The effects of L1 and L2 swearwords in advertising
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2021-01-15
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en
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Throughout the years businesses have been using all kinds of methods when it comes to attracting a customer’s attention. One method is the use of swear words in advertisements, which is part of shock advertising. This paper aims to investigate the effect of swear words among 269 Dutch speaking (L1) participants with English as second language (L2). The study is based on data acquired from a web questionnaire with different variables. These different variables were attractiveness and offensiveness of the advertisement, the purchase intention and the brand attitude. It was a between subjects experiment, with three different conditions. Participants saw a Dutch advertisement with an English swearword, a Dutch advertisement with a Dutch swearword, or a Dutch advertisement without a swearword.
Results indicate that it is not recommended to use swearwords in an advertisement, regarding the possible effects. Not only could the swear word be perceived as more offensive and less reliable to individuals, it also does not increase the dynamism of the brand. The English or Dutch language in which the swear word is stated did not make any difference. Besides the fact that a swearword in an advertisement is perceived as offensive and less attractive, changing the language of the swear word does not make any difference.
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Faculteit der Letteren