Utility and Identity : An Analysis of Two Rhetorical Strategies in TV Advertising

Our starting point is the observation that television advertising sometimes attempts to persuade the viewer of the value of a product by showing how useful it will be to him in resolving a problem while, on other occasions, it does this by illustrating how it will help him to construct an identity which will be appreciated by himself and others (in this article, the convention of assuming that the communicator is female and the audience, male, will be followed). In accordance with the reason/tickle theory, the more the advertiser bases her strategy on the utility of the product, the closer her message will be to a prototypical reason ad. In contrast, the more she bases it on the capacity of the product to help the consumer to acquire a glamorous identity, the closer it will be to a prototypical tickle ad. In the first case, the advertisement is intended to address the viewer’s uncertainties directly, informing him efficiently about what is being sold to him and what use or savings it offers him. In the second case, meanwhile, the aim of the advertisement is to transmit the communicative intention of the advertiser and thus capture his attention. It will not, however, resolve the viewer’s uncertainties directly, but will rather base its relevance on its capacity to make him infer an array of weak implicatures which associate the product with a glamorous identity. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of nine advertisements, allowing us to describe in detail some specific cases which respond both to these two prototypes and to various points along the scale between them. The objectives are twofold: First, to offer the researcher a theory which allows him to make a thorough and rigorous analysis of the discursive nature of the television advertisement; and secondly, to use this theory to offer an explanation which responds to these characteristics of the above-mentioned strategies.


Introduction
Advertising language is defined by its intentionality, which is basically that of influencing the receiver by convincing him directly or indirectly of the advantages or the need of acquiring a certain consumer product.This is done in diverse ways, but generally we can distinguish between a direct, blatant formula, an open way of advertising, and a less straightforward mode, an advertising discourse that hides its intentions behind a humorous narration, which appeals to the unconscious feelings and desires of the public it addresses.(López Mora 2007: 50-51).(our translation) This possibility of distinguishing between these two advertising formulae would seem to be clearly appreciable for all to see (in this article, the convention of assuming that the communicator is female and the audience, male, will be followed).Hence, the copywriter David Bernstein, in 1974, spoke of reason advertising and tickle advertising, concepts which were later adjusted, from the pragmatics viewpoint, by the linguist Paul Simpson (2001).With all this in mind, the aim of Martínez Camino & Pérez Saiz (2010) and Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012) was to devise a pragmatics theory which would offer a precise and rigorous definition of these two formulae and which, in turn, would then enable a thorough analysis to be made of this diversity of modes also pointed out by López Mora (2007).It was hoped that this might prevent the study of advertising from turning into a set of fragmentary and scattered approximations.Now this paper presents an investigation on rhetorical strategies of TV advertising where nine advertisements are analyzed in the light of this theory.In the above mentioned publications, this theory was given no name in particular.To fill this void, it will henceforth be called the reason/tickle theory (RTT).
First of all, we would like to answer the basic question about what the objectives of this article are.If we explain clearly its purposes, we think that the reader may understand better what contributions it can offer.The focus of this article is on the empirical qualitative analysis of the nine texts.Nevertheless, we will outline the main features of the RTT in the first part so as to facilitate the reader's understanding of our close-reading of the advertisements.This is also the reason why its summary is so long.Consequently, if some of the readers are already acquainted with our publications, they could find it repetitive; in this case, we are very sorry but, again, we must insist that the first part of this article is just the presentation of the theoretical framework that is the base of our empirical research.On the contrary, if some readers find this introduction insufficient, we agree with them.Notwithstanding, the purpose of this article is not to offer a full critical development of the RRT, which the readers can find in the abovementioned publications (overall, in Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012)).Our objective now is not to repeat what was done there; we would like to contribute something different.
The second objective is to focus on the empirical analysis of advertisements.Both Martínez Camino & Pérez Saiz (2010) and Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012) present empirical analysis.However, in these cases, the role of the empirical was secondary: Its aim was to back up our theoretical work -we focused on a quantitative methodology so that we could find patterns that could help us to build the theory.In Martínez Camino & Pérez Saiz (2010), we analyzed qualitatively several advertisements; however, obviously, this work did not include the theoretical advances that were introduced by Martínez- Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012).We hope that this article might solve this failing.
If in the past we have focused on the quantitative analysis, our third objective now is to focus on the qualitative one.We think this is essential because it allows the readers to have full access to the ins and outs of the making of the RTT articulated in Martínez- Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012).This is important because it allows them to replicate our analysis and use it (if they wish to) in their own research to improve our knowledge of TV advertising discourse.
What are the criteria for the choice of these particular nine advertisements?As it is said in the quote that opens this article and in the first paragraph, in TV advertising it is easy to find two main formulae and a diversity of modes.In Martínez Camino & Pérez Saiz (2010) and Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012) this reality was theorized in the form of a scale: two prototypes at the extremes and a gradation in the middle; therefore, we defined both prototypes and we situated in the middle a host of peripheries.In Martínez -Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012) we defined a prototypically reason rhetoric and a prototypically tickle rhetoric and 26 peripheries that cover the spectrum that goes from one prototype to the other: An ad could be closer to one prototype or further from the other depending on the features it shows.Now, we think that we should analyze ads that fit the definition of both prototypes and also the definitions of 7 peripheries (out of the 26) that were considered the main watersheds in this gradation.Therefore, the forth objective of this article is to offer a rigorous, coherent, thorough and pragmatic explanation of nine of the diverse TV advertising modes based upon the empirical analysis of nine representative cases of these categories.We selected these texts from a corpus of 296 advertisements that were recorded in December 2006, during prime time, in the breaks between news programs, football matches and films broadcast on the main Spanish TV stations.
The fifth objective of this article was to contrast the RTT with reality.No pragmatic theory is an incontrovertible fact; it is just a «bundle» of propositions that should show logical coherence and capacity to explain concrete communication and discourse in real context.Can RTT explain the facts of TV advertising discourse?However, as we have said before, we have constructed this theory on the back of the analysis of 50 Spanish ads in Martínez Camino & Pérez Saiz (2010), recorded in March 2002, and 200 Mexicans ads, recorded in April 2007, in Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012).Therefore, it has already been tested.Now we wanted to challenge its capacities, its coherence, and its rigour with another nine texts from another corpus.
These empirical analyses have a sixth objective.Yes, it is true that we want to check the capacities of RTT in general terms.Nevertheless, we also want to check a particular feature of the theory that we glimpsed when we were writing Martínez- Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012): We want to demonstrate the capacity of the RTT for predicting what type of rhetorical disposition advertisers will turn to when they wish to base their persuasive strategy on presenting the utility of the commodity and which type they will use when they want to base it on the construction of a personality associated to their brand.
Consequently, the seventh and final objective is to enrich this theory with the specific findings arising from these analyses.As we said before, a theory is not an incontrovertible fact.Once we apply it to the empirical analysis, this can provide relevant feedback.The dialogue between practice and theory is essential for correcting those misconceptions or those gaps that prevent the later from offering a rigorous explanation of reality, in this case TV advertising discourse.
Consequently, this article is a continuation of our previous research for other means and with other objectives.This is what sets its limits, but also its capacities; we hope we have been able to present its humble nature during this introduction.Taking into account this, the bounds of its theoretical framework should be those of the RTT that we will summarize in the first part of the article.However, we believe that, if we achieve the above-exposed objectives, this article may help researchers from various disciplines such as marketing, communication sciences, cultural studies, linguistics, etc., in their efforts to understand television advertising discourse.

