Responsibilization of purchasing health-related commodities: a genre-based multimodal discourse analysis of advertorials on WeChat

The increasing integration of health communication and commercial promotion on digital platforms has transformed the ways in which health knowledge, consumer identities, and social responsibilities are discursively constructed. This study investigates how hybrid promotional discourse in Chinese social media health advertising combines informational authority with commercial persuasion, focusing on Dingxiang Doctor, a leading Chinese medical-information WeChat account. Drawing on Critical Genre Analysis and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, this study examines how Dingxiang Doctor 's promotional posts integrate academic genre conventions with multimodal resources to construct authority and credibility. The analysis explores the interaction between linguistic and visual strategies in shaping health-related meanings and consumer subjectivities. The findings demonstrate that Dingxiang Doctor 's promotional discourse functions as a hybrid genre that merges health education, expert communication, and advertising practices. The discourse constructs health as both an individual responsibility and a familial obligation by intertwining neoliberal ideas of self-management with Confucian values of family care. Within this framework, urban middle-class women are positioned as autonomous health citizens while simultaneously being represented as caregivers responsible for family well-being. This study highlights how digital health advertisements strategically organize genre structures and multimodal resources to produce persuasive narratives that align consumerist rationalities with culturally embedded moral expectations. By examining the intersection of discourse, health communication, and gendered subjectivities, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of how digital advertising negotiates social values and identities in contemporary Chinese communication environments.

In recent decades, health promotion and communication have undergone significant transformations, increasingly shaped by neoliberal rationalities and digital media environments (e.g., Bouvier, 2024; Bouvier and Chen, 2021; Huang, 2026; Hunt, 2015). The World Health Organization (WHO, 1986) defines health promotion as the process of enabling individuals and communities to increase control over and improve their health. Against the backdrop of neoliberalism, which is described as “a political and economic approach that promotes the expansion and intensification of markets while minimizing government intervention” by Ayo (2012:101), public health promotion has become increasingly shaped by neoliberal ideas, particularly in its emphasis on individual responsibility, market-driven logic, and self-regulation. In 2024, China's central government issued a policy document titled The Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting National Health Literacy (2024–2027), which marks a strategic shift in the national healthcare agenda from a disease-centered (以治病为中心) model to a health-centered (以健康为中心) approach. The plan emphasizes the importance of enhancing citizens' health literacy (健康素养) and cultivating the notion of the individual as the sole person responsible for one's own health (自己是健康第一责任人). This reflects a broader trend towards individualized health responsibility, while remaining closely linked with moral obligations and collective social goals, i.e., To be healthy is not only good for oneself but also a moralistic contribution to national strength and social stability. In the shift away from government intervention in neoliberal societies, citizens are guided by extensive expert knowledge and market-driven health resources. They are becoming ‘consumers and enterprising individuals’ (Galvin, 2002: 117).

Accompanied by the advancement of Web technologies, the consumption and circulation of health-related content have become pervasive online practices. With the growth in the use of social networking applications, such as Facebook and Twitter, “the salience of the web as a medium for multimodal health communication” (Hunt, 2015:72) has been underscored. In China, with the marketization of the healthcare system (Yip and Hsiao, 2014), individuals are increasingly encouraged to pursue health literacy, consume health-related products, and follow expert influencers on social platforms like WeChat, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu. These platforms facilitate tailored messaging, peer-to-peer exchange, and user-generated content, all of which shape the ways health knowledge is produced, circulated, and disseminated.

The increasing commercialization of digital health communication has attracted growing scholarly attention. Digital platforms have transformed not only how health-related information is produced and circulated but also how knowledge, interaction, and commercial interests become interconnected within online environments. As van Dijck et al. (2018) argue, digital platforms increasingly function as infrastructures where public communication, user participation, and economic activities converge. Within such platformized environments, health-related content may simultaneously serve informational, relational, and commercial purposes, creating new forms of communication that blur the boundaries between education and promotion.

From a genre perspective, such developments reflect broader processes of interdiscursivity, in which different discourse conventions and institutional purposes are combined within the same communicative event (Bhatia, 2004, 2017). In digital health contexts, informational discourse, professional expertise, and promotional strategies increasingly interact, resulting in hybrid genres that negotiate competing demands for credibility, accessibility, and commercial effectiveness. Therefore, examining digital health advertisements requires attention not only to their promotional functions but also to the genre structures and multimodal resources through which health knowledge and consumer identities are constructed.

The present study investigates a specific instance of health discourse, namely a series of promotional texts published by Dingxiang Doctor (丁香医生), one of the most influential medical-information WeChat gongzhonghao (公众号, “public accounts”) in China. These texts, presented as health-related articles within the account, blend scientific health knowledge with explicit product advertising, creating a communicative space where health education and commercial promotion intersect. While health promotion campaigns traditionally position audiences as informed recipients of expert knowledge (Lupton, 1999), Dingxiang Doctor 's advertising posts construct readers not only as health-conscious individuals but also as morally responsible consumers. Particularly, women are frequently positioned as key audiences through culturally resonant address forms and representations that associate them with both personal health management and familial caregiving responsibilities.

Despite increasing scholarly attention to neoliberal health discourse and gendered subjectivities in Chinese digital contexts, existing studies have primarily examined how individuals negotiate these ideological pressures in everyday practices (e.g., Bouvier, 2024; Bouvier and Chen, 2021). Less attention has been devoted to how institutional actors and commercial health platforms strategically mobilize neoliberal and Confucian discourses through promotional genres. To address this gap, the present study integrates Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to examine how Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements construct gendered consumer identities through the interaction of genre structures, linguistic choices, and visual resources.

