La dimensión temporal y la categoría verbal de tiempo en los textos publicitarios españoles

Due to the predominant persuasive function of the advertising messages, the use of the different tenses in print advertisements presents some interesting particularities. The present tense is mainly used to describe and promote the products, while the future (or any other expression of posteriority) is reserved for the description of the benefits of the acquisition and use of the advertised object or service. Compared to the present and future tenses, the past forms are relatively sporadic in advertising texts and their uses correspond to well-defined functions: to narrate the history of the brand and the product, or to contrast the insatisfactory past of a hypothetical client without the advertised object with a happy future after its purchase.