Abstract
The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the verbal component of the advertising poster as a key instrument of communicative influence within the marketing communication system. The author traces the evolution of the functional load of the subtitle in the poster structure: from its auxiliary, illustrative and explanatory role at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries to its current status as the semantic and suggestive core of modern advertising campaigns. Drawing on extensive material from domestic posters produced over recent decades, the study identifies and systematizes two major communicative strategies – manipulative and informational – and offers a detailed description of the tactics and specific linguistic devices that implement them, including imperative constructions, interrogative forms, metaphors, precedent phenomena, and others. The paper empirically demonstrates that the effectiveness of advertising impact is achieved not so much through visual imagery as through a meticulously calibrated verbal code, which ensures implicit control over audience perception, activates emotional and evaluative mechanisms, and directly stimulates consumer purchasing decisions. This allows the poster text to be regarded as an independent object of linguopragmatic study.
Keywords
Advertising poster, communicative strategy, impact, manipulation, subtitle.