Specifically, this study addresses the following research questions:

RQ1: How are health advertisements on Dingxiang Doctor structurally organised as hybrid promotional genres?

RQ2: What linguistic and multimodal resources are employed to construct gendered consumer identities in Dingxiang Doctor 's health advertisements?

RQ3: How do neoliberal notions of individual health responsibility and Confucian ideals of familial duty intersect in constructing women as responsible health consumers?

By answering these questions, this study contributes to research on digital health communication in three ways. First, it extends critical genre studies by illustrating how advertorial discourse adapts promotional genre conventions within a health-oriented social media environment. Second, it demonstrates how linguistic and visual resources jointly construct gendered consumer identities in digital health advertising. Third, it reveals how neoliberal consumer rationalities and Confucian moral frameworks are co-articulated in contemporary Chinese promotional discourse.

Advertisement and health promotion

Advertisement has increasingly become a prominent strategy within contemporary health promotion campaigns. Bhatia (2004) conceptualises this process as “promotional genre colonization”, whereby commercial discourse infiltrates traditionally non-promotional genres in order to acquire legitimacy and enhance rhetorical effectiveness. In neoliberal contexts, where individuals are increasingly encouraged to assume responsibility for their health and bodily well-being, the consumption of health-related commodities has become closely associated with practices of self-care and self-improvement. Influencer-driven health advertisements, for instance, often simulate personal narratives while covertly advancing commercial interests (Li et al., 2022). Existing scholarship has shown that contemporary health promotion and education are progressively colonized by commercial discourses, with advertising strategies now widely embedded in health communication (Brookes and Harvey, 2015). However, limited attention has been given to how health promotion itself permeates advertising practices. In health-related advertisements, the appropriation of health discourse represents a significant form of genre hybridization.

Genres in the real world are often seen in relation to other genres with a certain degree of overlap or, sometimes, even conflict (Bhatia, 2004). It has become increasingly untenable to find “pure genres” (Deng et al., 2021:30) in contemporary discourse. A number of such instances of mixed or embedded genres are now widely recognized under innovative labels, notably “infomercial, infotainment, and advertorial” (Bhatia, 2004:89). Of all the genres which tend to invade the territorial integrity of many other genres, “advertising clearly stands out to be the most predominant instrument of colonization” (ibid:89), as it successfully permeates and appropriates a range of professional genres, including academic, corporate, political, journalistic genres. This process involves strategies that range from subtle appropriation of lexico-grammatical and discoursal resources to a much more conspicuous “hybridization” (Fairclough, 1993). Such hybridization not only blurs generic boundaries but also enables the creative deployment of multimodal resources, whether to attract readers or to foreground particular communicative moves traditionally realized through conventional lexico-grammatical means (Bhatia, 2004: 68)

The genre appropriation of health communication discourse into advertisement may trigger a particular text construction and “a host of conventionalized verbal and visual rhetorical strategies” (Askehave and Nielsen, 2005: 122). Mobilizing within China's neoliberal and socio-cultural context, the linguistic and multimodal strategies applied in the genre can construct the identity of its discourse community.

Advertisement in Dingxiang Doctor

In the post-pandemic context, a growing number of public accounts, sponsored either by governmental authorities or public organizations, have emerged as key platforms for disseminating medical information to lay users, offering health consultation, and communicating national health policies. These accounts frequently deploy the linguistic and semiotic resources of advertising in order to achieve the broader objectives of health promotion and education (Brookes and Harvey, 2015). At the same time, however, their proximity to corporate capitalism has led some accounts to pursue profit-making strategies. A common practice is the insertion of dedicated advertising sections that appear alongside informational content. Among accounts of this type, Dingxiang Doctor has become a prominent medical-information account in China due to its widely recognized medical authority and extensive readership.

This promotional practice resembles the genre of the advertorial, typically published as a separate section in magazines or newspapers (Zhou, 2012). The label “advertorial” highlights the hybridization of genres, as it reflects “the appropriation of promotional and journalistic genres, specifically advertisements along with editorials” (Deng et al., 2021: 31). Existing scholarship has largely concentrated on identifying the characteristics and features of advertorials in print media (e.g., Deng et al., 2021; Kim et al., 2001; Zhou, 2012). By contrast, the advertorials examined in this study are embedded within mobile social media platforms. This digital environment calls for closer attention to the affordances and constraints of digital genres (Askehave and Nielsen, 2005), which may suggest a somewhat different analytical perspective from that adopted in studies of traditional print contexts.

Confucian neoliberalism, gendered health responsibility, and consumer subjectivity

Neoliberalism has profoundly reshaped contemporary understandings of health by redefining individuals as active managers of their own bodies and well-being. Central to neoliberal health discourse is the notion of responsibilization, whereby individuals are encouraged to monitor, regulate, and improve themselves through personal choices and market-based resources (Ayo, 2012; Galvin, 2002). Rather than being understood primarily as a collective or institutional concern, health increasingly becomes framed as an outcome of individual behaviour, lifestyle decisions, and consumption practices. Within this framework, health-related commodities are not merely functional products but become symbolic resources through which individuals demonstrate self-management and responsible citizenship. However, neoliberal health discourse does not operate in isolation from existing cultural and social structures. In the Chinese context, neoliberal rationalities have been negotiated through local moral frameworks rather than simply replacing traditional values. Previous studies have therefore highlighted the emergence of a hybrid ideological formation often described as “Confucian neoliberalism” (Ji and Wu, 2018), in which neoliberal ideals of self-enterprise and individual improvement coexist with Confucian expectations concerning social relationships, family obligations, and moral conduct.

