Wii Will Rock You! The Role of Figurative Language in Word of Mouth

Research in advertising has studied the persuasive effect of figurative language. Figurative language is the use of words and expressions to convey an additional connotation beyond that of their lexical meaning (Fogelin 1988). Instances of figurative language may be, among others, metaphor (The Ferrari of vacuum cleaners), word play (Don’t leave without a good buy), idiomatic expressions (My car’s a lemon), hyperbole (the service person was a cell phone professor) or imitating sounds (This teacher is wrrrufff, meaning a tough teacher, or ouch!, meaning I was offended). The common finding and general conviction is that figurative language evokes positive affect and attitudes across contexts (McQuarrie and Mick 1999, 2003; McQuarrie and Phillips 2005; Phillips and McQuarrie 2009). In contrast, we suggest that figurative language in user generated content is effective only in certain contexts. We propose that this context sensitivity results from a difference in the conversational norms regarding advertising and consumer generated content. For example, consumers often perceive ads to be biased, persuasive attempts (Sweldens, Van Osselaer, and Janiszewski, 2010). By contrast, user-generated content is generally perceived as an objective sharing of opinions (Moore 2012; Schellekens, Verlegh, and Smidts 2010; Sen and Lerman 2007). Thus, conversational norms regarding persuasive text may include expectations for linguistic tactics and artful word play. Conversely, the norms of using figures of speech in user generated content may not be governed by a general expectation of the text to be persuasive, but rather of it to reflect a sincere opinion.