This study explores the effect of two different rhetorical tropes, metaphor and metonymy, on mental imagery, pleasure, and memory in Chinese advertising copy. It extends previous research on the effects of different rhetorical tropes on advertising efficacy. One hundred and eleven Chinese adults viewed a series of Chinese ads featuring either metaphor or metonymy in their copy. Participants rated the mental imagery and pleasure evoked by each ad and then completed both free and cued recall tasks to assess which rhetorical trope was more memorable. Results showed that advertisement copy featuring metaphor elicited significantly greater mental imagery, pleasure, and both cued and free recall than ad copy featuring metonymy. These findings provide evidence that different rhetorical figures elicit different psychological outcomes in Chinese advertising copy and extend our understanding of consumer responses to rhetorical devices.
Wang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.