This intersection is particularly evident in the construction of women's identities. On the one hand, neoliberal discourse encourages women to pursue autonomy, self-improvement, and personal well-being. On the other hand, Confucian gender norms continue to associate women with relational responsibilities, particularly within the family domain. The traditional distinction between nei (内, domestic sphere) and wai (外, public sphere) has historically positioned women as caregivers responsible for maintaining family harmony, whereas men have been associated with external economic provision (Lazar and Sun, 2020). Consequently, contemporary Chinese women often encounter a dual expectation: they are encouraged to invest in themselves as autonomous individuals while simultaneously being morally responsible for the health and well-being of family members.

Xiao (孝, Filial piety) provides an important cultural framework through which such responsibilities are understood. Within Confucian ethics, filial piety represents not only obligations toward parents but also broader responsibilities for sustaining familial relationships and well-being (Huang, 1988; Yang, 2004). In contemporary health discourse, these obligations may be extended to practices of caring for children, partners, and other family members. Thus, health-related consumption can be discursively constructed not merely as an individual choice but also as an expression of moral commitment toward significant others.

Research has demonstrated that Chinese digital media frequently mobilizes this intersection of neoliberal and Confucian values in constructing gendered identities. For example, Bouvier and Chen (2021) show that fitness discourse on Weibo encourages women to pursue bodily improvement while simultaneously reproducing traditional expectations regarding femininity and self-discipline. Similarly, Huang (2026) illustrates how official WeChat health discourse constructs obesity management as an individual responsibility that is disproportionately assigned to women, particularly mothers. These studies reveal that health discourse can function as a site where personal agency and moral obligation become intertwined.

Nevertheless, existing studies have largely focused on how individuals negotiate these ideological tensions in everyday practices, while less attention has been paid to how institutional and commercial actors strategically mobilize such discourses through promotional communication. Health advertisements provide a particularly productive site for examining this process because they combine pedagogical claims, commercial persuasion, and culturally embedded assumptions about responsibility. Dingxiang Doctor 's advertorials represent such a hybrid communicative space: while presenting themselves as sources of authoritative health knowledge, they simultaneously encourage consumption by constructing particular consumer identities. Therefore, examining how these advertisements combine neoliberal self-management with Confucian familial morality can illuminate how gendered health responsibilities are discursively produced in contemporary Chinese digital communication.

Theoretical framework

This study combines Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to investigate how Dingxiang Doctor 's advertorials construct gendered consumer identities through the interaction of genre structures, linguistic resources, and visual representations. The integration of these two approaches is motivated by the hybrid nature of the data: the posts simultaneously perform the communicative purposes of health education and commercial promotion.

From a genre perspective, promotional discourse is not viewed as a fixed textual category but as a socially situated rhetorical practice. Following Swales (1990), genres are recognized as communicative events shaped by shared purposes and conventionalized strategies. Bhatia (1993, 2004) further demonstrates that promotional genres frequently appropriate resources from other professional domains, resulting in hybrid forms such as advertorials. This perspective is particularly relevant to Dingxiang Doctor, where scientific explanation, health education, and commercial persuasion are combined within a single communicative event. Accordingly, CGA is employed in this study to identify the rhetorical moves through which health knowledge and product promotion are organized, addressing the first research question concerning the genre structure of these advertisements.

However, genre structures alone cannot fully explain how ideological meanings are constructed, particularly when communication extends beyond written language. Health advertisements do not only tell audiences what products can do; they also represent particular identities, lifestyles, and moral expectations through visual and verbal resources. MCDA provides a suitable framework for examining such processes because it views meaning-making as a multimodal practice in which different semiotic modes contribute to the construction and naturalisation of social meanings (Machin, 2013; Machin and Mayr, 2023). Therefore, MCDA enables this study to investigate how linguistic and visual resources jointly construct gendered consumer positions, addressing the second research question.

More specifically, the combination of CGA and MCDA allows the analysis to move from rhetorical organization to ideological effects. At the genre level, moves reveal how Dingxiang Doctor organizes health knowledge and promotional strategies. At the micro-discursive level, linguistic and visual choices reveal how audiences are positioned within these rhetorical structures. Such positioning is particularly important for understanding neoliberal health discourse, in which individuals are encouraged to perceive health management as a personal responsibility, and gendered discourse, in which responsibility is unevenly distributed among social groups (Ayo, 2012; Galvin, 2002; Huang, 2026).

Within this framework, linguistic features are analyzed not as isolated textual elements but as resources through which relationships between the institution and consumers are constructed. Pronouns are examined because they play a crucial role in establishing interpersonal relations, degrees of involvement, and alignment between writers and readers (Fairclough, 1989; Hyland, 2005). In health promotional discourse, the use of second-person pronouns may position readers as active decision-makers responsible for managing their own health, while inclusive first-person plural forms may reduce institutional distance by creating a sense of shared experience and collective responsibility. Nominations are analyzed because naming practices contribute to the categorization and representation of social actors. As van Leeuwen (2008) argues, discourse does not simply describe social groups but actively constructs particular identities through processes of inclusion, exclusion, and classification. Therefore, gendered address forms such as jiemei (姐妹们, “sisters”) and baoma (宝妈们, “mothers with young children”) are examined as discursive resources through which female consumer identities are produced and normalized.

Visual analysis focuses on participants, actions, settings, and colors because these elements contribute to the representation of social roles and ideological meanings. Drawing on Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar, representations of participants and their actions can indicate how social actors are positioned in relation to products, activities, and other participants. For example, the repeated portrayal of women as users, caregivers, or recipients of health products may contribute to the construction of gendered consumer identities. Similarly, visual settings and colour choices are analyzed as contextualizing resources rather than as possessing fixed meanings. Following multimodal critical discourse approaches (Machin and Mayr, 2023), visual elements are interpreted in relation to their co-occurrence with linguistic content and broader cultural contexts. Thus, rather than assuming that a particular colour or image inherently represents a specific ideology, this study examines how visual choices interact with textual descriptions to reinforce particular narratives of health, femininity, and responsibility.

