In today’s globalized world there are not many limitations in the communication between people, and companies from different parts of the world. There are several methods companies can use to reach out to people, and one method is through magazines. When reading a magazine it is nearly impossible to not notice advertisements. The purpose of this thesis was to explore how the English language is used in Swedish magazines. Also, how do Swedish companies versus foreign companies use English in their advertisements in Sweden? This is a qualitative study in which four different magazines, and two issues from each were observed. Several studies have been completed on advertising and language, and those studies are introduced and discussed in this study. However, few studies have been done on the language in advertisements in Swedish magazines. The method consisted of documenting and saving all the advertisements in the magazines, and their language choices were then analyzed. This study reveals that English is used in Swedish advertisements to a notable extent. Nevertheless, there were some interesting differences between foreign companies and Swedish companies. For instance, in some cases Swedish companies used English to a greater extent than the foreign companies.

This thesis studies the style of contemporary advertisement and advertising texts published on the internet. The theoretical part is focused on theory and function of advertisement. It describes the specifics of each type of advertising and proposes several classification options. It also presents the dynamic internet environment with typical features. The last section of the theoretical part is devoted to the language and style of advertising texts and the commonly used linguistic aspects and stylistic devices. The practical part deals with examples of real contemporary advertisements published on the internet; the texts are analyzed to find answers to three research questions. The first concerns features which ads use to engage recipient's interest. The output is a table containing an overview of all identified features and their frequency according to the form of advertising. The second research question focuses on persuasive means that advertisements use according to their function. The third part is devoted to linguistic and stylistic features typical for certain target groups. Results of the analysis and the success evaluation are summarized at the end of the thesis. Keywords: advertising text, language of advertisements, style of advertisements, advertisement on the internet, contemporary...