Presentation slides for the research I conducted on Language Attitudes and the Marketplace

1. Language Attitudes
and the Marketplace
Presented by
Samantha A. Mauney
at the University of Virginia
on December 1, 2011

2. The Advertisement
• JouLes is a ficticious sports drink
• Shot an advertisement for JouLes, and then
found three different speakers to perform
voiceovers of three sperate varieties of
English:
• American Southern (Ad S)
• African American Vernacular English (Ad A)
• Mainstream United States English (Ad M)

3. The Survey
Who?
71 participants

5. The Survey (cont’d)
• Questions asked of everyone:
• Demographic Questions
• Age, ethnicity, gender, hometown
• Тhree branches based on different advertisement. Each
test taker was randomly assigned a branch, and then
asked:
• Questions in response to the advertisement
• What did you enjoy about the ad?
• What did you dislike about the ad?
• Questions related directly to the voiceover artist…

6. The Survey cont’d
• Questions related directly to the voiceover artist…
• Asked to rate the voiceover artist:
• Asked whether changing something about the artist
would make the product more desirable.

7. Results- AAVE
By race
120
100
80
60
40 African American
20
Caucasian
0

8. Results- AAVE
By sex
70
60
50
40
30
20 Female
10 Male
0

9. Results- MUSE
By race
70
60
50
40
30
20 African American
10 Caucasian
0

10. Results- MUSE
By sex
90
80
70
60
50
40 Female
Male
30
20
10
0
Poised Intelligent Urban

11. Results- Southern English
By race
120
100
80
60
African American
40 Caucasian
20
0
Friendly Less Less
Intelligent Wealthy

12. Results- Southern English
By sex
80
70
60
50
40
Female
30
Male
20
10
0
Less Poised Less Less Wealthy
Intelligent

13. What I Would Have Done Differently
• Technical Difficulties
• Asked why people rated they way they did
• Bigger population size
• At least 50 ppl/branch
• Age pool
• Ethnic pool
• Different voiceover artists
• Explicitly stated that 5 was neutral
Time Constraints
• African American women versus Caucasian women
• Weighted ranking responses

14. Advertisement A

15. Advertisement M

16. Advertisement S