Tropes as a means of manipulative communication in advertising texts

The article highlights the substantial influence of advertising on the mass mind over the last decades. The influence of advertising on people’s opinions, aims and behaviors is of special interest for sociologists, psychologists, marketing specialists and linguists who are seeking to open the essence of the phenomenon of advertising and the mechanisms of its influence. Considering the functions of the advertising text, one can assert that the accent shifts gradually from the informational function to the manipulative one, which in its turn is based on the emotional influence. Expressive and stylistic means of advertising enrich the individual’s speech with particular expressiveness, figurativeness, emotionality and increase greatly its manipulative potential. The article highlights tropes (stylistic transfer of the name or figurative use of words to achieve better artistic expressiveness) and their use as manipulative techniques in advertising texts. The article contains the analysis of the modern concept of advertising, considers the types of advertising texts in terms of their influence on the recipients of advertising, reveals the essence and distinctive features of mass mind manipulations through advertising texts, describes different tropes and mechanisms of their influence on the consumers’ mind. Examples of tropes, taken from English advertising slogans (database www.textart.ru) served as the material under study.