Over the course of the Coronavirus pandemic, our mental and physical health, and the intrinsic link between them, has become critical (Global Web Index, 2020; Shakespeare, 2020). Yet despite national lockdowns, people have taken up sport from home (Ford, 2020; Shakespeare, 2020; Wells & Ford, 2020). Increasingly, people are investing in a brand culture they trust and that shares their values, which means that popular sports brands have the power to advocate and advance the improvement of social issues including gender equality, and health and wellbeing in society. However, many brands still seem to perpetuate stereotypes that can be very damaging, especially to minority groups.

Advertisers frequently use figurative communication, such as metaphor, to directly engage and implicitly persuade audiences (Ford et al., 2021; Pérez-Sobrino et al., 2021). Metaphor can convey messages indirectly by comparing something to something else in a way that is vibrant and creative, but also poignant and thought-provoking (e.g. Ford et al., 2021; PérezSobrino, 2016). Depending on how sports brands use figurative communication in their advertising, they can help or hinder the betterment of societal health. Thus, sports brands need to carefully consider what they communicate in their advertising and how they do so, and to take responsibility over their contribution to public attitudes toward social issues in sport.

In this talk, I will observe what values and attitudes sports brands are advocating in their TV commercials and how they use figurative communication to convey their message, and evaluate whether their approach is improving or hindering attitudes toward social issues. I analysed 20 commercials sampled from the adforum.com's (2021) archive of award-winning campaigns from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity between the years 2015 and 2021.

Preliminary analysis of 17 commercials has identified some common themes are community, equality in sport (increasing the representation of women), and the challenge and fulfilment of doing sport (improving mental health). Metaphor is used to represent these values and relate them to sport, framing sport as art, a supernatural power, or a religion. Commercials released during 2020 and 2021 used figurative communication to refer to the pandemic indirectly and what sport can do for people during this time. Experiential metaphors were often used; for example, the experience of training or losing a match was compared to other experiences, such as ‘fighting’ inequality in sport and COVID19 restrictions. Further insights from this study will inform how we might use commercial advertising to tackle social issues to the benefit of all, as well as just business.

References
adforum.com. (2021). Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Winners. Adforum. https://www.adforum.com/award-organization/6650183/showcase/winners

Ford, S. (2020). Identifying the behavioural habits of gym-goers to inform an emotional ‘hook’ in advertising. University of Birmingham and Big Cat Limited. https://www.creativebrief.com/agency/big-cat/insights/identifying-behaviouralhabits-gym-goers-inform-emotional-hook-advertising

Ford, S., Littlemore, J., & Houghton, D. (2021). "Got a Spark with Brook? Engaging Consumers in a Sexual Health Campaign through the Use of Creative (Metaphorical) Double Entendres. Metaphor and Symbol, 36(4), pp. 207-228.

Global Web Index. (2020). Coronavirus Research (Series 8: Health).

Pérez-Sobrino, P. (2016). “Shockvertising”: Conceptual interaction patterns as constraints on advertising creativity. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a La Comunicación, 65(0), 257– 290. https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_CLAC.2016.v65.51988

Pérez-Sobrino, P., Littlemore, J., & Ford, S. (2021). Unpacking Creativity: The Power of Figurative Communication in Advertising. Cambridge University Press.

Shakespeare, S. (2020). Changing consumer landscape: Sports, dieting and exercise. YouGov. URL.

