Euphemisms in advertising discourse : Putting on a positive face and maintaining speech etiquette

way euphemistic units are used in English commercial and social advertising. The authors highlight the two key functions: a ‘call-to-action’ function of commercial ads and the ‘raising awareness’ function of social ads. The study relies on the theory of politeness and the concept of face suggested by Brown and Levinson to apply the same principles in the analysis of English advertising texts. The authors consider different categories of goods and end products in both commercial and social advertising discourse to identify the main goals and strategies behind euphemisation as a manipulating mechanism and a language tool allowing to observe the socially accepted standards of speech etiquette.

bearing shameful or odious connotations.
Although euphemisms perform similar functions in various types of spoken and written interaction, some specific features of euphemisation can be singled out within different institutional discourses.
This study is concerned with the way euphemisms operate in commercial and social advertising and aims to identify the key strategies behind euphemisation as a tool of manipulation and a means of observing socially accepted rules speech etiquette.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study relies on a sample obtained from commercial and social ads in the English language and uses the methods of linguistic observation, continuous sampling and statistical analysis as its key methodological premise.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
To make observations on advertising discourse or euphemisation techniques, we will first need to properly define what the two phenomena in question actually stand for.
Van Dijk (1998) views discourse as a broad concept and singles out two approaches to its interpretation. On the one hand, discourse is a communicative event emerging amid temporal and contextual limitations and involving two parties (the speaker/writer and the listener/reader).
On the other hand, within a narrower context, it is the result of communicative action taking the shape of the spoken or written text. Van Dijk also suggests that language functions not only within the framework of discourse and its pragmatics, but also in response to multiple social factors, such as public opinion, social status of language users, etc.
The notion of advertising discourse is derived from the general concept of discourse. Advertising texts are intended to promote the values and attitudes of the consumer society, as well as a certain lifestyle or moral choice. In any case, they are always aimed at encouraging the recipient to take action (Sonesson, 2013).
The key distinguishing features of advertising discourse can be listed as follows: censoring constraints.
The process of euphemisation has to do with the speaker's assessment of the subject matter being discussed, and the ultimate verdict will define whether this discussion will require indirect designation of objects and phenomena that might be associated with rudeness, indiscretion, harshness, indecency, etc. (Rawlings et al., 2017). This is a traditional function of euphemisms that defines their important role as markers of politeness applied to observe the standards of speech etiquette in advertising discourse.
Since the original purpose of advertising as a means of information transfer has been expended, it has now evolved to incorporate a number of subtypes, including political, social, commercial, etc., all of which have shaped a specific sphere of communication.
Commercial advertising is designed to make a profit. In addition, it is supposed to promote sales or at least create a market for a product. This suggests that commercial advertising uses its own functional style combining etiquette forms of communication and various stylistic techniques to create public awareness, promote a product, disseminate information concerning the benefits of goods or services, and drive up the demand for these goods and services. To that end, commercial advertising makes use of a certain arsenal of means and techniques organised into communicative strategies of manipulation.
Any kind of advertising is based on the text, which is designed to perform certain functions, such as: • the communicative function (any advertising is essentially a message formulated so as to reach the recipient); • the emotive function (advertising should trigger some feelings or create an aesthetic image); • the regulatory function (advertising affects the mood and behavioural responses on the part of the consumer).
When the three key functions are fulfilled, the ultimate goal of selling the advertised product is more likely to be achieved.
In modern linguistics, there is no consensus regarding the definition of text as a concept. It is generally perceived as an integral linguistic construct operating on the macro (the broad interpretation of a text as a notion) and micro levels (text as a complex syntactic unity). A text is a reasonably complex statement about the reality, which is based on a judgment about objects and phenomena, about certain facts and situations. All the words in the text, all sentences included in the 'The process of euphemisation has to do with the speaker's assessment of the subject matter being discussed, and the ultimate verdict will define whether this discussion will require indirect designation of objects and phenomena that might be associated with rudeness, indiscretion, harshness, indecency, etc.' text and the text itself are generally actualised and act as names and statements about specific subjects, facts and situations (Freitas, 2013).
An advertising text is commonly viewed as a specific result of media production and can be presented in any type and genre of media, i.e. a commercial video, a film, a newspaper ad, a poster, etc. It is also different from other types of text since it is created using media language. This is not quite a language in the literal meaning of this term, but rather a complex of means of expression, a set of material and intellectual values in the field of media (Keller & Halkier, 2014).
Like any text, a media text has its own structure, which components are directly interconnected.
The structure of the media text depends on the specifics of the publication or its pragmatic focus.
Advertising texts always incorporate a subtext, which is more typical of social, rather than commercial, advertising (Leiss et al., 2013).
Popularity and visibility. The information embedded in an advertising text is intended for the mass consciousness, and therefore in order to attract attention it needs to be 'closer' to the audience. Basically, any kind of text designed for a mass audience needs to incorporate something associated with the idea of shared interest, a point of contact between the message and its recipients.

