Formal vs. informal address in television advertising: A cross-cultural analysis of pronoun use in Spain and the Netherlands.
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2025-08-31
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en
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This study investigates the use of formal (V) and informal (T) second-person pronouns in
television commercials from Spain and the Netherlands, analyzing how linguistic choices vary
by language, product category, and brand origin. A corpus of 100 commercials (50 per
country) was compiled and manually coded for pronoun usage, product category and brand
origin (local versus international). The results reveal a strong overall preference for informal T
pronouns in both countries, particularly in Spanish advertisements (88%), supporting the
hypothesis that informal address has become the dominant norm in commercial
communication. Dutch commercials also favored T pronouns (74%) but exhibited slightly more
variation, including occasional use of formal and mixed forms. Contrary to expectations, no
statistically significant associations were found between pronoun use and either product type
or brand origin. However, exploratory analyses revealed notable linguistic differences: Spanish
commercials demonstrated a higher incidence of multimodal strategies (e.g., combining spoken
and written text) and direct address to the viewer.
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Faculteit der Letteren