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Abstract
This article aims to contribute to the extant literature on advertising discourse by investigating the way intertextuality has been combined with two other ubiquitous features, conceptualised by Simpson (2001, 589) as reason and tickle. The former refers to features that ‘suggest a motive or reason for purchase’, while the latter refers to elements that ‘appeal to humour, emotion and mood’ (ibid.). Intertextuality, used here to refer to those linguistic features of a text that signal reproductions of pre-existing texts that are incorporated into the current text to construct new meanings (Downing 2003, 70), is by virtue of its indirect nature a tickle strategy. Nevertheless, it can be combined with other tickle and/or reason tactics. The objective of the article is to investigate the way intertextuality has been combined with such tactics, by focusing on product/logo placement as well as rational (reason) versus emotive (tickle) claims in the headline and subtext in a sample of 120 advertisements (ads).