Nowadays, in an increasingly more evident manner, perfumes assume the role of tokens of individuality and sexual orientation of those who wear them. Magazine ads that divulge the different perfume brands foreground that characteristic, by using partially stereotypical forms of representation when it comes to their protagonists: men, women (alone, in couples or in groups). After a brief theoretical contextualization on the verbal and visual signification modes in magazine ads, the present article undertakes the analysis of a corpus constituted by perfume magazine ads of different brands, gathered during 2010 and 2011, in order to detect recurrent themes, forms of representation and motifs as to the use of female and male images that can be found in this specific type of advertising.

Advertising discourse is persuasive by its very nature. Essentially goal-oriented, it is constructed so as to propose a predetermined view of the world that suits its purposes, by means of a well-defined argumentative pathway that leads up to the proposed most (desired) suitable option. As a discourse that enjoys unparalleled freedom-both in terms of content and form-it has long moved beyond a clear-cut argumentative process based on hard sell versus soft sell, or tickle versus reason approaches (Cook, 2001:15). In their attempts to overcome boredom and scepticism on the part of an ad-literate audience, advertisers resort to different forms of argumentative reasoning: deduction, opposition, analogy or calculation, as proposed by Charaudeau (2008). In addition, as multi-modal texts, they make the most of the different modes available-pictures, text, sound, moving pictures-to build their argument. As claimed by Ripley (2008), an ad is an argument, thus, whichever claims or statements it makes, we are aware of-and suspicious about-its persuasive intent, though we often tend to go along with the worldviews it suggests. In spite of common accusations of stereotyping, segregating, imposing models of beauty, lifestyle among others, overlooking (and blurring) national idiosyncrasies, advertising has somehow managed to build rather convincing arguments that seemingly consider such criticism. In this study, we will look into cosmetics adverts that explicitly and implicitly build their arguments in ways that almost always encourage identical proposals of youthfulness, despite their apparent different claims and argumentative routes and despite their apparent concern for incorporating socially (or politically) correct positions.

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It is our purpose to compare two illustrated periodicals (a Portuguese and a British one) during the 1837–1844 period as to the way political issues are addressed and conveyed, as well as to ascertain the underlying cultural and social reasons in the two countries that can explain the approximations and divergences detected. The Portuguese O Panorama (1837–1868) diffused cultural matters in general. It was created by the Sociedade Propagadora dos Conhecimentos Úteis under the patronage of Alexandre Herculano, a famous man of letters, journalist and writer. The first three series of O Panorama are a direct imitation of the British The Penny Magazine (1832–1845), created by Charles Knight, under the auspices of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

Resumo: Não obstante a natureza multimodal dos textos publicitários e, como tal, a interacção dos diferentes elementos na constituição de um anúncio, pretende-se aqui salientar o contributo dos elementos verbais na transmissão da mensagem publicitária, designadamente a forma como se estruturam para a tornar mais eficaz e apelativa. Assim, utilizando os cartazes desenvolvidos para as campanhas elaboradas no âmbito de trabalhos da Agência de Comunicação da Universidade Fernando Pessoa realizados pelos alunos finalistas do curso de Ciências da Comunicação, analisaremos alguns dos títulos e textos que resultaram de estratégias linguísticas engenhosas, criando ambiguidades, sonoridades e humor, entre outros. Palavras-chave: mensagem publicitária, estratégia linguística, cartazes. IntroduçãoOn the public highway, or from a passing car, bus or train, it is generally viewed in a split second. Our attention is snapped from its purpose by a moment's distraction. This is the poster's fate. David BernsteinApesar das mutações e desenvolvimentos que tiveram lugar nos últimos anos nos meios de divulgação de mensagens publicitárias, os cartazes ou outdoors persistem e insistem em furtar a nossa atenção, frequentemente incauta, tal como aponta Bernstein, que se