Purpose

This paper aims to use the advertisements of three major brands – Chymol, Formamint and Lifebuoy Soap – to examine how advertisers responded to the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic in Great Britain influenza pandemic. It looks particularly at the ways in which marketing strategies changed and how these strategies were enacted in the lexical and semiotic choices (e.g. language, image, colour, typography, texture, materiality, composition and layout) of advertisements.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 120 advertisements for the three brands were collected from the British Newspaper Archive and analysed using the theory and analytical tools of multimodal critical discourse analysis. The general themes and semiotic structures of the advertisements were identified, with the aim of deconstructing the meaning potentials of verbal and visual resources used to convey ideas about the pandemic, and how they work to shape public understanding of the products and make them appear as effective and credible.

Findings

Each brand rapidly changed their marketing strategy in response to the influenza pandemic, using such techniques as testimonials, hyperbole, scaremongering and pseudoscientific claims to persuade consumers that their products offered protection. Whilst these strategies may appear manipulative, they also had the function of fostering reassurance and sympathy amongst the general public in a moment of turmoil, indicating the important role of brands in building consumer trust and promoting a sense of authority in early twentieth-century Britain.

Originality/value

Exploring the way in which advertisers responded to the 1918‐1919 influenza pandemic reminds us of the challenges of distinguishing legitimate and illegitimate medical advice in a fast-moving pandemic and highlights the need to cast a critical eye to the public health information, particularly when it comes from unofficial sources with vested interests.

中文翻译：

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1918-1919 年英国西班牙流感大流行期间的公共卫生商业化

目的

本文旨在利用三大品牌——Chymol、Formamint 和 Lifebuoy Soap——的广告来研究广告商如何应对 1918-1919 年英国流感大流行的流感大流行。它特别关注营销策略的变化方式以及这些策略如何在广告的词汇和符号选择（例如语言、图像、颜色、排版、质地、材料、组成和布局）中制定。

设计/方法/方法

从英国报纸档案馆收集了三个品牌的 120 个广告，并使用多模态批判性话语分析的理论和分析工具进行了分析。确定了广告的一般主题和符号结构，目的是解构用于传达有关大流行病的想法的语言和视觉资源的潜在意义，以及它们如何影响公众对产品的理解并使其显得有效并且可信。

发现

为了应对流感大流行，每个品牌都迅速改变了营销策略，使用推荐、夸张、恐吓和伪科学声称等技术说服消费者他们的产品提供保护。虽然这些策略可能看起来具有操纵性，但它们也具有在动荡时刻促进公众的安慰和同情的功能，表明品牌在 20 世纪早期的英国在建立消费者信任和促进权威感方面的重要作用。

原创性/价值

探索广告商对 1918-1919 年流感大流行的反应方式提醒我们在快速发展的大流行中区分合法和非法医疗建议的挑战，并强调需要对公共卫生信息投以批判的眼光，特别是当它来自既得利益的非官方来源。