Visual Rhetorical Figures in Canadian Advertising:Differences between Anglophone and Francophone Consumer Magazines

The purpose of the present study was to explore whether visual rhetorical figures are used differently when addressing Anglophone and Francophone target groups in Canada. For the empirical analysis I applied the method of content analysis to a corpus of advertisements drawn from two Canadian women's magazines, the Anglophone magazine Chatelaine and the Francophone magazine Chatelaine. As analytical construct I used the typology of visual rhetorical figures developed by Phillips and McQuarrie (2004). The results reveal that French Canadian advertisements appear to apply significantly more visual rhetorical figures than English Canadian advertisements. Practical implications for marketers are given and avenues for further research are proposed.