Abstract

The corpus investigated in this article includes the discourses made in television talk shows in campaign days before the 2008 Italian general election. A two-steps analysis is applied. A textual statistical approach was implemented to select the strategic level of discourse, then was analysed this level with a qualitative approach, paying special attention to metaphor analysis, following the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson 1980). The analysis shows that the strategic construction of the campaign is consistent with the logic of the Message Box, an instrument of strategic marketing that recommends the candidate to construct his/her strengths in those dimensions where he/she builds his/her opponent's weakness.