Mixing English in Persian Print Advertising Discourse

This article intended to illustrate a profile of the impact of English in magazine print advertising in Iran, examining the quantitative results obtained from discourse analysis. Three issues of Khanevadeh Sabz and two issues of Zendegi Ideal, female-oriented and best-seller magazines published in 2011, were collected and a total of 261 advertisements was analyzed qualitatively. Results showed that English has consistently used in Persian magazine advertisements, representing attention-getting, persuasion, international brands, prestige, modernity, globalization, premium quality, fun, innovation and creativity. However, the use of English in Persian magazine advertisements is culturally and linguistically constrained. Culturally, in advertising traditional products English is only used to introduce the name and e-mail address. Linguistically, although some English written slogans in Persian magazines had pun in them, English used in Persian magazine advertisements mostly consists of easy-to-read vocabulary. Overall, in spite of the public’s generally low proficiency in English, it is predicted that English mixing will continue to thrive in magazine advertising discourse in Iran.