The erasure of nature becoming the new normal: An ecolinguistic analysis of Food products’ commercial discourse of multinational companies

Abstract

The present study deals with erasure in commercial advertisements of multinational companies. For this purpose, commercial advertisements for food products were selected. The data were collected from the official websites of the relevant companies. The study applied Stibbe’s (2015) theoretical framework to analyze the element of erasure. The study focused primarily on erasure. However, other aspects such as conviction and metaphor, have also been analyzed to erasure. The study results reveal that nature has been partially or entirely erased from commercial advertisements. Nature and its resources (cows and fruits) are presented in more abstract form, or there is no mention. The study also found that the advertisements underpin the stories of conviction, metaphor, and erasure. The study is significant because language does ideological work in how one thinks, writes, and talks about the ecosystem.

Keywords

• ecolinguistics
• erasure
• conviction
• metaphor
• trace
• food products