Abstract
Through features such as design, advertising images and marketing— language-produced texts, toys convey messages that reflect the cultural and social meanings of the world surrounding them. Taking advantage of the fact that many toys have become icons in the age of consumerism, this article attempts to reveal the structures of signification behind the visual discourse of advertisements for fashion dolls retrieved from the children’s toy website: www.mgae.com. Drawing on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s grammar of visual design for the analysis of visual features in advertisements, the author examines the topics reflected by advertisements for fashion dolls, the roles they play and the type of relationship that is established between the participants involved. The analyses of the advertisements suggest that, in addition to fostering children’s sense of group identity, they also promote values such as positive self-fulfilment and fashion consumption.
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