A Study of Figurative Language in Women’s Fashion Advertising on Instagram

The language of the advertisement is distinctive and unique to attract the reader’s attention and motivate them. Thus, figurative language in advertisement is one of the strategies needed to persuade the readers. However, the use of figurative language in advertisements in an insensitive way without knowing the types and functions of figurative language will make the advertisements less attractive and persuasive. This qualitative approach study attempts to analyse the type and functions of the figurative language used in women’s clothing advertisements on Instagram using content analysis. The theory of figurative language by McQuarrie and Mick (1996) is used to identify the types of figurative language used in this study. An analysis of a series of collections of women’s clothing advertisements from five online shops shows that there are eleven types of figurative language, namely rhyme, chime, assonance, alliteration, anaphora, epistrophe, antithesis, hyperbole, rhetorical question, metaphor, and homonym. The findings show that using figurative language in women’s clothing advertisements on Instagram would attract the readers, give a strong impression, memorable, and satisfy the customers’ needs. Overall, this study suggests that figurative language as a language of advertisement is essential to attract and persuade the readers and influence their purchasing decision. This study is also beneficial for the advertisers to create their advertisements using figurative language.