Hidden Agendas: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Pakistani Cellular Company’s Promotional Advertisements

This study investigates the manipulation of mobile phone users in Pakistan through promotional advertisements of cellular companies. These cellular companies are Jazz (Mobilink), Ufone, Telenor and Zong. It is a qualitative study in design. Its analysis is based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework of CDA. The sample of the study consists of seven print promotional ads of four Pakistani cellular companies retrieved from the web. Purposive sampling technique has been utilized to collect data as the focus of the study is on the discourse of print media advertisement. The findings reveal that advertisers distort language in a way which ultimately benefits advertisers not the consumers. It also discloses that advertisements influence customers’ choices. Moreover, it concludes that promotional ads yield more benefit to advertisers and are useless for consumers