Brief outline of the Reason/Tickle Theory (RTT)
Before we provide the reader with a long summary of the RTT, we would like to outline its core concepts.As we are drawing upon Bernstein's and Simpson's ideas, we are going to start with a long quote from the conclusions of Simpson's article.We think it captures its main ideas: [...] [R]eason advertising (a) brings to the forefront the suggested motivation for buying a particular product and (b) exhibits a discoursal formula built upon a specific and restricted set of conjuctive adjuncts.By contrast, tickle advertising is pragmatically more 'elusive' in that it contains neither obvious product placement nor a clear and unambiguous 'reason to buy' component.To this extent, developing Bernstein's observation that 'comprehension is not immediate' (Bernstein 1974, 105), tickle ads invite a somewhat greater expendidure of processing effort on the part of an reader/viewer/listener. (Simpson 2001, 603) How have we elaborated on these ideas?First of all, we read them from the point of view of the TV viewer's uncertainties.When we addressed the issues exposed in this quote, we began with the dialogical relation between advertiser and TV viewer: What does one expects from the other?They both expect that the ad solves two basic uncertainties that linger in the TV viewer's mind: What is this commercial message selling me?Why should I buy it?Thus, the advertiser's message must address the resolution of these uncertainties.This has functional and formal consequences: From a functional point of view, playing with these uncertainties is how the advertiser can move the TV viewer's will; from a formal point of view, the output of the message will change depending on how the advertiser wants to address these uncertainties.Therefore, the two different types of output that Bernstein and Simpson observed are the two basic ways to lay out the commercial message to which the advertiser can resort in order to convince the TV viewer to buy.Consequently, once we had read Bernstein's and Simpson's ideas with the above-described functional perspective, we were able to refine greatly their description of the formal aspects of an ad.
Taking into account what information the advertiser provides to solve the above-mentioned uncertainties, the RTT is able to define seven basic constituents: Every advertisement is built out of them.Taking into account how the advertiser measures out this information, the RTT is able to divide every advertisement into three parts.Depending on which of these constituents the advertiser selects and how she distributes them, she will be opting for reason, tickle, or hybrid advertising.This allows us to make a more accurate definition of Bernstein's and Simpson's two strategies and provide a fine-grained explanation of the hybrid ones that lie in between.
Why should the advertiser opt for one strategy or another or for something in between?Depending on which type of arguments she wants to draw upon in order to convince her audience to buy.The advertiser may tell the TV viewer how useful her product or her service is in order to solve a problem; if she is going to tell how her commodity outperforms its competitors, she prefers to be explicit and, therefore, she resorts to reason advertising.Nevertheless, the advertiser may tell the TV viewer how well this acquisition is going to speak about him; if she is going to tell how her commodity can turn into a fetish in an identity fantasy, then, she prefers to be implicit and, therefore, she resorts to tickle advertising.
What is exposed above implies discursive and cognitive processes; RTT draws upon Henk Haverkate's theory of allocutionary acts and upon Dan Sperber's & Deidre Wilson's Relevance Theory (RT) in order to explain them.For example, resorting to RT, we can say that the main aim of the advertiser is to create or to enrich in the TV viewer's mind a mentalese concept for her brand: If she falls back on reason advertising, her message will build, mainly, the logical entry of this concept; however, if she falls back on tickle advertising, her message will build, mainly, the encyclopaedic entry.This is just a brief outline that will to allow us to put forward the hypothesis that we hope to prove.After that we will provide the readers with a long summary so that they can improve their comprehension of the theoretical ground upon which we have built these hypotheses and read the empirical research with which we would like to verify them.

First hypothesis:
We think that in TV advertising discourse there are two correlations: (1) If the advertiser wants to sell her product or service telling the TV viewer how useful it is in solving a problem, she will resort to prototypical reason advertising; therefore, her discourse will be mainly explicit and literal and will build, mainly, the logical entry of the concept that the TV viewer has created in his mind for it.
(2) If the advertiser wants to sell her product or service telling the TV viewer how well its acquisition will speak about him to others, she will resort to prototypical tickle advertising; therefore, her discourse will be mainly implicit and indirect and will build, mainly, the encyclopaedic entry of the concept that the TV viewer has created in his mind for it.
Second hipothesis: (1) It can be stated that these two correlations above are basically applicable to the peripheries near the prototypes.(2) It can be stated that these two correlations above are basically not applicable to the peripheries far from the prototypes.

A long summary of Reason/Tickle Theory (RTT)
In Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 457, note 9) we said that the purpose of RTT is to fine-tune pragmatics theories on human communication to make them applicable to the specificities of TV advertising discourse.Then, we said that four questions summarize its scope: (1) What information is given to the TV viewer?
(2) How explicit are the references?
(3) How is this information measured out? (4) What is the relation between the explicit and implicit references?

What information is given to the TV viewer?
According to Max Sutherland & Alice Sylvester (2000: 8), the aim of the advertiser is to create an inclination in the mind of the viewer towards the consumption of her brand.Consequently, every advertisement has to offer what Rosser Reeves (1961) called the unique selling proposition (henceforth, USP): The commercial message is a proposition with a subject, the commodity, on which certain arguments are predicated, the reasons for buying it.Thus, the advertiser must inform the viewer about what she is selling him and why he should buy it.
Bearing in mind all of the above, the advertisement can be defined as a communicative activity.Per Linell defines a communicative activity as a comprehensive, whole, frame, and/or project that socially contextualizes the production of each one of the communicative acts; without this socio-discursive context they are senseless (1998: 235-236; 2009: 201-211).Our communicative activity, TV advertisements, is made up of two communicative acts: The first is an offer of information that reduces two types of uncertainties in the mind of the viewer: The substantial (what product are they selling me?) and the argumentative (why should I buy it?);the second communicative act is a request: By means of the information offered and the way in which it is offered, the advertiser attempts to get the viewer to buy the product of the company that is paying for the advertisement.
Therefore, the ad has to offer two types of the information: 1) the subject of the USP solves the TV viewer's the substantial uncertainty; 2) the arguments of the USP solve the TV viewer's argumentative uncertainty.
Let us talk about the first one.If Sutherland & Sylvester (2000: 8) said that the aim of the advertiser is to create an inclination in the mind of the viewer towards the consumption of her brand, a prior step needed in order to achieve this inclination is to endow the product with a specific mentalese concept in the mind of the viewer.One of the main premises of the RT is that human thought has its own language, mentalese.All of its concepts can be made up of three entries.Robyn Carston (2002: 321) analyses the example of cat.For any English-speaker, this concept will be stored in her/his mind with three entries: The logical one contains an inferential rule whose output is "a certain kind of animal"; in the encyclopaedic one, the user finds general ideas on the appearance and behaviour of cats, probably some scientific knowledge of their anatomy and filiation, and some visual images and experiences she/he has had with certain specific specimens and her/his attitudes towards them; finally, the lexical entry specifies the phonological and syntactic properties of the linguistic form that encodes the concept.Not all of these concepts must have the three entries (cf.Sperber & Wilson 2012).Hence, the advertiser must ensure that the TV viewer creates in his mind a concept of their product with three entries or, if it already exists, she must enrich it and make it clear that this product is, for one reason or another, unique among the offers available on the market.
When the ad is solving the TV viewer's argumentative uncertainty, it is creating or enriching the logical and/or encyclopaedic entry that the TV viewer holds in his mind for that brand.In Martínez -Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 459), the reasons for buying offered by the advertiser were classified according to three types of values: (1) Use-value: The product is presented as a tool that makes the viewer's life easier.
(2) Market-value: The viewer is offered a product which is accessible due to its low cost and/or financial advantages; money is used as a point of reference.
(3) Fame-value: The product, when he has acquired it, will speak well of the viewer in the face of other subjects (Hérnandez Flores 2010; García Vizcaino 2010); the product is a fetish in an identity fantasy (cf.Baudrillard 1998: 192;Benwell & Stokoe 2007: 168); its non-acquisition could also speak badly of the viewer (Alcaide Lara 2010).

The unique selling proposition as a cognitive script
We have answered the question on what type of information the advertisement should provide.Nevertheless, before we move to the second question, we would like to offer some reflections about what we have said so far.Advertising has been defined as a communicative activity where the TV viewer is told what to buy and why: His substantial and his argumentative uncertainties are solved.We can say that both interlocutors expect that the other is expecting that the ad is giving this information.Therefore, the repetition of this type of activity creates a social habit and a cognitive script.
In this sense, in our experience of life in community, certain things tend to happen hand in hand with others: Consequently, human beings organize their experience in cognitive scripts (Schank & Abelson 1977), which reproduce actions which repeatedly take place together (Yus Ramos 1997: 112).For example, if you tell someone you have been to a petrol station, his mind is likely to trigger the assumptions that you probably went there to get some petrol and that you had to pay.Indeed, once the subject has recognised certain inputs as those of a particular cognitive script, the rest of the data of this script becomes far more accessible.Hence, these scripts condition the accessibility to the contents needed both for producing messages and for interpreting them.In consequence, it is reasonable to think that the advertiser will expect that the viewer, once he recognises the message as a commercial one, will trigger in his mind the USP as cognitive script which conditions the accessibility to the data he needs to interpret the advertisement; at the same time, it is reasonable to think that the TV viewer, once he has recognised the message as a commercial one, will expect that the advertiser will have resorted to the USP as a template upon which to produce the ad.The advertiser, then, can predict the expectations and uncertainties of the viewer and designs her advertisement either to satisfy them or to play with them.
Obviously, she will choose one or the other path according to her communicative purpose: To incline the audience to buy her product or her service.In this sense, the advertisement is a cultural product that the advertiser designs as an artefact that mobilises the cognitive system of the viewer and obliges him to create an interpretation of reality favourable to the commercial interests of the former (cf.Luengo Cruz 2008).From this starting point, our aim is to describe and explain how the advertiser modifies the textures of her advertisements in order to play upon the viewer's expectations and uncertainties and, thus, achieve her persuasive purpose.

