The aim of this article is to show how product names reflected the values of women in 1950s magazine advertisements. The data consists of all product names in advertisements published in the long-running Finnish women’s magazine Kotiliesi in 1958.
The product names are examined through the perspective of cognitive rhetoric. Rhetoric creates a common group identity between parties of communication, to which the advertiser can appeal and thereby affect the reader. Names, especially product names, are a part of this rhetoric. The name along with its associations have a part in constructing the message of the advertisement.
The main questions are: What position do the product names hold in the advertisements? What kinds of meanings do the names evoke? To which group identities do the names appeal? On the basis of the product names in this study, the female Kotiliesi reader values the fact that she can make decisions at home, and she is considered a practical and energetic housewife who serves her husband and takes care of her home and children. She values her female friends she can turn to, but, at the same time, she dreams of luxury, the exotic, and excitement.