Eureka! Institutional Repository

Lakoff and Johnson (1980) proposed that metaphors are not, as most people might think, a matter of words. They suggest that the way we think, what we experience, how we act, or even how we relate to other people is to a great extent a matter of metaphor - our conceptual system is essentially metaphorical in nature. However, we are not normally aware of our conceptual system or of the way this system is being structured. Many of the individual expressions we use in our everyday communication are rooted in metaphorical concepts. Orientational metaphor is such a type of conceptual metaphor. Orientational metaphor gives a spatial orientation to a concept, for example, “happy is up”. The present research demonstrates that when the position of an advertising headline is in accordance with its corresponding orientational metaphor, it has a positive impact on such important consumer responses as liking and comprehension.