Synesthetic associations in the beauty products advertising texts

Synaesthesia as an implementation of sensory impact strategy in English-language advertising: psycholinguistic aspects Purpose. The purpose of the research is to expose and describe synaesthesia as a sensory impact strategy in advertising discourse through the analysis of advertising texts of beauty products in terms of binomial and polynomial synesthetic associations based on the perceptual modalities in the human sensory system. The current paper highlights the problem of influence strategy in advertising from the perspective of psycholinguistics taking into account the importance of the fact that any influence or manipulation involves a change in a person’s consciousness and is a kind of trigger for the choice of consumer. Methods. A systematic review of psycholinguistic, socio-philosophical, cultural, psychological scientific sources related to the research was conducted in the study. The methods of content analysis, component analysis and cognitive interpretation were used in the combination with descriptive analysis, observation and classification. Results. The analysis of the phenomenon of similarity in beauty product advertising allowed to distinguish a significant number of synesthetic associations either binomial or polynomial, depending on the ways of combining two or more types of sensations. The unique result of our research is the fact of existence of interconnected associations triggered by cross-modal perception of five different senses simultaneously. The dominant primary sense being appealed to in the form of verbal coding in the texts of advertising beauty products is smell. Conclusions. Advertising appeals to synaesthesia with the purpose of figuratively denoting the advertised object. In this case the main goal of advertising is not so much to name this object’s utilitarian qualities, but rather to stimulate those feelings and emotions that the object should arouse in the consumer. Sensuality, the prevalence of emotional over rational embodied in advertising, predetermines the use of emotional strategies. The synesthetic phenomenon is pushing the limits of human perception, which makes it possible to speak of synaesthesia as an important method of influencing consumers in advertising texts.