"The Rhetoric of Numbers in Print Advertisements for Cosmetics"

Abstract

Based on a corpus of print advertisements for cosmetics targeted at women, my research focuses on the use of numerals as rhetorical devices in the discourse of advertising. As this paper will show, numer als are employed recurrently in ads, under several linguistic forms, not so much to indicate precision, but to catch the attention, to enhance the credibi lity of the advertising message and/or to mak e the message more emotionally loaded, in order to persua de women to buy the advertised products.