Using Message Form to Stimulate Conversations: The Case of Tropes

Abstract

The use of tropes (e.g., metaphors, ellipsis) in messages from health mass media campaigns may spark conversations. Tropes require additional cognitive elaboration to arrive at the intended interpretation, thereby providing the audience with "the pleasure of text." This characteristic makes them useful for conversations in which ads are used to demonstrate one's interpretation abilities or to strengthen group identity through a shared appreciation of ads. Tropes can thus stimulate people to think and talk about information they might otherwise ignore. As a result, this information is primed, increasing the chance that it will influence relevant behavior. At the same time, the use of tropes may have undesirable side effects, such as yielding incomprehension or misunderstanding of the message's meaning.