Exploring Interactional Metadiscourse in Anti-Obesity Advertisements on Egyptian Facebook Pages Promoting Sleeve Gastrectomy: A Multimodal Approach

Document Type : Original Article

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Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Education, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt Department of Basic Sciences, Community College, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Obesity is a growing epidemic in the Middle East, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) which reported in 2019 that more than 30% of the population were obese. In Egypt, anti-obesity advertisements, which are sponsored by private clinics of dietitians and surgeons performing surgeries such as sleeve gastrectomy or liposuction, have flooded social media, particularly Facebook. The advertisements in Egypt reflect ordinary promotional marketing, which typically encourage consumerism through persuading people to purchase certain services and products. However, regardless of the genuine target behind the advertisements, the main function of these advertisements is to persuade. This study is interested in exploring how advertisements construct the service and service providers and how they engage potential customers. In order to do so, the study integrated Hyland's (2005a) interactional model with Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) multimodal approach. 12 anti-obesity advertisements were downloaded from 5 Facebook pages of private clinics of surgeons performing sleeve gastrectomy in Egypt. All selected advertisements were analysed in terms of the suggested integration. The results of this study suggest that the selected advertisements skilfully employed both their visual and textual components to foreground the demerits of obesity and the desirability of an ideal body weight in an attempt to persuade the target audience to choose surgical intervention, i.e., purchase the advertised service.

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