Data collection and corpus construction

The data analyzed in this study were collected from the Haowu (好物, “Good Commodities”) section of Dingxiang Doctor, a dedicated channel for health-related product recommendations within the account. Unlike user-generated health discussions, this section consists of publisher-generated promotional posts that combine health knowledge dissemination with commercial recommendations, making it particularly suitable for examining hybrid health advertising discourse. Data collection was conducted between 6 March and 10 June 2025. This period was selected because it coincided with the promotional cycle surrounding China's 6.18 shopping festival, one of the largest online retail events in China. The sampling period therefore captured both the pre-promotional phase, during which products were introduced and consumer interest was cultivated, and the promotional phase, during which commercial incentives and purchasing appeals became more prominent. Initially, 112 promotional posts were collected. After removing duplicated advertisements and repeated posts promoting identical products, 100 unique posts were retained as the final corpus. These 100 posts constitute the textual corpus for the genre analysis and corpus-assisted linguistic analysis, comprising 135,729 Chinese characters. The textual content of these posts was extracted, cleaned, and converted into plain-text files for corpus analysis, while embedded images and photographs were excluded from the textual corpus. The corpus was segmented using AntSegment, and lexical patterns were subsequently examined through AntConc 3.5.1. Frequency analysis and concordance searches were conducted to identify recurrent linguistic features, particularly personal pronouns and gendered nomination forms, which were further interpreted in relation to the qualitative discourse analysis.

For genre analysis, the corpus was examined through close reading based on established move-analysis frameworks for promotional discourse (Bhatia, 1993, 2004; Li et al., 2022; Zhou, 2012). A pilot analysis of 10 posts was first conducted to refine the move scheme and clarify ambiguous cases. Following this process, the complete corpus was independently annotated by the authors. The annotation achieved a Cohen's Kappa coefficient of 0.81, indicating a high level of inter-annotator agreement. The annotated data were processed using MAXQDA to identify move distributions and rhetorical patterns across the corpus. The move scheme applied in the present study is shown in Table 1.

Given the interpretive depth required for multimodal critical discourse analysis, a purposive subsample (Patton, 2015) of 30 posts was selected from the corpus for detailed multimodal examination. Rather than aiming for statistical representativeness, this subsample was designed to capture rich instances of multimodal meaning-making. The selection criteria included: (1) the presence of substantial visual materials rather than purely decorative product images; (2) the representation of human participants, social actions, or lifestyle contexts; and (3) relevance to the construction of health-related identities and consumer subjectivities. The 30 selected posts were analyzed through the multimodal framework introduced in Section 2.1, focusing on the interaction between verbal and visual resources. Specifically, the analysis examined how textual elements, such as pronouns, nominations, and evaluative descriptions, interacted with visual representations of participants, settings, actions, and products to construct gendered consumer identities.

Corpus-assisted quantitative analysis

To complement the qualitative analysis, this study adopts a corpus-assisted approach to identify recurrent linguistic patterns within the dataset. Corpus methods are not employed as an independent statistical framework, but rather as a means of systematically identifying salient linguistic features that warrant further critical interpretation. As Baker (2006) notes, corpus-assisted discourse studies combine quantitative patterns with qualitative examination to reveal how linguistic choices contribute to the construction of social meanings.

In this study, AntConc 3.5.1 was used to generate frequency lists, examine concordance lines, and identify recurrent lexical patterns. Particular attention was paid to interpersonal resources, including personal pronouns and gendered nomination forms, because these features directly relate to the construction of relationships between the publisher and potential consumers. Frequencies were calculated both in raw counts and normalized frequencies per 10,000 Chinese characters to account for differences in distribution and to facilitate interpretation across linguistic categories.

Quantitative results were subsequently integrated with close textual analysis and MCDA. In other words, frequency patterns were not interpreted as evidence of ideological meaning on their own; rather, they served as indicators of recurrent discursive strategies that were examined within their linguistic, visual, and socio-cultural contexts.

The genre analysis of hybrid health advertorials

In the present study, Bhatia's (1993, 2004) framework for the promotional genre is largely applicable, however, certain context-specific variations are also observed. According to Bhatia (2004), move structures can vary according to the social and cultural contexts in which they operate. They may exhibit flexibility or indeterminacy, meaning that rhetorical strategies used to realize a particular move can differ even when the communicative purpose remains constant.

First, the move sequence identified in the present corpus demonstrates greater flexibility than that proposed in Bhatia's model. While Bhatia's (2004) overarching move structure positions “soliciting response” as the final step to prompt consumer action, in this dataset, the move frequently appears in mid-text, embedded in a hyperlinked image that directs prospective buyers to the payment or comment page.

Second, the rhetorical strategies are more publisher-centric. This is particularly evident in the moves of “establishing credentials” and “celebrity or typical user endorsement”. Prior studies (e.g., Zhou, 2012) have shown that strategies for establishing credentials vary widely, often relying on visual cues such as laboratory settings or representations of corporate identity and reputation to reinforce product credibility. In the case of Dingxiang Doctor, however, this move is primarily realized through the provision of scientific data, charts, and evidence-based argumentation. In addition, features of the academic research article genre are appropriated to further project the authority and reliability of the promotional content, such as using in-text citations of scientific articles to highlight the publisher's views.

