Advertisement raps: A linguistic analysis of YouTuber Harry Mack's advertising content
Kivimaa, Maria (2024)
2024
Englannin kielen ja kirjallisuuden maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in English Language and Literature
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-06-10
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405165933
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405165933
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis is to study the ways freestyle rapper and YouTuber Harry Mack mixes the genres of advertising and rap in his advertising content. Advertisements are a prominent part of people’s everyday lives and online spaces make no exception to this. YouTube videos can contain affiliate advertisements including paid product placement, endorsements, or sponsorships. The advertising language, be it TV commercials, printed advertisements, or affiliate advertisements online, has been studied to be innovative and playful drawing from poetic and persuasive language uses. The language of rap also utilizes poetic techniques in addition to recognizing the importance of rhythm. The language used in Mack’s advertising content is also discussed in this study.
The data of this study consists of 16 clips of advertising content from Harry Mack’s YouTube channel. The clips promote seven different companies that Mack has partnered with. The clips were transcribed and identified of having a structure of intro, advertisement rap, and outro. The genre specific features are discussed following Cook’s (1992) categorization of advertisements and Bhatia’s (2005) outline for the rhetorical moves used in advertisements. In addition to the structure, also the creative use of language such as poetic language, places where Mack breaks the conventions of language, the use of colloquial language, intertextual references, and braggadocio were annotated in the transcripts.
The results indicate that Mack uses a myriad of linguistic devices to make the advertisement raps interesting for the viewer. The raps may be the least replayed parts of the YouTube videos, but they still contain creative language use that can persuade the viewer to purchase the product or subscribe to the service advertised. Mack’s advertisement raps share characteristics with both advertising language and the language used in rap lyrics. They are informal in style which is achieved by for example using slang or other colloquial language, idioms and informal expressions, lexical and grammatical deviations, and figurative language
The data of this study consists of 16 clips of advertising content from Harry Mack’s YouTube channel. The clips promote seven different companies that Mack has partnered with. The clips were transcribed and identified of having a structure of intro, advertisement rap, and outro. The genre specific features are discussed following Cook’s (1992) categorization of advertisements and Bhatia’s (2005) outline for the rhetorical moves used in advertisements. In addition to the structure, also the creative use of language such as poetic language, places where Mack breaks the conventions of language, the use of colloquial language, intertextual references, and braggadocio were annotated in the transcripts.
The results indicate that Mack uses a myriad of linguistic devices to make the advertisement raps interesting for the viewer. The raps may be the least replayed parts of the YouTube videos, but they still contain creative language use that can persuade the viewer to purchase the product or subscribe to the service advertised. Mack’s advertisement raps share characteristics with both advertising language and the language used in rap lyrics. They are informal in style which is achieved by for example using slang or other colloquial language, idioms and informal expressions, lexical and grammatical deviations, and figurative language