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Article published In:
Multimodal Argumentation: Special issue of the Journal of Argumentation in Context 13:2 (2024)
Edited by Hartmut Stöckl and Assimakis Tseronis
[Journal of Argumentation in Context 13:2] 2024
► pp. 177–202

Auditory arguments, advertising, and argumentation theory

Hitting sour notes or ringing true?

| Trent University
| University of Zagreb
In this essay, we explore the ways in which argumentation theory can be applied to multimodal advertising. In our discussion we emphasize “auditory” advertisements: advertisements that depend on non-verbal sounds. We show how key tools developed by argumentation theorists (KC tables, argument diagrams, and argument schemes) can be used to analyze and assess advertisements of this sort. Doing so demonstrates one way in which standard methods of argument analysis and evaluation can be applied to one important multimodal genre.
Keywords: advertisements, auditory argument, visual argument, multimodal argument, schemes of argument, argumentation theory
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Preliminaries: Arguments, modes of arguing, and argument evaluation
  • 3.An advertising scheme: Verbal advertising arguments
  • 4.Auditory advertisements
  • 5.Advertising as entertainment
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 September 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.00027.gro
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