An interesting deviation is also found in the “celebrity or typical user endorsement” move. Unlike conventional advertisements that feature celebrities or public figures, Dingxiang Doctor avoids celebrity references altogether. Instead, credibility is constructed through endorsements from typical users' real-life experiences and the Dingxiang brand itself. As Zhou (2012: 328) observes, audiences are more inclined to trust recommendations from reliable individuals or impartial media sources. In this case, the “reliable individuals” are framed as the platform's editors, former users, and the Dingxiang Doctor 's R&D team. Moreover, Dingxiang Doctor, while ostensibly dedicated to the dissemination of health knowledge, is strategically constructed as a neutral and authoritative media entity. This positioning functions as a persuasive strategy, lending credibility to the promotional content and subtly framing consumption as an informed, trustworthy, and socially responsible action.

Third, a distinctive rhetorical step is integrated into the move of “describing the product or service”, namely, “presenting professional knowledge” (See Table 1). In addition to identifying the product, outlining its attributes, and emphasizing its value, Dingxiang Doctor systematically incorporates relevant professional knowledge into this move. Such knowledge spans both general public health information and more specialized scientific content. For example, when promoting food products, the platform provides explanations of how specific ingredients benefit health; when marketing electric fans, it educates consumers on the distinctions between different types of airflow and their implications for both health and product selection. This tendency to embed professionalized knowledge not only enhances the credibility of the promotional discourse but also demonstrates how the platform adapts existing genre resources to its communicative goals. This finding suggests that Dingxiang Doctor, while positioning itself as a public account dedicated to health knowledge dissemination and communication, simultaneously constructs a hybrid identity that merges professional authority with consumerist appeal. In doing so, it operates within the broader neoliberal context, resembling the self-branding practices of “teacher influencers” on social media (Sun et al., 2025).

While Bhatia (2004) proposed an overarching move structure for promotional discourse, he also emphasizes that the frequency with which individual moves occur may vary. Within structural genre analysis, moves are typically classified into two categories, namely obligatory moves and optional moves. The former refers to the “essential element used to achieve the main communicative purpose of the genre” (Yu, 2020: 3), whereas the latter is defined as “a complementary element and has the function in enhancing the communicative effects” (ibid: 4). However, there is no consensus on the frequency threshold required to distinguish obligatory moves from optional moves. Drawing on previous studies (e.g., Li et al., 2022; Onder, 2013), this study defines moves that appear in more than 80% of the data as obligatory, with all others categorized as optional.

In the case of Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements, five moves exceed the 80% threshold and are therefore treated as obligatory: “Headlines”, “Justifying the product or service”, “Detailing the product or service”, “Offering incentives”, and “Soliciting responses”. All remaining moves are considered optional, with their distribution presented in Table 2. Since obligatory moves constitute the core communicative stages of the genre, the following analysis focuses primarily on obligatory moves while also discussing optional moves when they provide important insights into the construction of authority and consumer identities.

Multimodal realization of promotional moves and gendered consumer identities

Following the genre analysis, this section examines how individual promotional moves are realized through the interaction of linguistic and visual resources. Rather than treating textual and visual elements as separate analytical categories, the analysis adopts a multimodal perspective in which different semiotic modes jointly contribute to the achievement of communicative purposes. Specifically, each move is examined in terms of its rhetorical function, linguistic realization, visual realization, and ideological implications for the construction of consumer identities.

As shown in Table 3, interpersonal resources occur frequently throughout the corpus, indicating that Dingxiang Doctor 's promotional discourse adopts a highly interactive rather than purely informational style. The frequent use of the second-person pronoun ni (你, “you”) (608 occurrences; 44.8 per 10,000 characters) demonstrates a direct orientation toward individual readers, discursively positioning them as engaged participants in health-related decision-making. Meanwhile, the frequent occurrence of inclusive first-person plural forms women and zanmen (我们/咱们, “we”) (682 occurrences; 50.2 per 10,000 characters) suggests an alternative interpersonal strategy through which the publisher reduces institutional distance and constructs a sense of shared experience with consumers.

The move of the headline

Zhou (2012: 323) generalizes that the primary function of headlines in advertorials is “to provide key information or the topic of the whole article”, ultimately aiming to capture and sustain readers' attention. What distinguishes our findings, however, is the particular form these headlines take. All headlines in the present corpus occur in the form of full sentences and conclude with an exclamation point, with only one exception, which ends with a question mark. Drawing on Berkenkotter and Huckin's (1995) observation, the use of full-sentence titles in academic articles is typically intended to foreground informativeness. As Haggan (2004: 296) succinctly notes, “the over-arching pragmatic aim [of full-sentence titles] must be to inform, and to inform quickly”.

From a pragmatic perspective, the headlines in our corpus serve a parallel communicative function. Similar to how academic titles are crafted to navigate the constraints of dense scholarly publication, advertisement headlines on Dingxiang Doctor are designed to address the challenges of an information-saturated social media environment. WeChat users, who are exposed daily to an overwhelming volume of messages, must decide within seconds whether a particular post is worth engaging with, making the headline their crucial first point of contact. In this context, the preference for full-sentence structures, which are often reinforced by exclamation marks in our data, strategically positions these headlines to both inform and entice readers. By doing so, the headline transforms the fleeting act of attention into the possibility of attention, aligning linguistic form with pragmatic function.

Building on this pragmatic interpretation, the headlines under investigation can be further categorized into three distinctive strategic groups, each reflecting a different mode of attraction: (i) generating curiosity, (ii) conveying health knowledge, and (iii) exerting persuasive influence. Representative examples of each group are provided below to illustrate the persuasive force:

Group 1: 1) 强得可怕！丁香自研内幕大曝光（618 价格超给力）

北方人超爱吃的玉米小饼，馋哭南方人！

一个超适合：懒人的防晒装备！

Group 2 1) 天热不想有汗臭味，不到 10 秒的小动作就能搞定！

巨伤脖子的姿势，你却每天在做，1 个小东西就能缓解酸痛

前胸、后背长痘千万别忽视！很可能是它在作祟（不是螨虫）

Group 3 1) 这种饼干超好吃，但劝你别乱买！

为什么有空调了，我还劝你用风扇？

真的！别乱剃体毛!

