La pubblicità televisiva: aspetti linguistici e retorici degli spot a episodi

In this article we analyse from the rhetoric and linguistic point of view some spots belonging to the television advertising campaigns of a famous Italian coffee brand (Lavazza) and of a multinational mobile phone company (Vodafone). As regards the rhetoric analysis, we try to describe some characteristics of the protagonists of the spots (i.e. of the testimonials) that constitute their ethos, i.e. their credibility and personal appeal towards the audience. We consider also the relationships between the testimonials and the emotions and the psychology (i.e. the pathos) of the audience. At a more detailed level, we pay attention to the figures of speech which are typically used in the spots (mainly word games such as paronomasia, calembour and the like). As regards the linguistic analysis, we focus attention on the way of speaking of the testimonials and of the secondary characters and make some sociolinguistic considerations about the language varieties used (mainly the variety of Italian spoken in Rome, but sometimes together with other Italian varieties and even foreign languages). At a more detailed level, we describe some phonetic, phonological, grammatical and lexical phenomena which characterize the way of speaking of testimonials and of minor characters.