“Yebo Gogo, it’s time to braai Mzansi!” Code-Switching, Borrowing, Prestige, Slang, and Persuasion in the Digital Marketing Industry of South Africa

Abstract: This paper will analyse code-switching, borrowing, slang, and covert or overt prestige in online and television media. The days of OOH (Out Of Home) advertising are becoming obsolete and moving toward a digital age. South African press aims to create advertising inclusive of all creeds, genders, cultures, and classes, in which all walks of life interact in an ideal society and with humour specific to the locality. Thus, the paper will analyse the advertisers using these linguistic terms, such as code-switching, etc., to create these realities in these advertisements and how they are presented tactically.  The source material is twenty video advertisements ranging from the last fifteen years, 2007-2022. All videos are deconstructed and then examined when and where code-switching, borrowing, slang, and other more seldomly used tactics are found. The advertisements range from banks to fast food companies, which should allow the formality of the ad to have differences in how they approach specific target audiences and the general message they attempt to convey. The results show that all the videos contained two or more code switches, borrowings and slang words or phrases. This proved that their inclusion in the advertisement was not by chance but rather calculated and intentional. They were strategically placed to either add comedy or South Africanise the advertisement to create inclusion. Many adverts used stereotypical language that proved that the adverts were explicitly South Africans as they would only have the exclusivity of understanding it.  This supports that this strategy could be the best way for advertisers to create better engagements for future advertising.