A People’s Choice: Persuasive Strategies in the Scottish Independence Referendum

On 18 September 2014 Scottish citizens had to decide whether they would like to continue being part of the United Kingdom or not by answering the question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?". Two years before, both the Yes Scotland and the Better Together campaign started to build their discourses about what Independence would imply. The aim of the present study is to analyze which are the different arguments that lay beneath these discourses, paying special attention to the use of figures such as personifications, metonyms and metaphors. For that, we have chosen the main political adverts from both campaigns and we have analyzed them by applying a rhetorical-argumentative methodology. Among the main results, the underlining of the importance of the decision that has to be taken on 18th September by presenting independence as an opportunity to build a fairer and more prosper country or as a risky option must be stressed.