Circulation. A text of mass communication is
always reproduced through replication, for otherwise it will never be able to reach a mass audience and acquire the status of a mass product.
The above features explain the nature of the advertising text and can be viewed as provisional attributes that classify a text as advertising material. The information in the advertising text is In today's market economy and the complex process of maintaining product competitive capacity, each brand seeks to occupy a certain niche and provide a sustainable market for their products. In the most general terms, commodities are classified into foods and non-foods, and the least challenging task is to advertise the so-called 'premium' products of both types, such as quality foodstuffs, textile, footwear, printed goods, etc.
However, there is a category of products that are quite difficult to advertise. These include medical products made of latex and glues, cosmetics and pharmaceutical drugs. These products are largely designed to address a problem and are often associated with a number of taboo words and symbols, which discussion violates socially established etiquette standards. This mainly concerns the products designed to eliminate cosmetic imperfections or alleviate the symptoms of a disease. To tackle this challenge, marketing experts and copywriters resort to euphemisation that allows to 'soften sharp corners' and adhere to etiquette norms adopted in a given consumer society (Hojati, 2012).
'To attract attention, these texts are filled with stylistically coloured words and make use of a variety of stylistic devices, among the most common of which are metaphors, metonymy, euphemisms, epithets and comparisons' Thus, a 'positive face' is a positive image of oneself in the eyes of society. The same applies to the above categories of goods. In advertising, the positive 'face' of a product must be adequately and positively perceived within a society.
According to the theory, the main task is to preserve and maintain a positive face and for this purpose a strategy of positive politeness is applied.
While positive politeness is aimed at minimising the threat to the positive perception of the advertised product, euphemisation of advertising rhetoric can be viewed as the main principle underlying this strategy.   Unlike commercial advertising that seeks to promote goods and services, social advertising is about highlighting the norms of conduct and addressing global issues requiring public awareness. Before we proceed to consider the cases of euphemisation in social advertising, it is necessary to identify the features distinguishing it from its commercial counterpart.

Some
Firstly, the main goal of social advertising is to draw public attention to a particular, often problematic, phenomenon of public life (Bloor & Bloor, 2013).
Secondly, social advertising is for the most part charitable in nature, meaning that a specific person, or company, or fund does not receive any apparent benefits by placing the social ad. Thus, while the effectiveness of commercial advertising is assessed on the basis of specific market indicators (the level of sales of a service or product), the efficiency of social advertising is assessed based on the level of public awareness about the problem in question (Gregory & Carroll, 2018 Even more so, social advertising is not just about affecting a specific target audience, but is rather about making an impact on the entire society (Johnson, 2012).
In its essence, social advertising is designed to shock and manipulate by appealing to the feelings of fear and anxiety, as well as people's readiness to take action and make a change. Therefore, the basic terms such as public service advertising and public service announcement have recently found a synonymous termfear appeal advertising, i.e. an advertisement containing an appeal to a feeling of fear, or an ad with a threat.
The common factor uniting commercial and social advertising is the focus towards promoting a particular product, maintaining interest in it. In the case of social advertising, the end 'product' is correlated with public awareness and potential Any advertising has suggestive potential.
Regardless of its type, recipients absorb the pragmatic message behind the suggested information on a subconscious level. In commercial advertising, this message is always associated with maintaining the positive image of the brand and making people purchase the goods (Hackley & Hackley, 2017).
Thus, by deploying its suggestive potential, social ads can affect the feelings and emotions of the target audience through the rational use of stylistic techniques and devices, including euphemisms, which are also encountered in social advertising texts as a most common way around negative language and undesirable connotations.
Social ads concerned with disability issues provide a good sample for the study of euphemisms. For The theme of death is prevalent in social advertising, and although it largely resorts to direct nomination to bring up the concept of passing, euphemisation can still be found in some texts. For example, the social ad designed to raise awareness about dry drowning in children runs, He said he was sleepy. But he was really slipping away. To explain that a child may drown after having exited a body of water, the ad uses the euphemism to slip away, which not only makes the text more catchy, memorable and recognisable, but also softens the message making it less straightforward and more discreet.
Children of parents who smoke, get to heaven earlier ( Figure 4)     For example, the following social ad on alcohol abuse reads, Every night, binge drinkers put themselves at risk getting into illegal taxis. Don't be a drinkhead. Think more. Drink less, and clearly has no intention to lighten the message as it uses upfront language, such as binge drinkers and drinkhead to make the audience stop and reflect.

CONCLUSION
The study offered evidence suggesting that while commercial and social advertising may use different language means to observe the standards of speech etiquette, their focus and functions remain the same as any linguistic choice is ultimately aimed at raising awareness and making the target audience reflect and change their behavioural patterns.
Since advertising discourse is inextricably linked with pragmatic and extralinguistic factors, it is at all times 'immersed' in real-life situations and reflects social realia, which is to a great extent achieved through stylistic devices and techniques being used.
The study has showed that euphemisms are a big part of both social and commercial advertising, although they do carry different messages. When used in commercial ads, euphemisation is largely a tool allowing to describe a product vividly and catchy while at the same time observing etiquette rules. When used in social ads, on the other hand, euphemisms help unveil some problematic social issues of public importance and make people reflect on them.
Whenever euphemisms are not used to mitigate negative connotations, the resulting straightforwardness is commonly a purposeful, intentional strategy designed to shock the target audience that do not expect a direct nomination of phenomena associated with diseases, disabilities, bodily functions, death, child abuse, etc.