ABSTRACT
Commercial advertising is a persuasive genre which makes extensive use of metaphor as a strategy for engaging with potential consumers and attracting their attention to the product. Metaphor plays a crucial role in the persuasive function of this genre by appealing to the emotions and evaluative judgements of the potential buyer and by supporting claims about the positive properties of the product, often by means of creative strategies (Semino 2008: 168-75). This introductory section addresses, first, the nature of commercial advertising as a genre and, second, the persuasive function of metaphor in commercial advertising.