Although the headlines adopt different attention-grabbing strategies, they share a striking similarity: the target product is never explicitly mentioned in the title. Instead, readers must infer the product from contextual hints (e.g., Example 2 in Group 3). This indirectness functions to arouse curiosity while simultaneously offering informative cues, thereby achieving both the pragmatic goal of engagement and the persuasive aim of product promotion. Readers' decisions on whether to continue reading are primarily driven by their intention either to satisfy curiosity, to acquire relevant health knowledge, or to follow the implicit suggestions conveyed in the headlines.

The move of using pressure and anxiety tactics

Following the establishment of consumer relevance, the move of pressure and anxiety tactics functions to introduce a perceived health problem and create a need for subsequent intervention. In promotional discourse, this move typically contributes to a problem–solution structure in which an undesirable condition is presented before the advertised product is introduced as an appropriate response (Hoey, 2001). In Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements, however, the construction of health concerns is not limited to biological risks or medical problems. Instead, health issues are frequently embedded within everyday experiences, social roles, and personal responsibilities, thereby transforming health management into a matter of continuous individual attention.

In this corpus, pressure and anxiety are primarily realized through linguistic strategies that connect health problems with ordinary life situations. Rather than presenting consumers with abstract medical information, advertisements frequently frame health concerns through scenarios that readers may personally experience. Such strategies encourage readers to interpret health risks as immediate and relevant, thereby motivating further engagement with the promoted products.

For example, in the advertisement promoting vitamin products, the statement during breastfeeding, one is so focused on caring for their babies that they neglect their own diet constructs maternal care as a potential source of personal health neglect. At the surface level, this statement acknowledges the challenges faced by mothers; however, it simultaneously positions mothers as responsible for identifying and correcting such health deficiencies. The problem is therefore not only represented as a nutritional issue but also as a consequence of insufficient self-management.

This rhetorical pattern reflects a broader tendency in contemporary health discourse, where individuals are encouraged to monitor and regulate their own bodies through continuous practices of self-improvement (Ayo, 2012; Galvin, 2002). In Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements, this responsibility is frequently gendered. Women are represented as individuals who must not only maintain their own health but also balance health management with broader social expectations concerning motherhood, partnership, and family care.

The construction of health-related concerns is further reinforced through visual resources. From a multimodal perspective, images contribute to advertising meaning by organizing attention, representing social actors, and creating relationships between consumers and products (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006). In Dingxiang Doctor 's advertising posts, visual representations frequently employ contrastive structures, bodily close-ups, and everyday scenarios to make health problems visible and personally recognizable.

For example, the advertisement for nail fungus treatment (Figure 1) visually constructs a transformation narrative between an undesirable bodily condition and an improved appearance.

Figure 1 is a schematic advertisement depicting four manifestations of nail fungus, including nail thickening, splitting, roughness, and yellow discoloration. Through labeled illustrations of affected nails and explanatory text, the image foregrounds bodily imperfections and symptom recognition, constructing the need for nail fungus treatment through visual representations of abnormal nail conditions. (Original figure available at: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YcCgIjyOXrWus4Utn2nc8A).

The image presents different states of nail conditions, including thickening, roughness, and discoloration, followed by a visually improved representation. Through this before-after structure, the advertisement creates a clear contrast between a problematic bodily state and the desired outcome promised by the product. The communicative purpose of this visual strategy is not merely to display product effectiveness; rather, it encourages consumers to perceive bodily improvement as an achievable and necessary form of self-management. As Machin and Mayr (2023) emphasize, visual communication contributes to ideological meaning through the selective representation and framing of social realities. In this case, the advertisement draws upon contemporary expectations surrounding bodily neatness, cleanliness, and appearance management. Although the product is presented as providing a practical health solution, the visual emphasis on restoring an acceptable bodily appearance also reflects wider social norms regarding how bodies should be maintained and presented. Thus, the advertisement simultaneously addresses consumers' concerns and participates in reproducing expectations of bodily self-regulation. In terms of explicit strategies, the consumer is overtly directed as female through linguistic and visual resources. Beyond individual bodily concerns, Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements frequently construct health risks through everyday gendered experiences. In advertisements addressing women's health, fatigue, nutritional deficiency, or appearance-related concerns, female figures are often represented within familiar social contexts, such as workplaces, homes, or family environments.

For example (see Figure 2 and Figure 3), advertisements targeting mothers frequently combine verbal references to childcare responsibilities with visual representations of women experiencing exhaustion or balancing multiple roles. These two images portray everyday challenges faced by women in public and private spheres, using simplified yet expressive cartoon styles to highlight health and emotional strain. In Figure 2, the feminized address term is reinforced by the accompanying image of a young female participant situated in an everyday urban environment. The combination of the direct address form and the visual representation constructs a consumer scenario in which health concerns are embedded within women's ordinary routines. Rather than presenting health management as a purely medical practice, the advertisement frames it as a continuous personal responsibility that should be incorporated into everyday life.

Figure 2 shows a cartoon-style illustration of a woman in a subway carriage covering her nose and displaying discomfort, with surrounding passengers in the background. The image constructs deodorant consumers as female by associating odor management with women's bodies, self-consciousness, and social situations. (Original figure available at: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Iazo-Zj76O_KVCDR95sX6A).

