Abstract
This paper outlines and discusses the main findings and the main open issues related to the analysis of figurative language (in particular, metaphor and metonymy) used within the genre of advertising and social campaigns. The issues hereby addressed include: the interaction of linguistic and pictorial elements within these polisemiotic texts and their role in constructing metaphors; the problems related to theoretical models that tackle a single level of analysis, neglecting the ability of these images to evoke multiple layers of abstraction; the role played by metonymy in crossing such layers; the perceived complexity within these constructions; and finally, the identification of a specific type of metaphors, in which different senses are crossed, stimulating the viewer to construct a synesthetic metaphor. Within this complex scenario, it is hereby argued that a cross-disciplinary approach, informed by semiotic as well as by cognitive theories, is arguably more successful in explaining exhaustively the structure and functioning of metaphor in these images.
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