How explicit are the references?
The advertisement may make an explicit and clear reference both to the product and to the reasons for buying it (cfr. Berstein 1974, 104;Simpson 2001, 594).In this case, the basic structure of the advertisement is that of prologue + exposition.The prologue is defined as a message situated at the beginning of the advertisement that makes a direct and explicit reference to the product, thus resolving the viewer's substantial uncertainty.We can see this in an example taken from our corpus that begins with a close-up of a luxury watch, on whose sphere appears written the name of the company "Casio".This has three consequences: 1) the substantial uncertainty disappears; 2) it is clear from the beginning for the viewer that the communicative activity is that of an advertisement; 3) this triggers the cognitive script of the USP.
Thus, the audience has the expectation that, after the reference to the product, the reasons for buying will be exposed: He anticipates this cataphorically.In the advertisement for the "Casio" watch, from the beginning a man with a deep voice and in a highly emphatic tone lists the advantages of the time-piece as we continue to see it in close-up: "discover the most fascinating side of precision, trust in a hundred per cent accuracy, enjoy the practical automatic system of time-zone change for all of Europe, witness the perfection of time."Once these reasons have been exposed, the argumentative uncertainty disappears from the viewer's mind and an anaphoric movement takes place that confirms the communicative activity and the product: "I am watching an advertisement that is selling me a Casio watch".Obviously, we have just described the rhetoric of prototypical reason advertising.
Let us now examine prototypical tickle advertising.These advertisements do not fulfil the TV viewer's expectancies: They avoid any explicit and clear references both to the product and to the reasons for buying it.Let us see an example from our corpus.This advertisement begins with a multimodal compound: On the one hand, we have the image in movement of a conifer forest typical of the north-west coast of America on a sunny day; on the other, an indie rock soundtrack with a distorted a cappella voice.The image only occupies a central strip of the screen while the top and bottom part are in black.Hence, the viewer has the sensation that he is seeing the forest through the side window of a car.Suddenly, there is a fade-to-black and in the centre of the screen for a few tenths of a second, there appears a white punctuation mark, a comma.
All of this lasts 3" and we still do not know what we are being sold.This audiovisual message, therefore, is a foreign element with respect to the cognitive script of a commercial message that increases the viewer's substantial uncertainty.The advertisements that propose this kind of rhetoric continue with a narrative and/or dramatic and/or figurative development that still does not expose the reasons for buying a product that is still unknown: Rather, the argumentative uncertainty is increased in the viewer's mind.
Let us return to our example.The same multimodal compound continues: The same soundtrack and the same type of images.We next see, through a car windscreen, an image of an American street and, then, another fade-to-black with a white comma sign in the middle.The following image corresponds to a caravan store, also typically American.Then, we experience another fade-to-black with another white punctuation mark in the middle.Then, a landscape typical of the central plains of The United States appears.Another fade-to-black in which a comma appears and, next, a vehicle from which they are taking the pictures overtakes a pick-up with a horse tied to it.We experience, again, a fade-to-black in the centre of which a white dot appears.The dot disappears and in its place can be read the sentence: "No more pauses".The background music stops being a cappella singing, becoming instrumental and getting livelier.With the same black background appears the message: "No more interruptions".23" have passed and we still have no clue at all about what is being sold to us nor why we should buy it.The viewer lacks any clear hints about the type of communicative activity he has before him and, thus, there is a possibility that in his mind there may arise a generic uncertainty.
At the end of the advertisement, the advertiser will reveal which product is being sold to us.In our example, immediately after the sentence: "No more interruptions", on the same black background, can be read "Nuevo Passat TDI 170 CV with DSG".Next, the black background is replaced by a close-up of the front of the car where the company logo can be clearly seen.The camera then moves away and offers some panoramic views of the car driving through a landscape that reminds us of the great American plains with the Rocky Mountains in the background.
Once the viewer has identified the product, he is in a position to understand the informative intentions of the communicator and makes an anaphoric movement in order to reinterpret the audiovisual message of the first 23" as a function of the cognitive script of the USP.Thus, through inference, he converts images which are in no way commercial in themselves into reasons for consuming what he is being sold: The viewer rereads the unfolding of the advertisement as non-explicit reasons for buying the product.Hence, tickle rhetoric is based on the viewer's capacity to interpret what is not a USP as a USP: "[T]he reason category often acts as a kind of cognitive template upon which tickle ads are built" (Simpson 2001, 604).According to the RT, the more the relevance of the message depends on the interpretative capacity of the audience, the weaker will be the assumptions they manifest and, vice-versa, the less work that is left to the audience, the stronger.As a result, these propositions, on which the relevance of the advertisement depends, which are manifested in the viewer's mind as a result of an inference, form a set of weak implicatures.
In the example of the Passat advertisement, the viewers are obliged to compare the first 23" in which an unsatisfactory driving motion is shown with the final images illustrating the fulfilling experience that driving a Volkswagen Passat is.From this comparison, they may reach a weak inference: The product not only allows what any other means of transport might, that is to travel, but also allows you to enjoy the experience.We could even glimpse a couple of even weaker inferences: the acquisition of the product presents its buyer to the others as someone who knows how to solve problems and consequently, to enjoy life.Hence, it can be seen that the implicatures on which the prototypical tickle rhetoric is based are weak (cf.Simpson 2001, 600).

A challenge advertisement/a capture effect
We have answered the question about how explicit the references the advertiser makes in her message are.Nevertheless, before we move to the third question, we have to do two things.First of all, we would like to offer some reflections about an idea that was put forward by Bernstein and, later, elaborated by Simpson about tickle advertising: "If everything is spelled out, the only reaction may be indifference.But if people are intrigued, and comprehension is not immediate, they may go on to participate in the advertising" (Bernstein 1974, 105).We have seen that, for the first few seconds of our example of a prototypical tickle ad, the TV viewer only sees an image in movement of a forest of conifers accompanied by some troubling music.These images will have conveyed to him the advertiser's communicative intention.However, since the message is a foreign element with respect to the USP cognitive script, he cannot easily contextualise it or see its relevance.This means that his attention and his cognitive system remain captured by the challenge of trying to uncover with what informative intention the advertiser has conveyed this message (Cf.Van Mulken, le Pair, & Forceville (2010: 3418-3419); Van Enschot, Beckers, & Van Mulken (2010: 138-140))." [Bernstein] also notes that 'action' results when people are invited to participate in, and eventually decode, an advertisement.This decoding seems somewhat akin to the pleasing satisfaction of completing a crossword or getting to grips with a complex literary work [...]" (Simpson 2001, 605) (cfr. Hernández Toribio & Vigara Tauste (2011)).Resorting to RT, an explanation was provided in Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 464) though we had not given it any name.To fill this void, it will henceforth be called a challenge advertisement/a capture effect.
According to RT, the advertisement is a stimulus-message that transmits to her audience the advertiser's communicative intention: She wishes to make mutually manifest, both for the advertiser and for her audience, her informative intention (Sperber & Wilson 1996: 61): To make manifest or more manifest for her audience a series of assumptions (Sperber & Wilson 1996: 58).To this end, once the TV viewer has acknowledged the communicative intention of the advertiser, he will try to infer the series of assumptions that the latter wishes the former to have in mind (informative intention): In short, in tickle advertising, the advertiser, by manifesting her communicative intention and not making clear her informative intention, poses a challenge that traps the viewer in the cognitive process of inferring the information which will solve his substantial and argumentative uncertainties (we would like to acknowledge one of the suggestions of one of the anonymous reviewers of Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012), which is the template of this idea a challenge advertisement/a capture effect).

The basic constituents of the advertisement
The other thing that we should do before we move on to the third question is to provide definitions of the seven basis constituents of an advertisement.Up to now, we have seen how the advertiser selects certain semiotic devices or others so that her message is more explicit or will depend more on the viewer's work of inference.With this functional criterion, the RTT has defined the seven basic constitutive elements of the television advertisement: (1) Prologue (P): The ad begins with a message that makes a direct reference to the product or service that the advertiser wants to sell to the TV viewer and, therefore, it solves the substantial uncertainty (SU) of the viewer-consumer and eradicates the possibility of generic uncertainty (PGU).
(2) Foreign Element (FL): The ad begins with an audiovisual message foreign to the product or service and, therefore, it raises the substantial uncertainty (SU) of the viewer-consumer and creates the possibility of generic uncertainty (PGU).( 3) Exposition (E): The ad lists the reasons for buying the product and, therefore, it solves the argumentative uncertainty (AU) of the viewer-consumer and eradicates the possibility of generic uncertainty (PGU).( 4) Development (D): Narrative and/or dramatic and/or figurative unfolding of the link between the product and the foreign element; it could raise or mitigate the TV viewer's uncertainties, including the generic one.( 5) Epilogue (PI): Verbal message that summarises, restates, or reinforces either the exposition or the development or both; it helps to solve the argumentative uncertainty (AU) of the viewer-consumer and, as long as it may imply a display of the type of product, it will also help to solve the substantial uncertainty (SU); consequently, it eradicates the possibility of generic uncertainty (PGU); if it appears together with a slogan in the same ad, the epilogue will appear first and it is most probable that it will be oral and the slogan will be produced written and orally; the viewer will normally find its relevance in the explicit information given in the verbal message.( 6) Slogan (SLG): Verbal caption or tag that is associated to the logo and/or the name of the product at the end of the ad in order to either anchor or to make more polysemic the contents that have been predicated on the product.It is normally related to the articulation of the personality of the product; consequently, it solves or helps to solve the TV viewer's substantial (SU) and argumentative (AU) uncertainties and, therefore, it eradicates any possibility of the generic one (PGU); the viewer normally finds its relevance in the implicatures of its verbal message.( 7) Logo (L): Graphic symbol, often integrated by letters or words, which represents an organisation, company or product and, therefore, it solves or it helps to solve, the substantial uncertainty (SU) of the TV viewer; consequently, it eradicates the possibility of generic uncertainty (PGU).

