and analyzed (see Appendix 3). This sample is chosen, first, because it is a mid-sized article; second, its language, at least at first impression, looks quite neutral and unbiased. It is of great interest to explore further in order to dig out those lexico-grammatical elements which serve to project evaluative stance and thus to persuade target consumers. The sponsor in this sample is Zurich, a Financial Services Ltd company. It strives to highlight potential risks that privately held companies and non-profit organizations might be confronted with, and thus tries to offer a ‘simple, intelligent, beneficial’ solution: to get professional management or financial help.

The result of evaluative analysis shows that JUDGMENT as an evaluation strategy has been intensively used in this sample. A host of negative evaluations focusing on social sanction and social esteem are identified:

All the negative evaluation of judgment reflects the stance that the writer takes against the target – those potential consumers who have not taken steps to get management advice or financial insurance. Interestingly, the condemnation is in stark contrast with several instances of positive evaluation which are attributed to the sponsor:

Another distinctive linguistic feature of this article identified by appraisal analysis is its strong amplification of negative evaluation of judgment through GRADUATION:

By analysis of a complete sample, then, the linguistic tendencies and elements of evaluation may be recognized and described. It is found that the writer’s voice is clearly spelled out through strong negative evaluation against target readers. In contrast, all the positive evaluation is attributed to the sponsors themselves. The results indicate that the language of advertorials is actually rather ‘biased’, with the obvious tendency to take a persuasive and evaluative stance.