Abstract

This paper examines the reception to an ad on YouTube, showing how users negotiate and challenge an ad's meaning in dialogue with other users, texts, and the persuasive intent of the ad. The ads, user comments, and video responses are analyzed through a combined netnography and discourse analysis. The analysis shows how polysemy is an aspect of the reading process and not an outcome of a more or less loyal acceptance of ad meaning. Thus, this study gives evidence that supports rhetorically oriented advertising theories.

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