How is this information measured out?
If we examine the above, it can be seen that a division of the message into three parts has been proposed which, in turn, condition the type of information that can appear in them depending on whether it is wished to make a clear reference to the brand and the advantages it offers (reason rhetoric) or not (tickle rhetoric): Tabla 1 The division between proposal and nexus is obviously reproducing the division between the positions of the UPS: Its subject (proposal) and the arguments predicated on it (nexus).However, taking into account what we have said in the paragraphs above, this description is only valid for reason rhetoric; in contrast, in tickle rhetoric, we have defined the foreign element as the absence, when its presence was expected, of the presentation of the subject on which the reasons for buying were to be predicated.
In any case, we do have a theoretical base for distinguishing between the proposal of a reason ad and its nexus.In Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 460), we used this qualitative, functional and rhetorical distinction to base our search of a quantitative limit that would allow us to distinguish objectively between prologue and exposition.We calculated the average duration of the presentation of the product in the prototypically reason advertisements of that corpus.The result was 2.5"; this is how long the advertiser habitually needs to present whatever she is selling.Consequently, if it usually takes around this amount of time to solve the TV viewer's substantial uncertainty, it can be put forward that the viewer must have this expectation about how long the advertiser needs to present her product or her service.This quantitative measure is a reflection of the rhetorical limit of the prologue, whose function is to eliminate the viewer's substantial uncertainty.When do we have a foreign element?It can be deduced that if the advertiser has not made her product or her service known to the viewer by 3", his substantial uncertainty will increase in his mind and the analyst can consider this beginning of the audiovisual message as a foreign element with respect to the communicative functionality of the advertisement.
What then would be the quantitative measure of the qualitative, functional and rhetorical limits of the exposition?When do we have a development instead of an exposition?In Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 460), we apply the same logic and methodology as in the case of the prologue.Consequently, the duration of the exposition must be that which the advertiser requires to present us with, at least, one reason for buying the product.Thus, if we calculate how long the viewer assumes that the advertiser needs to perform this task, we can predict how long it will take, if she does not do this, for the argumentative uncertainty to increase in the viewer's mind.In Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 460), the average duration of the exposition of a reason for buying the product in the prototypically reason advertisements of the corpus was calculated.The result was 3.5".Thus, it may be considered that if the advertiser has not made known to the viewer at least one reason for buying the product before 6", the argumentative uncertainty will increase in his mind.Consequently, the analyst can consider this second part of 3" of the audiovisual message as a development of a foreign element with respect to the communicative functionality of the advertisement.In this sense, the Passat advertisement can be considered to be a prototypical tickle ad since for over 6" it plays on the viewer's uncertainties and raises them.
Nevertheless, in Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 461), we warned that what really counts is not the sum of seconds in itself; this sum is merely a reflection of a rhetorical disposition that is designed to play on the viewer's uncertainties.To do this, the advertiser needs around 6" but not necessarily exactly 6".At the same time, there are other indicators of a qualitative nature that can be shown to us at the end of this foreign element + development sequence; for example, we may go from a more or less figurative narration/dramatisation to a bare exposition of the financial reasons for buying, with the figures appearing superimposed on a monochromatic background.This sharp change is far more significant for the end of the tickle sequence than the simple counting of 6".
Finally, the viewer's uncertainties must be resolved.Hence, what characterises the ending of the advertisement is the appearance of the elements whose function is clearly to articulate this resolution: Epilogue, slogan, and logo.This is what we find in the analysis of 100% of the advertisements of the corpora, both in Martínez Camino & Pérez Saiz (2010) and in Martínez- Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012).It can be deduced from this that, only in the case of tickle ads, the components that appear at the end of the advertisement are truly informative; in the case of reason ads, these will be redundant.We must now address the fourth and final question.

What is the relation between explicit and implicit references?
In sub-section 4.1, it was said that the task of the advertiser consists in creating in the viewer's mind a specific concept with three entries or, if it already exists, in enriching it and making it clear that this product or service is, for one reason or the other, unique among its class.There, it was also said that the advertiser may carry out this task by means of references to three different types of reason: Usevalue, market-value, and fame-value.
Let us imagine that the advertiser focuses her persuasive effort on use-values: Her message, then, focuses on the utility.These values are related to the definition of the product or service as a logic class: The advertisement makes manifest whatever this may be for this type of goods and makes manifest that what the advertiser is selling does it better than any of its competitors-the viewer must buy the Casio watch because it offers precision, accuracy and a useful system of time zone change for all of Europe.This fact has attached to it several consequences.First of all, since the strategy of the advertiser falls back on telling what features are specific to this type of goods and specifying how well her product or service performs, she must clarify to the viewer both the name of the product and the reason why it solves a problem better than its competitors; therefore, she must make explicit the elements of the USP.For example, in the Passat advertisement, if the advertiser had wished to sell her product highlighting only its utility as a means of transport, she would not have laid out her message in such a way that, for the first 23", the viewer does not know what is being sold to him or any of its features.Second, the more she focuses on the use-values of the product, the more she will centre it on the logical entry of the mentalese concept that the viewer has in mind for it.Finally, the conjunction of both circumstances will mean that the exposition of these ads will present wellarticulated, specific, conventional buying arguments which are easily accessible for the viewer.It is to be expected, then, that in this rhetoric, explicit verbal messages will play a central role.In Martínez- Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 463-464), it was sustained that these were the conditions that made it possible to predict the emergence of a prototypical reason rhetoric.We are talking here of that direct and prosaic formula, the open way of advertising described by López Mora (2007: 50).
However, the advertiser can also focus her persuasive efforts on constructing a personality around her commodity, in such a way that its purchase will be an indication to all that the buyer identifies with certain highly-rated social values and/or with a glamorous lifestyle.If she opts for this rhetoric, she is selling identity; as Bethan Benwell & Elisabeth Stokoe tell us: "The relationship between consumer and product is not simply one of subject and object; being 'hailed' by producers positions the audience into a relationship of commodification.The audience shapes its identity through the purchase and the consumer becomes a mere token or sign in a transaction" (2007: 168).(cf.Mackay (1997: 2)).
In order to construct this personality, the advertiser must recur to information which is not directly related to the utility of the product: Her message does not seek to make manifest whatever this may be for this type of goods.Consequently, what she presents is not restricted to the definition of the logic class of the product.Accordingly, her advertisement cannot base its rhetoric on the exposition of specific, conventional, well-articulated buying arguments which are easily accessible to the viewer; for example, in the first 23" of the Volkswagen Passat advertisement, images are presented which show a fragmentary driving experience.However, the TV viewer is not told what the ad is selling him and why he should buy it: The message of the advertisement turns indirect.What are the implications of the above-described situation?Let us draw upon the definition of literalness provided by RT in order to explain them.The more the concepts present in the message resemble what the interlocutors have in mind, the more literal the message will be (Wilson & Sperber 2002: 250;Carston 2002: 342;Teso 2003: 102).Therefore, the greater the distance between the concepts that the communicator has in mind and wishes to communicate and those that she presents in her message, the less it will be stated explicitly and the success of the communication will depend to a greater extent on the inferential work of the audience; consequently, the more figurative this will be, the more the audience will have to infer.Thus, in many cases, the relevance of the communicator's stimulus-message depends on contents that the communicator does not make explicit but rather hints at.These contents are what the RT terms implicature: "Assumptions that are assigned to the utterance by deduction and which are assumed to be true since the optimal relevance of the utterance depends on their being true" (Teso 1998: 78) (our translation).Consequently, the less literal a message, the more it depends on the implicatures that the audience infers during its interpretation; the less literal a message, the more indirect.Following RT, these implicatures can be manifested in the audience's mind in a strong or in a weak way: The output of the communicator's message can clearly make mutually manifest for both interlocutors what concepts she wants to communicate or not; the greater the mutual manifestness of the informative intention to make manifest some particular ideas, the more strongly are communicated the implicatures, on the contrary, the weaker the encouragement by the communicator's message, the more weakly are communicated the implicatures (cfr.Sperber & Wilson 1996, 199).All this will entail various consequences.
On the one hand, as it was said in sub-section 4.2.1, this rhetorical strategy is more demanding on the TV viewer: First of all, its sense depends on the inferential interpretation made by the audience; second, as long as it does not make explicit the elements of the USP, its rhetoric does not clearly and directly reduce the viewer's uncertainties and undermines his expectations.However, on the other hand, the less literal her advertising message is, the more of a challenge this will be for the viewer, who will be captured by his curiosity to discover an informative intention which is not clearly exposed: The advertiser is playing on the viewer's curiosity.This is where it is essential that those contents that substitute the contents based on utility lead the viewer to interpret them as fame values.For example, the expression "No more interruptions" or the appearance of other images where the driving of the Volkswagen Passat is shown as something wholly satisfactory, induce the viewer, following a path of least effort, to construct an interpretation based on the contrast with the images that represent an uncomfortable drive.From this comparison, the viewer can easily conclude that this car will not only enable him to travel, but will also enable him to enjoy the experience and to present himself as someone who knows how to solve problems and enjoy life.At the same time, these messages make explicit certain vaguely articulated arguments related with highly valued social values and lifestyles; these contents are manifested in the TV viewer's mind as weakly relevant implicatures produced by the audience in order to be able to interpret as commercial what it might otherwise be difficult to interpret so.
It is the fact that she wishes the viewer to infer implicatures that go beyond use-values that makes it probable that she will turn to this texture that obliges the audience, if they wish to find relevance in the message, to reread and reinterpret the text of the advertisement in terms of fame-values.The RTT sees this «occultation» as a rhetorical recourse that obliges the viewer to use his inferential capacities in the construction of a personality for the product (cf.Van Mulken, le Pair, Forceville (2010, 3418-3419)).At the same time, the advertiser gets her audience to enrich the encyclopedic entry of the mentalese concept of the product with the fame-values that appear in the audiovisual message: The viewer incorporates to the image of the brand some assumptions that turn it into a fetish inside an identification fantasy (cf.Luengo Cruz (2008, 324-325).
Hence, the lack of literalness in the texture of her message is the rhetorical instrument that the advertiser uses to make the TV viewer construct a personality for the commodity she is selling; he will do this by putting together the little that she makes explicit in her ad and the information that he has stored in the encyclopaedic entry of the concept.All of this will depend on the choices the advertiser makes.Here, RTT draws upon Henk Haverkate's ideas: According to this author (1979: 11-14), the allocutionary act is the communicator's selection of those semiotic devices that she believes will trigger the adequate response by the audience.Consequently, if the advertiser wants to base her persuasive intent in showing the use-values of her commodity, she will elect a reason compound: Prologue + exposition; nevertheless, if the advertiser wants to base her persuasive intent in showing the fame-values of her commodity, she will elect a tickle compound: Foreign element + development.Each one of these allocutionary acts entail to address the TV viewer's uncertainties in one way or another; the advertiser expects that these ways to address the TV viewer's uncertainties will trigger the adequate response by her audience: The acquisition of her brand.On the basis of these, she will be able to manipulate the TV viewer's uncertainties and, thus, control his cognitive system.In Martínez- Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 464), it was stated that these were the conditions that made it possible to predict the emergence of a prototypically tickle rhetoric, which is the less straightforward mode of advertising described by López Mora (2007: 51).
Taking all of this into account, and inverting the standpoint it can be said that the more the advertiser bases her sales strategy on the fame-value of her product, and on her viewer's encyclopedic knowledge (cf.Van Enschot, Beckers, and Van Mulken (2010, 140)), the more her rhetoric will be based on making her audience infer an array of weakly relevant implicatures.

