Hey! I went through 300+ brand taglines. Most of them use one of these 24 rhetorical devices:
So, usually, a copywriter has two tasks:
• Decide what to say.
• Decide how to say it.
Today we’re focusing on the “how.”
Let’s break it down 👇
1. Personification: Give human traits to non-human things.
2. Allusion: Mention a well-known person, place, concept, or event.
3. Hyperbole: Exaggerate to make a point.
4. Paradox: Make a statement that contradicts itself but is actually true.
5. Chiasmus: Reverse the order of words in two parallel phrases.
6. Asyndeton: Skip conjunctions (like “and,” or “but”) in a list.
7. Alliteration: Start two or more words with the same sound.
8. Pleonasm: Use more words than necessary to explain the benefit.
9. Onomatopoeia: Find words that sound like the product or its benefit.
10. Dialogue: Use a sentence the customer would say in a real conversation.
11. Antithesis: Put two opposite words or ideas in the same sentence.
12. Oxymoron: Combine contradictory terms.
13. Paraprosdokian: Twist a familiar sentence.
14. Anaphora: Start different sentences with the same word.
15. Pun: Ask your dad. Or any dad.
16. Rhetorical Question: Ask something not to get an answer, but to emphasize a point.
17. Simile: Explain the product using “like” or “as.”
18. Metaphor: Describe the product by comparing it to something unrelated.
19. Rhyme: Use words that have the same or similar ending sounds.
20. Parallelism: Structure parts of a sentence to mirror each other.
21. Epistrophe: End sentences with the same word.
22. Climax: Present ideas from least to most important/surprising.
23. Understatement: Express an idea as less important than it actually is.
24. Imperative: Give instructions or commands.