Wells, A., & Ford, S. (2020). Understanding and reacting to changing consumer behaviour for health and fitness brands (p. 18) [Insight]. Big Cat Agency. https://www.samanthaford.com/blog/health-and-fitness-insight-white-paper-2-published-with-big-catagency
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Citation:
Houghton, D., Littlemore, J., Ford, S., Harfield, C. and Marder, B. (in press 2022). What drives emotion and physiological arousal in adverts? The critical role of figurative operations, In A. Athanasiadou and H. Colston, Figurativity and Human Ecology. Figurative Language and Thought Series, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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Abstract:
​The inclusion of figurative operations in marketing videos has the potential to improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns due to their reported ability to trigger emotional responses, thus making the campaigns resonate more strongly with the viewer. This study explored the relationship between the presence of three figurative operations (hyperbole, metaphor and metonymy) in campaign videos and the levels of physiological arousal and emotion that were triggered by those videos. Seven videos were coded for these three embedded figurative operations. Participants watched the videos in laboratory conditions, where their levels of electrodermal activity and self-report emotional responses were recorded. The ability of these figurative operations to trigger physiological arousal was compared to that of two other features that have been shown to promote arousal (the presence of humour and unmarked contrast). The presence of hyperbole led to higher levels of arousal than humour and unmarked contrast, the presence of metaphor led to higher levels of arousal than humour, and the presence of metonymy led to higher levels of arousal than humour, but lower levels than unmarked contrast. Associations between these arousal levels and the reported emotions are discussed, and collectively provide insights into the optimal use of figurative operations in marketing campaign videos. Our findings contribute to a deeper theoretical understanding of the relationship between figurative operations and arousal, and provide practitioners with information regarding which figurative operations are likely to evoke a stronger emotional response when used in marketing videos.

Citation:
Ford, S. & Littlemore, J. (2022, in print). Exploring the impact of figurative communication and advertising: Reflections on a collaboration between linguistics researchers and a Midlands-based marketing agency. In Communicating Linguistics: Language, Community and Public Engagement. Routledge.

Preprint open access via ResearchGate.
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Here's an article I wrote recently with Paula P Sobrino and Jeannette Littlemore on the power of negative ​advertising that subverts the typical use of figurative communication as positive persuasive devices. The article was published by Cambridge University Press.

​So good to catch up with my PhD friends at the Midlands4Cities "What's Next?" #networking event today! Aside from the fact that the cookies were amazing......there were some really useful panels and advice about finishing your #PhD and what happens next:

• The process of writing a PhD is like when "you think you're baking a cake but it turns out that you've built a shed!" The PhD plan will change over the course of your degree, and that's ok; "your PhD is a living document; it will evolve but it will also never be perfect".
• When applying for funding, you should think of grant applications as "a vehicle and not a destination". Writing grant applications can be used as an generative and iterative process for the development of your project ideas, and is never wasted time.
• When thinking about what to do after the PhD is completed, consider the skills you have developed from your research. "You can't be what you can't see" so identify those skills and consider what jobs let you do the most of what you enjoy (this may not be in academia).

Abstract:
This paper describes a study conducted in collaboration with a marketing agency and a nonprofit organization (NPO) providing regional sexual health services, which included advice on, and testing for, sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The study investigated the relative effectiveness of different formulations of double entendres on appeal, humor, the likelihood of social media engagement, and intention to seek more information about STIs. Advertisements containing double entendres were significantly more appealing and humorous if: (1) the grammatical formulation did not cue the intended meaning; (2) the double entendre involved a creative metaphorical expression; and (3) the double entendre referred to the middle part of the sexual scenario, referring to action rather than intent or result. Participants’ ratings varied very little according to their age, gender, and education. However, a qualitative investigation of the free-text responses revealed that there was some variation in the types of interpretations that were offered by participants depending on their age, gender, and education. The marketing agency incorporated our findings into their live campaign, which resulted in a notable increase in: (a) website traffic and social media engagement; (b) STI home-testing kits ordered; and (c) STI kits returned for testing, compared with previous campaigns.

Citation: 
Ford, S., Littlemore, J., & Houghton, D. (2021). Got a Spark with Brook? Engaging consumers in a sexual health campaign through the use of creative (metaphorical) double entendres. Metaphor and Symbol. DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2021.1913740.

Open access via: 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355046903_Got_a_Spark_with_Brook_Engaging_Consumers_in_a_Sexual_Health_Campaign_through_the_Use_of_Creative_Metaphorical_Double_Entendres
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