Analysing Deictic Expressions in Urdu Advertising Slogans of Pakistani Brands

Abstract

This study investigates the use of deictic expressions in Urdu advertising slogans of Pakistani brands. The study employs a descriptive qualitative research design and adopts Cruse’s (2000) theory of deixis, which classifies deictic expressions into five categories: person deixis, spatial deixis, temporal deixis, social deixis, and discourse deixis. The data consist of twenty-four widely recognized advertising slogans collected from prominent Pakistani brands operating in the telecommunications, food and beverage, household, banking, and consumer goods sectors, including Ufone, Jazz, Pepsi, Surf Excel, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Telenor, HBL, Tapal Danedar, Dalda, Sprite, and Coca-Cola. The slogans were collected from television advertisements, official brand campaigns, and promotional materials. The collected data were identified, classified, and analyzed according to their deictic features. The findings revealed a total of twenty deictic expressions across the selected slogans. Person deixis was found to be the most dominant category, occurring 10 times (50%), followed by discourse deixis with 4 occurrences (20%), social deixis with 3 occurrences (15%), spatial deixis with 2 occurrences (10%), and temporal deixis with 1 occurrence (5%). The study concludes that person deixis serves as the primary pragmatic strategy in Urdu advertising slogans, enabling brands to strengthen consumer relationships and enhance message effectiveness. The findings contribute to the understanding of pragmatics in advertising discourse and provide valuable insights into how Pakistani brands utilize context-dependent language to create memorable and persuasive advertising messages.