Market values
However, we have still not mentioned the market-value, neither here nor in any of our previous publications.The market exchange is based on a rational calculation that seeks to maximise profit and reduce costs.Hence, when the advertiser is making her persuasive effort by means of this value, she is proposing this calculation to the TV viewer.Therefore, the RTT allows us to predict that she will base her rhetoric on the explicit verbal messages that appear in the advertisement and that she will put forward certain specific, wellarticulated buying arguments which will manifest in the viewer's mind some strongly relevant assumptions: These will be highly literal commercial messages and prototypically or almost prototypically reason ads.Let us see an example.It begins with a long shot of the product while, at the bottom of the screen, appears written "Hyundai 5-year guarantee" and, under this, the financial advantages offered by the company are shown.In the bottom left corner, the logo and the brand name appear.The scene lasts less than a second.It is a direct message that presents the product and reduces any type of substantial uncertainty.It can be classified, then, as a prologue.This triggers in the viewer's mind the cognitive script of the USP and unchains a cataphoric movement that leads him to predict the exposition of reasons for buying.
What reasons are given?After the prologue, the car is seen driving along the road while a voiceover tells us: "New Hyundai Sonata diesel.140 horsepower from 19.231 euros".Here we have a multimodal exposition that reduces the TV viewer's argumentative uncertainty by giving reasons for buying: The power of the car and how much it costs.If anything characterises money, it is precisely that it serves to place a value on objects irrespective of their intrinsic characteristics or their utility for any individual subject: It acts as a point of reference or comparison which is external to all of the objects and is foreign to all subjective attitude, thus favouring the exchange between the subjects.Hence, the market-value does not depend on the object belonging to a logic class.This can be easily seen in our example: While the engine power is linked to it, this is not the case of the price.Consequently, the TV viewer, when he interprets advertisements that base their persuasive efforts on market-values, must turn to his encyclopaedic knowledge of the concept that he has constructed for this product in his mind.He is, then, before a prototypical reason ad whose interpretation is linked to the construction of the encyclopaedic entry of the product.Hence, as in any prototypical reason ad, in the instant when he processes the exposition of the reasons for buying, an anaphoric movement takes place in his mind that allows him to confirm both the product and the communicative activity: "I am watching an ad that is selling me a Hyundai".
We have seen how the RTT, by providing a rigorous answer to the question of what the relationship is between what is made explicit and what is hinted at in the advertisement, allows us to predict what the conditions will be for their emergence, either, of prototypical reason advertising, or, of prototypical tickle advertising.In the process, it has described accurately and in-depth the mechanisms of both rhetorics, of both ways to fulfil the advertising purpose: "influencing the addressee in such a way as to convince him directly or indirectly of the advantages or the need to purchase a certain consumer product" (López Mora 2007: 50).

Correcting elements
Taking into account all of the above, the most influential factor in positioning the rhetoric of an ad at one point or the other of the scale will be the advertiser´s decisions about how she lays out its proposal and its nexus: If the choice is prologue + exposition (+P +E), we will have the basis for a prototypical reason ad; however, if the choice is foreign element + development (+FL +D), the basis will be that of a prototypical tickle ad.However, the advertiser can play with various resources in order to raise both the certainties and the uncertainties of the viewer and find solutions in between: (1) Crossing: The advertiser does not have to stick to the two basic formulae: obviously, she can create crossover effects by mixing the components; this is the most common crossing: +FL +P +E.
(2) Displays: During the unfolding of the constituents of the tickle formula (+FL +D), there may be a more or less clear display of the type of product (+dtp), of the product (+dp), and/or the brand (+db); the former reduces the argumentative uncertainty (AU) in such a way that it also reduces the substantial one (SU), while the other two only reduce the substantial uncertainty.
(3) Hybridation: The advertiser opts for the reason compound (+P +E), but she takes advantages of some narrative and/or dramatic and/or figurative features typical of the tickle compound (+FL +D) in order to present her commodity and to expose the reasons why we should buy it; hybridised formula: +P (+fl) +E (+d).(4) Situational Novelty (sn): Karol J. Hardin considers that the advertiser creates situational novelty when she resorts to unusual settings that develop some kind of shock tactics (2001: 30); in Martínez Camino & Pérez Saiz (2010: 79), we pointed out that we are encountering something unusual or surprising when the binominal +FL +D represents a reality that lacks a recognisable cognitive script.For example, in the Volkswagen Passat advertisement, the images presented to the viewer for the first 23" imply a situational novelty since they do not offer a clear cognitive script that helps with its interpretation.(5) Verbal Language (vl): The use of verbal language allows a clearer and more direct articulation of the information and thus implies a reduction in the sense of uncertainty.It can, therefore, help to «correct» the effects of the tickle rhetoric.We proof this statement empirically both in Martínez Camino & Pérez Saiz (2010: 77-78) and in Martínez- Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 462-463): once the organization of the advertisement and the functionality of its basic constituents had been analyzed, we found out that there are four basic constituents that reduce the uncertainty (P, E, PI, SLG), one that increases it (EL) and another that is ambivalent (D); by means of a quantitative analysis, we verified that verbal language is more likely to be used in the constituents that reduce the uncertainty than in those that intensify it.This does not mean that verbal language cannot be used to increase uncertainty but rather that the strategies of reduction of uncertainty are largely associated to the use of verbal language.Thus, in the Volkswagen Passat advertisement, the absence of any verbal language during the tickle compound (+FL +D) increases the effects of the tickle rhetoric.
What characterises the prototypical reason ad is the presence of verbal language (+vl) and the direct and ordered resolution in keeping with the USP of the TV viewer's uncertainties (-u): +P +E (+vl -u).Meanwhile, what characterises the prototypical tickle ad is the absence of verbal language (-vl), the presence of situational novelty (+sn) and the playing with the TV viewer's substantial uncertainty (+su) and argumentative uncertainty (+au), as well as the possibility of generic uncertainty (+pgu): +FL + D (-vl +sn +su +au +pgu).

The gradation: 4 areas
The  Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012: 465) the following four broad areas; each of which includes several peripheries: (1) Reason ads: They address the uncertainties of the viewer-consumer following the cognitive script of the USP in an orderly manner (ads of Casio and Hyundai Sonata).
(2) Hybrid ads: They mainly play on the viewer-consumer's substantial uncertainty.
(3) Hybrid tickle ads: They mainly play with the viewer-consumer's argumentative uncertainty.(4) Tickle ads: ads that play with the viewer-consumer's substantial uncertainty and argumentative uncertainty, and, therefore, probably generate generic uncertainty (ad of Volkswagen Passat).
Now, with the aid of these four milestones, it is time to review the scale of peripheries situated between the prototypes.We have selected six advertisements in order to verify whether the definitions of the four areas are operative and whether the RTT will allow us to explain the different rhetorical modes that the advertiser may resort to or it will not.Let us begin by reviewing two ads that may be considered to be reflections of areas 1 and 4 but which are not prototypical.

