The Usage of English in Swedish TV Commercials

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to study the usage of English in Swedish TV commercials; mainly how much English is used, and whether this depends on factors such as channel, time of day, target audience, and product/service being advertised. In total, 247 commercials were studied. The commercials were taken from three different Swedish TV channels and divided into three different time blocks. The result of the study shows that 28% of all the commercials, not including brand names and lyrics, contained spoken or written English. The result agrees with previous research in that the amount of English very much depends on the category of product/service being advertised, and the audience targeted. The results did not show factors such as time and channel to be relevant to the amount of English used in the commercials.