Figure 3 is a visual representation of a woman experiencing fatigue and reduced physical capacity, accompanied by illustrations of difficulties in completing routine activities. Through the depiction of female characters, exhaustion, and a supplement tablet, the image constructs iron supplementation as a means of addressing women's health concerns related to energy and well-being. (Original figure available at: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s).

The second scene shifts to the domestic-work context, where a woman is shown collapsed on the floor with a near-empty battery icon symbolizing total exhaustion. In surrounding vignettes, she is seen overwhelmed at work and frantically chasing a child at home, capturing the dual pressures of professional duties and parenting. Feminine markers, including her high-bun hairstyle, pink clothing, and maternal interactions, clearly frame her as a mother figure. The warm pastel palette (pinks, yellows, browns) conveys a relatable and humanized tone, making the emotional and physical fatigue more approachable for audiences.

Together, these illustrations depict the cumulative stressors women encounter in daily life (from public discomfort to private burnout) while maintaining clarity and empathy through soft color schemes, rounded lines, and easily recognizable scenarios. Such visuals are particularly suited for health education materials, public awareness campaigns, or counseling resources, where the goal is to normalize these experiences and prompt supportive interventions. The imagery accompanying these texts consistently aligns with the feminine address terms, often portraying women as the central or exclusive users of the products. This multimodal strategy creates a cohesive communicative pattern, whereby the textual and visual cues work in tandem to interpellate a specifically female consumer subject.

These multimodal combinations construct a recognisable narrative: women are expected to manage not only their own health but also the demands associated with caregiving responsibilities. They contribute to the discursive construction of a particular female health subject. Through the interaction between problem-oriented language and visual scenarios, women are positioned as individuals who should recognize health risks, take preventive action, and seek appropriate solutions through consumption.

The move of detailing the product and service

Following the construction of health relevance and perceived need, the move of detailing products and services provides specific information about the advertised products and explains how they address the problems established in previous moves. In promotional genres, this move serves the communicative purpose of reducing uncertainty and encouraging consumers to perceive the product as an appropriate and effective solution (Bhatia, 1993, 2004). In Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements, however, product detailing does not merely describe product features; it combines consumer-oriented appeals with knowledge-based explanations, thereby constructing both product attractiveness and institutional credibility. As shown in Table 1, the move can be further subdivided into four steps, with an additional step, “presenting professional knowledge” introduced in the present study to capture features observed in the corpus. All four steps are classified as obligatory, given their frequency of occurrence exceeds 80 percent.

A central feature of the detailing move is the evaluation of product value. Rather than simply listing product characteristics, Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements frequently frame products as solutions to specific consumer concerns. This evaluative process establishes a connection between product consumption and desirable outcomes, encouraging readers to perceive purchasing decisions as rational responses to health needs.

In advertisements related to appearance management, products are often evaluated through concepts such as convenience, improvement, confidence, or restoration. These evaluations do not only describe functional benefits; they also construct particular consumer aspirations. In this sense, product value is produced through the relationship between the advertised object and the identity of the potential user. For example, some advertisements highlight product features through descriptions associated with facial appearance or bodily presentation, such as products designed to cover a large face. Such expressions reveal how advertising discourse may draw upon broader aesthetic norms concerning acceptable bodily appearance.

From a critical perspective, the persuasive effect of such descriptions derives from their ability to connect product consumption with socially recognizable ideals. The product is presented as a means of managing perceived bodily inadequacies, while the underlying assumption that certain bodily features require correction or concealment remains largely unquestioned. Therefore, the detailing move not only communicates product benefits but also participates in reproducing culturally specific expectations regarding appearance management.

The step of “describing the product or service” emerges as another prominent rhetorical feature within the promotional discourse under study. While certain sub-genres, such as sales promotion letters, may undermine the value of detailed product descriptions in favour of persuasive brevity (Bhatia 2004), the current dataset reveals a markedly different strategy. In Dingxiang Doctor 's promotional texts, product description occupies a central position, often articulated through detailed information on the product's composition, functional attributes, and usage instructions. These elaborations serve to equip potential consumers with both practical knowledge and a sense of trust in the advertised item's utility and value.

At the linguistic level, product functions are frequently described through technical terms, numerical information, and causal explanations. Such expressions construct an impression of rationality and effectiveness by presenting products as outcomes of scientific development rather than ordinary consumer goods. The use of specialized vocabulary also contributes to the asymmetrical relationship between expert knowledge and consumer knowledge, positioning the platform as a credible interpreter of health information. This is realized through consumer nomination expressions such as jimeimen (集美们, online expression for female friends) and baomamen (宝妈们, mothers with young children). These lexical choices not only position women as the primary consumers but also reinforce the feminization of the consumption space. In addition to these overt markers, more subtle cues directed at female buyers also permeate to the texts, as demonstrated in the following illustrative examples:

快喊上 闺蜜 、 爸妈 、 老公 、 朋友 一起入手这款防晒衣

Quickly invite your best girlfriends, parents, husband, and friends to purchase this sun-protective jacket together.

如果你家 男票 、 爸妈们 经常长时间开车， 或有旅行、摄影、钓鱼等长时间在户外的需求 ，建议入手这款有偏光效果的飞行员墨镜

If your boyfriend or parents often drive for long periods, or engage in travel, photography, or fishing outdoors, it is recommended to buy this pair of polarized aviator sunglasses.

