An Exploration of Multimodal Intertextuality and Persuasion Based on Beauty Influencer Advertising in Social Media

Cheng Yuan, Roslina Mamat, Mohd Azidan Abdul Jabar, Xue Qingyan

Abstract


Social media is becoming a major marketing tool in the digital age. As a new advertising genre, beauty influencer advertising brings significant commercial value to promoting beauty brands. Beauty influencers often utilise complex discursive identity and persuasive strategies to promote products and brand images. However, only a few studies have investigated this new advertising discourse from an intertextual and interdiscursive perspective. This study selected 15 beauty advertising videos from three prominent beauty influencers on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) as its corpus. Drawing on Bazerman’s (2004) intertextuality framework and Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) visual grammar theory, the study investigates how beauty influencers realize persuasive intent through intertextual strategies and multimodal resources. The results showed that the influencers heavily used evaluative strategies in intertextuality. The study also indicated that the interdiscursivity of such influencer advertisements manifested in three activities:
product endorsements, product reviews, and makeup tutorials, with different activities having their discursive mixes. Additionally, visual elements such as gaze, distance, colour, and movement in multimodal resources play a crucial role in reinforcing the presentation of linguistic information, evoking audience emotions, and enhancing persuasive effects. This study not only reveals how beauty influencers achieve persuasive goals through rhetorical devices but also provides practical insights for professionals to enhance product communication efficiency by employing effective discourse patterns and multimodal strategies.

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References


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