Pragma-Semiotic of Identity Constrcution in Selected Alcoholic Beverage Advertisements

Pragma-semiotic analysis has attracted considerable scholarly attention for its capacity to explain how language and other semiotic resources interact to create meaning in communication. Existing studies on advertising discourse have largely examined persuasive language, visual communication, and consumer behaviour. However, insufficient scholarly attention has been given to how pragmatic strategies, signs and symbols, and discursive features interact to construct consumer identities in Nigerian alcoholic beverage advertisements through an integrated theoretical perspective. This study, therefore, investigated the pragm-semiotic of identity construction in selected alcoholic beverage advertisements, with a view to identifying and analysing the pragmatic strategies advertisers use to craft messages that influence consumer identity and behavior and examining the denotative and connotative meanings conveyed through signs and symbols. The study adopts John Emike Acheoah’s Pragma-Crafting Theory and Roland Barthes’ Theory as its theoretical foundation. A qualitative research design was employed. Data comprised eight purposively selected alcoholic beverage advertisements. The advertisements were collected from YouTube, TikTok, and billboard advertising platforms in Nigeria and were analysed using qualitative pragma-semiotic analysis. The study found that the selected advertisements employ a range of pragmatic strategies, including identity-transference, rebranding, lifestyle-association, prestige-and-domestic positioning, cultural positioning, cultural heritage positioning, patriotic positioning, premium lifestyle positioning, and adventure-based positioning, to influence consumer identity and behaviour. It further reveals that these strategies are realised through pragma-crafting elements such as Contextual Presuppositions, Inference, Linguistic Implicatures, Behavioural Implicatures, Shared Contextual Knowledge, Shared Knowledge of Emergent Context, Geoimplicatures, Object Referred to, Event, Text, uptake, sequel, and, where applicable, Pragmadeviants, thereby enabling advertisers to communicate persuasive meanings and shape desirable consumer identities. The study also found that the advertisements convey both denotative and connotative meanings through verbal and visual signs, transforming ordinary products into symbols of prestige, celebration, authenticity, cultural heritage, professionalism, globality, aspiration, and social belonging. The study concludes that selected alcoholic beverage advertisements employ pragma-semiotic as a strategic communicative resource for constructing consumer identities, shaping social meanings, and influencing consumer behaviour. It recommends that advertisers should continue to integrate culturally relevant and ethically responsible multimodal resources in advertising campaigns, while future studies should explore multimodal identity construction in other advertising genres and across broader media contexts using complementary theoretical perspectives.