Advertisements in English in a non-English speaking country : A study on the use of English in Swedish magazine advertisements

Abstract:

In today’s globalized world there are not many limitations in the communication between people, and companies from different parts of the world. There are several methods companies can use to reach out to people, and one method is through magazines. When reading a magazine it is nearly impossible to not notice advertisements. The purpose of this thesis was to explore how the English language is used in Swedish magazines. Also, how do Swedish companies versus foreign companies use English in their advertisements in Sweden? This is a qualitative study in which four different magazines, and two issues from each were observed. Several studies have been completed on advertising and language, and those studies are introduced and discussed in this study. However, few studies have been done on the language in advertisements in Swedish magazines. The method consisted of documenting and saving all the advertisements in the magazines, and their language choices were then analyzed. This study reveals that English is used in Swedish advertisements to a notable extent. Nevertheless, there were some interesting differences between foreign companies and Swedish companies. For instance, in some cases Swedish companies used English to a greater extent than the foreign companies.