In the name of "technology": Analyses of the clarifications, words, and persuasion strategy of cosmeceutical product advertisements

This paper aims to explore the presentations of advertisements for the technologies utilized by cosmeceutical products, including: what clarifications are there for the essence of the technologies, what words are applied for labeling the technologies, and what strategies are used for persuading consumers. Focusing on the above, this paper collects advertisements from the pamphlets of cosmeceutical stores, as well as in healthcare, fashion and cosmetics magazines, and then conducts content analyses based on the concepts of Systematic Functional Linguistics as well as Persuasion Communication. After executing the investigation, the results reveal that: (1) clarifications are not thorough, and emphases are particularly put on the positive effects functioned by the technologies; (2) the words lableling the technologies apply to mainly collocate process words, descriptive words, and naming words; and (3) advertisements primarily carry out a rational appeal by means of the products' functional values. Based on the above findings, this paper therefore proposes some suggestions to the cosmeceutical industry and to consumers for their reference.