Reason ads: Wii; area 1
The ad begins with the company logo while a sound is heard which is characteristic of what is heard in the Wii when you accept a function.Around the logo, a blue circle forms and then spreads and fades until it disappears and then there is a fade-to-white.We consider that these first images are a direct message whose function is to present the product which is to be sold to us.Hence, all substantial uncertainty is solved and the possibility of generic uncertainty disappears.This multi-modal layout of images and written language contributes greatly to the above-mentioned reduction in the substantial uncertainty.We have then a prologue that triggers in the viewer's mind the cognitive script of the USP and unchains a cataphoric movement that makes him predict the exposition of reasons for buying.
Next, the viewer sees his own hand playing with the Wii control while we hear: "What can you do with the Wii control?"This question opens the exposition of the reasons for buying the product: the camera focuses on the hand of the possible user and it can be seen how he uses the control to perform the different actions associated to several of the games that can be played on the Wii.When the viewer's mind acknowledges that he has been shown the first reason for buying, he undertakes an anaphoric movement which confirms what he assumed during the prologue: he confirms the communicative activity (advertisement) and the product (Wii).
There is another fade-to-white and we enter the ending of the advertisement.We see how the hand leaves the control on this white background as if it were a table and on it can be read the webpage and the date when the product goes on sale; the company logo appears superimposed.Given that the viewer's uncertainties have already been resolved, all of this information is redundant.
However, in Area 1, this ad would not be a prototypical reason ad because the exposition of the reasons is not made explicit by means of a voice in off or any other recourse but rather is represented metonymically: The viewer must infer that the hand that plays with the control is his using the Wii.Consequently, the rational exposition is hybridized with tickle elements.In this context, the question "What can you do with the Wii control?" helps to guide the inferences that the viewer must make.At the same time, this is the only presence of verbal language during the compound prologue + exposition; its near absence helps to hybridise the basically reason rhetoric of the ad with features of a tickle rhetoric.On the other hand, this verbal utterance anchors (Barthes, 1991) the contents that the images provide, favouring their interpretation as an exposition.

Tickle ads: Nintendo-DS (Brain Training); area 4
The ad begins with a shot in which we see the back of a female character who is walking along a corridor towards a kitchen where there is a man of around seventy years old who is waiting for her with party balloons, a bottle of champagne, a festive attitude and open arms while he says: "Cha-cha!".The next image is the face of the female character.We see that it is played by Amparo Baró (a well-known Spanish actress) who cries out in surprise and disdain: "But what are you doing?" 3" have passed.We do not know what is being sold to us nor have there been any hints to indicate that this is a commercial message.Consequently, it can be said that these audiovisual contents are a foreign element with respect to the script of the USP; hence, the substantial uncertainty will have increased in the viewer's mind and there is a possibility that the generic one will have surfaced.Now, the viewer already knows the communicative intention of the message but, as this is a foreign element, he cannot contextualize it or find its relevance.Consequently, the ad captures his cognitive system with the challenge of unveiling the informative intention with which it is transmitted.
We then see a dialogue in which we are shown that the character of Amparo Baró has forgotten her wedding anniversary.8" have passed and we still do not know the product that is being sold or the reasons for buying it.Hence, the argumentative uncertainty will have increased in the viewer's mind.Until now, what we have seen in this advertisement, unlike what occurred in the previous one, is that verbal language is not used to anchor the interpretation of non-verbal audiovisuals.
In any case, we cannot classify this commercial message as a prototypical tickle one since there is a presence of verbal language and an absence of Situational Novelty.For this reason, although we classify it as belonging to Area 4, its tickle nature would be neither radical nor prototypical.
After these 8", we are told that this character has a memory problem and we see her doing exercises with the product Brain training to solve it.Now that the viewer has resolved the substantial uncertainty and knows that he is watching an advertisement, he makes an anaphoric movement and reinterprets the dramatisation of the compound foreign element + development as an example of how, for a social group whose members are not very old people who are losing their memories, the product is useful: The viewer infers that the dramatisation is a justification of the product.We said before that verbal language is not used for anchoring non-verbal audiovisuals but rather as a part of a credible recreation.This is crucial for the viewer in identifying with the character who, as it is played by a famous actor, is at the same time a leader.
However, the advertising message is not based on the exposition of famevalues with which to build the identity of the viewer; rather, his identity is understood to be constructed: He is someone who fits in the above-described sociological niche.The ad is a means of attracting the attention of this type of viewers and allowing them to identify with the problems that the protagonist of the ad has and that will be solved by the product.If the offer of information achieves this, the purchase of the product will be much nearer.We can see that tickle rhetoric is used to focus the sale of a product on use-values rather than on fame-values.Because of this, this persuasive strategy does not present the conditions in which it can be predicted that prototypical tickle rhetoric will emerge.Nevertheless, the presence of an actress of prestige in the fiction makes us think again and refine this statement: When the viewer has to make weak implicatures to interpret the dramatisation as reasons for buying, he will probably project the actress's prestige onto the product: "actors reinforce the sense of the brand and model its identity" (Pino & Olivares 2007: 352) (our translation).Thus, although only in a secondary, hybrid way, the tickle rhetoric also now «obliges» the viewer to construct a personality for the product which, if purchased, will bring good fame to his own identity.

La gula del norte 'North Elvers'; area 2
General shot of a kitchen where we can see Ernesto Alterio (a well-known Spanish-Argentinean actor) addressing a crowd: "I'll tell you it one more time".We move on to a close-up of the actor in which he says emphatically and with a marked Argentinean accent: "Simple".3" have passed and we still do not know the product we are being sold.As in the cases above, the communicative intention of the advertiser is acknowledged, but not the informative one.Hence, it is reasonable to think that the substantial uncertainty will increase in the viewer's mind and the generic one may even emerge.This/these uncertainty/uncertainties capture(s) the viewer's cognitive system, which feels the challenge of finding out what is being sold to him and why he should buy it.
Just at this point, we see how Alterio picks up something that is just out of sight: The product.He raises it up to his face while he says: La Gula del Norte 'North Elvers'.In the packet, the name of the product can be seen and an instruction which is also the slogan and epilogue: "Heat up and it's ready".Obviously, this image is a prologue in media res which eliminates the substantial uncertainty.Thus, we have here a crossing compound of foreign element + prologue.And so we can speak of a hybrid rhetoric which is characterised by playing with the TV viewer's substantial uncertainty.This is, precisely, what defines Area 2.
The ad continues with a close-up of the product.We hear Alterio explaining how to prepare it while we see the instructions dramatised: "Open, pour in, heat up and it's ready".The viewer infers that this representation, not without humour and surprises, is an exposition of the reasons for buying the product through a practical demonstration of its utility.As occurs in the previous ad, although the representation of the exposition implies a tickle hybridation, the sale of the product is mainly based on use-values.Again, the viewer's identity is that of someone who fits in this market niche for which this product solves a problem: a young person who lives alone, without time or money to dedicate to cooking.The ad, therefore, is designed to attract the attention of this type of viewers, allowing them to identify themselves with the problem faced by the protagonists of the ad.
After the exposition of the ad, a parenthesis is opened in the dramatisation in which there is a general shot showing three different varieties of the product which follow three different recipes and, next to these, a plate with the product ready to consume.On each of the three packets, the logo can be seen.At the same time, a voiceover says: "North Elvers.Open and triumph".This is the slogan.These contents are redundant since all of the uncertainties have been resolved previously.However, the fact that the term "triumph" appears in the slogan opens up a new possibility of interpretation: One can cook for one's friends and impress them using this product; it is a question of how the others will value the viewer if he buys this brand.The advertiser uses the slogan as part of a multimodal strategy that allows her to redirect the interpretation of the dramatisation of the exposition of the reasons for buying.Moreover, as in the case of Brain training, the appearance of a famous actor «obliges» the viewer to build a personality for the product such that, if it is purchased, it will have a good influence on his own identity.
Immediately after this, the ad resumes the representation with a change of shot: We see the people who are following Alterio's instructions: they are twenty-year-olds sitting at the table in front of the dishes that he has just prepared.One of them says "I'm not sure" and another confirms: "He's not sure" and, finally, the first one says: "I don't get it".In the end, we see in close-up Alterio's astonishment.This continuation of the representation allows the advertiser to «wrap» the commercial message in tickle contents that add to the dramatisation.This helps the viewer to identify with the product and assume its purchase as a «fresh» lifestyle marker that the others can identify him with and thus set him apart from the shocking clumsiness of Alterio's pupils: The viewerconsumer does know how to solve problems: "S/he is sure because she gets it" (as it is said before, the non-acquisition could also speak badly of the viewer (Alcaide Lara 2010)).
Let us go back to the beginning of the ad.What is the purpose of deferring the presentation of the product?Because in this way, by beginning with a foreign element, the advertiser captures the viewer's cognition and challenges him to find contents that might reveal the informative purpose with which the message is transmitted.The use of the word "triumph" in the slogan, the representation of a fresh lifestyle, the appearance of a prestigious actor, are all contents with which the advertiser directs the viewer's interpretation of the dramatisation of the usevalues of the product: He will have to understand them in terms of fame-values so that he can find her commercial message as optimally relevant.Finally, with respect to this advertisement, it should be pointed out that it offers a multimodal strategic rhetoric identical to the previous advertisement: the verbal language is not used for anchoring the interpretation but rather as part of a credible recreation.Hence, in this way, the viewer identifies with the character who is also, in this case, a famous actor and, therefore, a leader.Formula of the ad: +FL +P (+d) +E (+d) (+vl +su).

