Beyond Tweets: Pragmatic Analysis of Humor as a Brand Image in Burger King’s Tweets

Abstract

AbstrakSalah satu bentuk populer strategi berkomunikasi adalah menggunakan humor. Meskipun telah banyak studi yang meneliti hubungan antara humor dan semantik dalam konteks periklanan, masih sedikit yang mendiskusikan hubungan antara cuitan (tweet) humor, komunikasi bisnis, dan pragmatik. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk (1) menginvestigasi konstruksi cuitan humor berdasarkan delapan knowledge resources dan (2) mendiskusikan fungsi pragmatiknya. Penelitian ini menggunakan versi panjang dari General Theory of Verbal Humor oleh Attardo (Tsakona, 2013), yang dilengkapi dengan analisis fungsi teks oleh Brinker. Data penelitian terdiri dari 111 cuitan humor dari akun twitter resmi Burger King dari tahun 2016 hingga tahun 2018 yang telah diseleksi berdasarkan teori Style Humor Used (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003). Pemilihan tahun tersebut didasarkan pada adanya korelasi positif antara penggunaan strategi humor di media sosial dengan peningkatan performa penjualan Burger King. Hasil penelitian ini adalah: (1) Burger King menggunakan konstruksi humor yang berbeda di akun cuitannya, terutama pada Script Opposition, Language Mechanism, Target, dan Konteks; dan (2) Cuitan humor yang digunakan Burger King mempunyai fungsi yang berbeda-beda, yaitu untuk mempersonalisasikan merek (2016), meminta pelangganan untuk melakukan sesuatu (2017), dan mempromosikan produk (2018). AbstractOne of the most popular forms of communication strategy is humor. Although various studies have accounted the relation of humor and semantics in advertisement context, relatively little has discussed the link between humor tweets, business communication, and pragmatics. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to (1) investigate the construction of humor tweets based on eight knowledge resources and (2) discuss its pragmatic function. The study applies the extension version of Attardo’s General Theory of Verbal Humor (Tsakona, 2013), complemented with Brinker’s text functional analysis. Selected based on style humor used (Martin et al., 2003), the data for the study consist of 111 humor tweets from Burger King Twitter account between the year 2016 and 2018. The three years are selected because there seems to be a positive corellation between the use of humor strategy in social media and Burger King’s sales during those years. A key finding is that Burger King: (1) applies different construction of humor in Burger King’s Twitter account, especially in Script Opposition, Language Mechanism, Target, and Context; and (2) uses different function of the humor tweets for personalizing the brand (2016), asking the customer to do some act (2017), and promoting the products (2018).

Mekanisme Pragmatik Dalam Penciptaan Humor; Analisis Terhadap Wacana Humor Sunda

“…Banyak peneliti yang menulis tentang humor dengan bermacam metode, sudut pandang dan cara analisis. Di antara peneliti yang menulis tentang humor adalah Putri & Ariastuti (2019), Alawiyyah et al (2020, Farkas (2020), dan Sunday & Bamgbose (2021). Empat tulisan ini menganalisis humor menggunakan alat pragmatik.…”

Polysemous Dajare Wordplay in Japanese-Language Advertisement Series Titled Santarou: A Pragmatic Study

“…Lazović (2018) studied the use of puns in online bank advertisements in English and Serbian, concluding that puns are used to grab the readers' attention and do not necessarily fulfill humorous functions. In contrast to that, Putri & Ariastuti (2019) analyzed how humor on the social media platform Twitter is used to create a brand image by the fast food chain Burger King, finding that humorous tweets were used initially to personalize their brand, and later on used to appeal to customers to buy more of their product. A study by Dynel (2020) also supported this thesis of using of humor as a tool for branding by analyzing how another fast food chain, Wendy's, used aggressive humor known as "roasting" to increase interaction with internet users and build an image for their brand.…”