Commercial persuasion: the evolution of an advertising vocabulary in England from 1300 to 1972

This thesis is a descriptive and annotated survey of the persuasive words and phrases cultivated by generations of English advertisers. It considers the spoken and chanted words of street vendors, the printed offers to treat made in newspapers, magazines and on posters, and the spoken invitations made on radio, film and television. The thesis moves from medieval times to the Tudors, the Stuarts and on to the Industrial Revolution and modern times. In each period spoken advertising is separated from the printed word as a matter of convenience. Where possible actual advertisements are quoted, though some reliance has to be made on playwrights and poets where original material is scarce. In successive chapters selections of popular selling phrases are made. These, by their incidence, are seen to have been successful during the years under review. Certain adjectives, adverbs and forms of address had peculiar power at specific times. It will be seen that such periods of popularity have grown successively shorter in much the same way as fashions of dress have become more quickly changing. The movements from Received English to literary and to demotic levels are noted as and when they occur and the temporary ascendancy of certain related consumer-groups is indicated. In the chapter on the 20th century the consumer's awareness of his possible manipulation by large trading organisations is considered and the problem of persuasion by the mass media is pursued