Nokia; area 2
The ad begins with an image of a Chinese woman talking on the telephone.In the background can be heard some lively music that gives the commercial a happy rhythm.Right at the beginning, a voiceover says: "Suddenly..." Change of image: We see a young man in a tee-shirt and a tacky army cap who, in the middle of the forest, is dancing energetically to what seems to be the same music as we are listening to.He is listening to it through some headphones that are connected to a device that he has in his right hand.The voiceover continues its message: "...a song has something..."There is a change of image and we see a young girl walking along the beach while talking on the telephone while the voiceover finishes the sentence "...that shakes you".3" have passed and we still do not know what is being sold to us; we may only suspect that it has something to do with the mechanism that all of the characters have used in one way or another.
Hence, what we have is a foreign element with a display of product.
The focus changes to a close-up of the girl who is handling her mobile and the voice over says: "Then, you think about that person and you call him".It is given to understand that, by handling the mobile, the girl stops listening to the music to make her call.There is a fade-to-black and we see a boy dressed in casual, urban sports clothes.In the background, we see a river and an urban landscape that reminds us of New York.It seems that the boy is answering the girl's call, excited, and thrilled.Hence, in the first 3" the product is displayed, between 4" and 6", the viewer sees how it is used, and sees its functional characteristics.This is both a narrative development and a display of the type of product (mobile telephone).Until now, the advertisement has had a multimodal layout combining images and written language.This layout contributes greatly to the interpretation of the above-mentioned display of the type of product by guiding the inferences of the viewer.
Around 8", there is a change of scene: A seaside promenade can be seen and in the background, a sea and sky between grey and pink, and superimposed, the image of different mobiles revolving around themselves and opening up.Next to them appear the names of the models and below, it says "XpressMusic".Just after this, with the same image, appears the company name and slogan "Nokia.Connecting people", with the voiceover that says: "Nokia".In this case, we can say that the elements of the ending of the ad are informative since, up to this point, the viewer's uncertainties have not been completely resolved.Once he knows for sure the product that he is being sold, he finds himself obliged to make an anaphoric movement which, on the one hand, will serve to confirm his suspicions and, on the other, to interpret the contents that he has received so that they fulfil the commercial function of the message.This is a good example of the hybrid ad or of Area 2: On the one hand, it does not, in accordance with the order of the USP, reduce the TV viewer's uncertainties; on the other hand, nor does it put off its resolution until the end of the ad.It begins with a foreign element that plays with the TV viewer's substantial uncertainty.This transmits the advertiser's communicative intention but hinders the acknowledgement of the informative intention.Therefore, the challenge of finding the relevance of the commercial message captures the viewer's cognition.To help him, the advertiser undertakes a narrative development of the foreign element showing both the product and its use; these displays do not solve completely the viewer's uncertainties but direct his mind towards the logic entry in which he stores the information about why a mobile telephone can be useful.By doing this, the viewer catches a glimpse of what is being sold to him and why he should buy it.However, this information is incomplete and only partially reduces the viewer's uncertainties.It is only completed at the end of the ad, when the viewer discovers that the advertiser's informative intention was to get him to buy a Nokia.He then makes an anaphoric movement that reinterprets the contents of the ad in the form of a USP.
This rhetoric allows the advertiser to hybridise the reasons for buying the product which are based mainly on use-values: The product allows the viewer to listen to music wherever he is and to make telephone calls.However, we can see that the advertiser converts the exposition of the reasons into a practical demonstration that represents the identity of the market niche that the product is aimed at.At the same time, it also represents manners of consumption that allow the viewer to identify himself with a glamorous, modern, laid-back lifestyle, one that is in tune with young people who are emotionally involved with their friends: If he purchases the product, he will also purchase this fame.

Paco Rabanne's Black XS; area 3
The ad begins with a 1" shot of the bare stomach of a male model who is wearing a pair of jeans in a way that shows his hips and part of his pubic hair.He also has a belt with tacks and a metal buckle.His hands are in his pockets up to the second phalanx and are bandaged up to the beginning of his forearm leaving his fingers free.Just above his navel, there is a medal that hangs off a metal chain on which can be easily read: XS.Next, the model is seen bandaging his hands and, later, there is a close-up of the medal hanging from his muscular stomach.3" have passed and all we have is a set of separate images whose aim is not to make a direct reference to the product and resolve the substantial uncertainty but rather to drop hints of the brand: "XS"?We cannot consider these hints to be a direct reference to the brand because their display is partial (the full name is not shown, only the letters XS) and, moreover, the focus is not centred on them (these letters appear in passing as part of a general composition).Hence, the images we have just described form part of a foreign element mitigated by a display of the brand which does not allow the viewer to clearly resolve his substantial uncertainty.Again, we find a multimodal layout combining images and written language to resolve the viewer's substantial uncertainty.However, as we have just seen, this strategy is set out in a different way in order that its resolution is not complete.
In the following 3", there is a rapid and chaotic succession of images and focuses during which the model simulates some boxing movements and some camera-flashes can be seen, all of which makes one think that the ad is narrating a photo-session and that the images are various snapshots; hence its fragmentary nature and the speed with which they take place.This explains how the brand is displayed only indirectly, as just another part of the pose: The reference turns metonymic.Nor can any reasons be appreciated for buying the product based on its utility.Hence, what we have is a narrative and figurative development of the discourse that the advertiser began to display in the first 3" of the ad.
Second 7" is one of transition between the nexus and the ending.It begins with the initial image of the ad but the camera focus shifts upwards to show us the torso and the face of the model while the flashes that confirm that the ad does indeed represent a photo-session continue.Meanwhile, a voiceover pronounces in a French accent the English name of the brand: "Black XS…" The ending begins in 8".There is a fade-to-black and, in the centre of the image, the bottle of perfume is displayed which is brought closer until its name, that the voiceover has just pronounced, can be clearly seen "… the new perfume for men, by Paco Rabanne".Now, images and verbal language are combined so that the substantial uncertainty is completely lifted, and only the argumentative uncertainty remains to be resolved.To do this, the viewer makes an anaphoric movement and rereads the narrative-figurative discourse in the form of reasons for buying.We see here what characterises this area: the absence of reasons for buying which can be easily categorised as commercial.This absence obliges the viewer to interpret what is not commercial as such.Here, the cognitive script that the viewer has identified for the narration is of great importance: "photo-session in which a professional model is posing".This allows him to identify with this character.It is not utility that is being sold but identity.You have to buy the product to enjoy a glamorous lifestyle like that of the model and to enjoy his fame.

Renault Scenic; area 3
For the first 3", what the viewer sees is an image of a car driving along a secondary road.It is a beautiful summer's day.In the background, an American pop song with a happy rhythm is playing.The car turns left at a crossroads.We see a cyclist admiring it as it passes.This is the proposal of the ad: foreign element mitigated by a display of the product.Consequently, we cannot consider that the TV viewer has completely reduced his substantial uncertainty.
After 4", there is a shot of the back seat on which is seated a baby elephant with a human child at each side.All of them are following the rhythm of the music that they are listening to.The shots continue to show the baby elephant and the humans enjoying the car, the trip and family life together.Now, no further data are given us about what is being sold: rather, the contrary, this narration has probably distracted the viewer; that is, it has probably increased his substantial uncertainty.Obviously, the appearance of the baby elephant implies a situational novelty which increases the TV viewer's uncertainties (including the generic one).Bearing in mind all of this, this is an example of Area 3, closer to Area 4 than the previous one.
Let us return to the back seat of the car.The TV viewer again watches the baby elephant and the two children who are making bubbles with chewing-gum.When these burst, it is as if a spell were broken and we see an outdoors shot of a Renault Scenic in a traffic-jam and, to its right, there is a cage-truck of the Gozzani circus inside of which, leaning out of one of the windows, we see the baby elephant.With a voice over, without music now, we hear what he is thinking: "How good I would feel in a Scenic!" Next, we see a close-up of the children and, between them, there is an empty space, big enough to accommodate a baby elephant.Then, a shot is shown in which the elephant can be seen watching as the car leaves.Then the viewer sees through the back window of the car how this automobile fades into the distance.So, in the background, appears the road and, nearer, the empty seat where the elephant was during its dream sequence.The ad nexus is a narrative development of the foreign element of the proposal with a display of the product.The advertiser uses verbal language (the baby elephant's words) to guide the viewer's inferences.This is a multimodal strategy which makes it possible to join in his mind the audiovisual narration and the use-value concept that the standard consumer stores in the logic entry that he has for the concept of 'car' with other values related to the lifestyle that make up the encyclopaedic entry.This multimodal strategy allows the advertiser to base her persuasive rhetoric on the viewer's construction of an identifying fantasy from the audiovisual narrative.
Finally, there is a general shot in which can be seen a side view of the car driving along the road as, at the same time, above the car, superimposed, appears: "New range Scenic from 14.200 euros" and the same voiceover is heard saying: "New range Scenic.Enjoy the space".In the end, the screen goes black and in the centre appears the company logo.
The compound +FL +D does not allow us to completely eliminate the substantial uncertainty until the ad ending.This formal complication challenges the viewer and captures him in an inferential process.In this one, the final slogan and the display of the product during the proposal and the nexus make the viewer thread together the parts of the discourse and establish a hierarchy that guides his anaphoric interpretation of the contents that are presented in juxtaposition in the narration: They become clues that need to be read as reasons for buying the product that is being shown to us in the development of the ad and which is unveiled to us in its ending.
Among these reasons, there are some that articulate use-values: "With this car, we enjoy the trip: We enjoy the external space (travel) and the inside where not only can a whole family fit in, but also a baby elephant (comfort and amplitude)".However, there are obviously ways of saying this without resorting to a foreign element with a narrative development.What is the function of this narration?Thanks to it, the viewer identifies the market niche that can buy a family car (macro-sociological identity).
However, the narration also allows the advertiser to offer the viewer other clues different from those related to the use-value.In the way of telling this story, there is a double-play of shots: Outside/inside and presence/absence of the elephant.This double-play moves the viewer to represent in his mind a semantic tension between shortage and plenty.First, the pleasure of family life is shown and then it is compared with the seat where we see the empty space that the baby elephant has left due to his «exile» in the circus cage.This empty space represents the absence, the lack, the emptiness in the ontological centre of the subject which the enjoyment of family life must fill.The purchase of the product will allow the viewer to occupy the empty seat and to access a harmonic, family lifestyle.This rhetoric leads the viewer to the construction of an identity fantasy in which an ontological failing is satisfied: The purchase of the product will allow him to reach that which the elephant can only dream of, an identity which is full because it is fuelled by the warmth of the home.It will also allow him to show this success to the others who, like the cyclist who appears at the beginning of the ad, will stop at the side of the road, watching the viewer pass by in his recently acquired Renault Scenic, unable to hold back a gesture of admiration for the fullness of his lifestyle.

