Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of False Healthcare Product Advertising

As the aging population continues to grow, the healthcare product industry is rapidly expanding, which has also led to the proliferation of numerous false medical products. Blindly purchasing and using these counterfeit products poses a serious risk to the medical and economic health of the elderly. Therefore, the identification of these false healthcare product advertisements is of paramount importance. This paper, based on the multimodal critical discourse analysis theoretical framework, analyses a false healthcare product advertisement through two modalities, text, and visuals, to explore the pragmatic strategies used to induce elderly consumers. The results reveal that from the textual perspective, the false advertisement employs personal and narrative strategies to construct an authoritative identity of 'fake traditional Chinese medicine' and establish an emotional connection with the elderly audience to encourage purchases. Additionally, the absence of emotional support for the elderly and their trust in various television information sources are contributing factors to their susceptibility to deception. From the visual perspective, the video advertisement uses techniques such as eye contact, framing, eye-level perspective, and high modality to bridge the gap between the audience and the speaker while enhancing empathy and trust, ultimately achieving the goal of inducing elderly consumers

Advertising · Business · Counterfeit · Empathy · Health care · Health communication · Internet privacy · Modalities · Narrative · Political science · Purchasing · Sociology · Communication · Computer Science · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Psychology · Marketing

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  Open Access•Helen Andersson•Critical Discourse Studies•2019

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