Portuguese Advertisements

by Hannah Minkoff

In looking at the huge mass of Portuguese advertisements that contain English, several main markets emerge. One such category is personal care products, which is generally connected to the beauty and cosmetics market, though not exclusively. Through looking at many of these advertisements carefully, several patterns are evident, including the use of unnecessary English words or any words at all given the detailed images included, the simplicity of the English words used, and the presence of brand name recognition. Though very little emphasis has been given to its affect on advertisements, there has been a lot of talk about a language hierarchy in the fields of literature and research. The same idea is relevant to the study of Portuguese advertisements as well because English is used more commonly than other perhaps more relevant local languages. The recent fascist history of the nation is also important in analyzing these ads because it seems that the country is constantly on the lookout for potentially oppressive behavior, resulting in an advertising sector, which reflects a very global outlook.

1947

2007