Discussion
The nine analyses that we have made have allowed us, in the first place, to verify that the predictions of the RTT on prototypical ads have been fulfilled.During the analysis of the ads of Casio and Hyundai, we found that, if the advertiser bases her sale on showing the utility of the product or on how economical it is, it can be predicted that the prototypical reason rhetoric will emerge.The Wii ad, though not prototypically reason, also confirms this hypothesis.At the same time, the analysis of the Volkswagen Passat ad confirms that if the advertiser bases her sale on fame-values, it makes it predictable that the prototypical tickle rhetoric will emerge.Now, we could also invert the terms: If the advertiser opts to resolve the viewer's uncertainties in an ordered way in accordance with the USP (+P +E) basing her efforts on explicit verbal messages, she will have little choice but to sell her product on the basis of its utility.In contrast, if the advertiser opts to resort to non-verbal audio-visual messages that raise the viewer's uncertainties, to present a situational novelty (+EL +D (-vl +sn)) and to manifest moral values which are well-considered by the community and/or a glamorous lifestyle, she will have little choice but to «oblige» the viewer to infer that the product has a personality which, if acquired, will give him good fame.
However, the Brain training ad, while not a prototypical tickle one, is still a tickle ad, and it is structured around the representation of the utility of the product.It is true that this narration allows the advertiser to link the usefulness of the product, "to do mental gymnastics", to that macro-sociological identity for which the product will be useful -persons of over 65 years of age who may be losing their memory and with the prestige of the actress who is playing the main part.However, this is not a case of a rhetoric that is building a personality for the product, that helps the consumer to look good, but rather it presents the type of person for whom the product may be useful as another of its many attributes.In this ad, although the utility predominates over the identity, the rhetoric is still a tickle one, although it is not prototypical.
This hybriding of the exposition with a narration makes it possible to jointly represent the use-value of the product and the macro-sociological identity with which the advertiser wishes the brand to be identified.It has been found in another three ads: The two hybrid ones, La Gula del Norte 'North Elvers' and Nokia, (area 2) and in one of the hybrid tickle ones, Renault Scenic, (area 3).One is tempted to state that, just as we link the prototypically reason ad with usevalues and the sale of utility and the prototypically tickle ads with fame-values and the sale of identity, we could also link the hybrid rhetoric with the strategy of representation of the utility and macro-sociological identification.However, things are not so clear.The surprising thing about the results of our analysis is that, of the four ads that present this strategy, the ad with the clearest profiles is the Brain training one, which belongs to area 4, tickle ads.In the other three, the strategy is mixed with others in which the representation also introduces famevalues: In the case of the Renault Scenic, the fame-values clearly predominate; in the case of the North Elvers, use-values predominate; in the Nokia ad, there is a balance between the two.However, taking into account that the Brain training ad is the closest to the tickle prototype, it should be the one where the strategy of representation of the utility and macro-sociological identification is found more mixed with others in which the representation also introduces fame-values; however, it is in fact the least mixed of all.This seems to contradict our second hypothesis (section 3).
These analyses have brought to us another specific finding that will help us to correct the theory: It is what could be called neutralisation.We can see this in the ad for the Casio watch: Reasons for buying are given linked to its utility.However, it is not hard to imagine that some mention might be made of its elegance.This value does not form part of the definition of the logic class of a watch, nor is it a use-value, but it does enhance the fame of its owner.This means that, in a prototypical reason exposition, reasons for buying may be offered whose information is stored in the viewer's encyclopaedic entry and which are linked to the sale of identity.This example confronts us with the fact that, in the case of certain products, such as jewels, the difference between use-value and fame-value will be blurred since its only utility is to speak well of its owner.Although jewels may be an extreme example, all luxury products present this neutralisation to a greater or lesser extent.For instance, certain watch brands are useful for telling the time but, when making the decision to buy one, the way they make us look is more important.

Conclusions
The findings of this study have allowed us to verify how the RTT, thanks, among other things, to the mentalese concept, explains the aims and strategies of the advertiser by helping us to discern what type of information she may offer: Reason-utility or tickle-identity.This will then allow us to understand these strategies and, consequently, the advertiser's rhetoric decisions.In this way, the viewer will perceive in the different ads family airs which will tend to manifest themselves with more marked characteristics if the advertiser takes us to the prototypes which are at the ends of the scale and, in contrast, will tend towards the blending and blurring of these characteristics as we head towards the centre of the scale.Thus, the qualitative analyses that we have made here have confirmed our first hypothesis (section 3).
However, these analyses have also enriched the RTT with three reflections that had not arisen previously.The first two of these reflections have revealed certain nuances in the first hypothesis that we have just stated.The third one has led to the reformulation of the second hypothesis.
First, we have found that the difference between use and fame is blurred in certain commodities, basically luxury products; in some cases, it may even be neutralised.In the case of neutralisation, the advertiser can base his persuasive efforts on explaining to the viewer, through a prototypical reason strategy, how her product performs a function better than any other competitor and, at the same time, she can resort to fame values that may be stored both in the logic and in the encyclopaedic entry.
Second, in the prototypical tickle ad, contents may appear that express usevalues.For example, in the Volkswagen Passat ad, we saw how use-values were presented ("you should buy this car because it is an excellent means of transport"), but the rhetorical layout of the ad «obliged» us to reinterpret these contents in the form of fame-values.Continuing along these lines, by means of an exhaustive quantitative analysis, it might be possible to confirm that the canonical discourse form of the advertisement is a USP that sells utility, the other ads being a deviation from this standard.
Third, we have defined the strategy of representation of the use-values of the product and macro-sociological identification: We interpret this as a rhetorical recourse that gives a tickle-form to contents related to the definition of the logic class that the product belongs to and relates these use-values with the viewer's social identity.This strategy make us reformulate our second hypothesis.We can no longer simply state that the correlations used for the prototypes are basically applicable to the peripheries closest to them and not to the ones far from them.In the peripheries that lie close to the prototypes, we have found this hybrid strategy that makes things not so clear.This does not mean that all the ads that are not prototypical need to follow this rhetoric; we can neither affirm this nor deny it yet.However, what we know is that what we cannot affirm are the statements that constitute our second hypothesis.Another thing we know is that we can state three new hypotheses: (1) The strategy of representation of the utility and macro-sociological identification is one of the conditions for the emergence of the hybrid rhetoric and the tickle hybrid.(2) These rhetorics are the ideal channels for selling at the same time utility and identity; it is the advertiser's elections what will lead the viewer to think more about one thing than the other.(3) Not all the non-prototypical ads follow the strategy of representation of the use-values of the product and macro-sociological identification.
In any case, these are hypotheses that remain to be confirmed although the second one seems obvious.Further research is needed to confirm, contradict or reformulate them.
Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012)ed by the presence of the above-mentioned features.Depending on what basic constitutive or correcting elements the advertiser chooses, the rhetoric of ad fits one of the prototypes or it is moved away to one of the peripheries.Depending on the features that define them, that is, depending on what basic constitutive or correcting elements are chosen, these peripheries can be closer to, or further from, one of the prototypes or the other.In MartínezCamino & Pérez Saiz (2010), we defined 11 peripheries and, in Martínez-Camino & Pérez-Saiz (2012), 26.With the express purpose of improving the articulation of this scale of peripheries, we defined in Martínez-