The aim of this research was to understand how the discursive traditions (risk as danger; risk as probability and risk as adventure) of the language of risk are used in magazine advertisements. Advertisements were defined as genres of discourse that put into circulation materiality (quotidian artifacts) that can be commercialized (as symbolic goods) and are necessarily addressed to a specific public. A sample of 101 magazines was defined using the categories of the Anuário de Mídia - Revistas. The analysis took into account the words used in the advertisements, the category of goods been advertised and the type of magazine in which they appeared. Although risk does sell products, the focus tends to be on risk control rather than on an apology of risk. Even when products are associated to risk as adventure, what is being sold is the sensation of risk counterbalanced by a diversity of safety strategies.
discursive practices; language of risk; media; advertisements
