Abstract
This thesis examines McDonald’s persuasive communication to kids and parents in TV
commercials.
In order to examine the persuasive communication, four American Happy Meal commercials
were chosen for analysis based on their target audience, kids and parents respectively. The
four commercials are “Penguins of Madagascar Steal Cuties”, “SpongeBob the Movie: Sponge
out of Water”, “Who Doesn’t Love a Cutie?”, and “Who Doesn’t Love a Cutie? (You Look so
Sweet)”.
Theory on social semiotics, multimodality, and persuasion was presented.
The
multidisciplinary theoretical framework was used to provide an understanding of the
qualitative hermeneutic approach to the analysis, and this approach was further introduced.
Each commercial was analyzed using multimodal transcription based on Iedema’s
representational, orientational, and organizational metafunctions in order to examine how
messages about healthy items were communicated in McDonald’s TV commercials.
Subsequently Stöckl’s seven functions were applied to the commercials to examine to which
extent they were reflected in the persuasive communication. Furthermore persuasion theory
about implicit and explicit persuasion, and theory about central and peripheral processing
were applied in order to support the multimodal analysis.
The analysis revealed that McDonald’s overall persuasive communication in TV commercials
is implicit. It further encourages peripheral processing and thus to a wide extent use
peripheral cues.
It was shown that the persuasive communication attracts kids by using popular cartoon
characters. The kids are involved in the scenarios that play out, and the healthy item, Cuties, is
associated with action and fun. The main strategies used in persuasive communication
towards kids were the imagine, distract, and please.
The analysis further revealed that persuasive communication in commercials targeted at
parents associates the new healthy item, Cuties, with fun, activity, and nature. Cuties are
portrayed as something kids love, and Cuties make kids happy. The main strategies used in
the persuasive communication with parents were comprehend and yield that communicate the
message in a comprehensible and credible manner.
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