In these examples, inclusive exhortations such as guimi (闺蜜, “close female friends”), laogong (老公, “husband”), nanpiao (男票, “online expression for boyfriend”) implicitly signal that the intended audience is female. Beyond merely identifying target consumers, these lexical choices also reflect a Confucian framing of women's dual and transitional roles, i.e., Women are expected to maintain filial obligations toward their natal families while simultaneously fulfilling the duties of dutiful wives and daughters-in-law in their marital households. In the second example, the publisher anticipates scenarios in which family members, such as parents or partners, may require the sunglasses for activities including traveling, photography, or fishing, pursuits that are often coded as male-oriented in the Chinese cultural context. This framing implicitly addresses women not only as the primary consumers but also as moral agents responsible for safeguarding the health and comfort of those around them. The discourse employed by Dingxiang Doctor thus positions product acquisition as more than an act of individual self-care; rather, it forms part of a relational ethic of care wherein purchasing for parents, partners, or friends resonates with Confucian ideals of familial reciprocity and interdependence. This alignment with culturally embedded moral obligations strengthens the persuasive appeal of the health-promotional and advertising discourse.

In addition to linguistic strategies, visual imagery further reinforces this female-oriented consumer targeting, as illustrated in the following example:

In this image, the participant depicted is a single human figure wearing an orange eye mask with white decorative patterns, which appears to be a health or relaxation product associated with eye fatigue relief. Visual cues such as smooth skin texture, absence of facial hair, softly contoured lips, and a rounded jawline suggest the figure is female. The product is explicitly promoted as suitable for consumers (both male and female) who frequently stay up late, emphasizing its steam function designed to alleviate eye fatigue. Nevertheless, the accompanying images across the text visually position women as the primary prospective user, despite the absence of overt gender-specific lexical markers in the written discourse. The portrayal of a female figure engaging with the product subtly yet clearly signals a female-oriented consumer focus, indicating that visual representation operates as a complementary cue to the linguistic framing of the advertisement.

The most distinctive feature of Dingxiang Doctor 's detailing move is the incorporation of professional knowledge into promotional discourse. Unlike conventional advertisements that rely primarily on emotional appeals, Dingxiang Doctor frequently incorporates medical terminology, research-based explanations, and data visualization to establish authority.

This strategy reflects the hybrid nature of digital health advertorials. Scientific discourse is appropriated within promotional contexts to strengthen credibility, while commercial objectives are presented through the language of expertise and public health communication. Such practices illustrate what Bhatia (2004) describes as the interdiscursive nature of professional genres, where resources from different discourse communities are combined to achieve specific communicative purposes.

小小一根，竟然包含维生素 C 和 K、B 族维生素，以及钾、硒、脂肪酸等多种人体需要的营养素 [1]

A single small stick unexpectedly contains vitamin C, vitamin K, B-group vitamins, as well as potassium, selenium, fatty acids, and various other essential nutrients for the human body [1].

(Extracted from Text 50, in which the advertised product is corn biscuits)

一般来说，防晒霜膜有「硬膜」和「软膜」两种——

In general, sunscreen films are categorized into two types: ‘hard films’ and ’soft films' 硬膜：是蜂巢状的立体结构，耐摩擦，但柔韧度差点意思，容易因为受力不均而导致防晒膜出现裂缝，甚至是崩裂

Hard films adopt a honeycomb-like three-dimensional structure that offers resistance to friction but lacks flexibility; as a result, uneven force may cause cracks or even breakage.

软膜：韧性好，又能紧密贴合皮肤，但却无法搭载更多防晒剂，导致防晒力的持久度不咋地

Soft films possess good flexibility and adhere closely to the skin, but they cannot accommodate a large quantity of sunscreen agents, leading to less durability in sun protection.

In Example 3, in order to substantiate the claim that the nutrients contained in the corn biscuits meet human dietary needs, the promotional text deliberately incorporates citations supporting the indispensability of elements such as potassium, selenium, and fatty acids for human health. These citations are formatted in a manner analogous to academic articles, with reference details provided at the end of the text. Similarly, Example 4 highlights the distinctive silicon–oxygen bond structure of a particular sunscreen product by introducing the concepts of “soft film” and “hard film” to the target consumers, accompanied by comparative images that visually demonstrate the difference between the two. Although disseminating knowledge about soft and hard films is not, strictly speaking, the primary purpose of selling the sunscreen itself, the inclusion of such health-related knowledge aligns with the overarching mission and marketing strategy of Dingxiang Doctor, which positions itself as a trusted source of medical information. Unlike other advertisements where health knowledge is merely appended as incidental information, the health-related content in Dingxiang Doctor 's promotional texts is presented in a notably academic and scientifically rigorous manner. Another semiotic resource frequently employed to project a sense of precision and rationality is the bullet list, including its numbered variant (Bouvier and Chen, 2021: 460). Often structured in three-part sequences (Reisigl, 2008), such lists function as a visual mode of condensation, reducing complex content into succinct, systematically ordered units. Rather than offering elaboration or narrative, they promote a communicative economy that foregrounds clarity, efficiency, and technical authority. As noted by Ledin and Machin (2015, as cited in Bouvier and Chen, 2021: 460), this format is closely associated with the presentation of information as stripped-down, essentialized core points. Example 4 illustrates this conventional application where each bullet point articulates a discrete, professional assertion, reinforcing the impression of formulaic clarity and technical rigor.

At the visual level, product descriptions are frequently supported by diagrams, charts, ingredient illustrations, and comparison images. These visual resources do not merely provide additional information; they organize knowledge in ways that make complex health claims appear accessible and verifiable. As Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) argue, visual representations can function as knowledge-making resources by structuring information and guiding interpretation. Consider Figure 4:

Figure 4 juxtaposes images of women participating in military training and receiving professional skin analysis, linking physical endurance, environmental exposure, and skincare evaluation. Through the contrast between a strenuous training context and a clinical examination setting, the visual constructs a gendered narrative in which women's bodies are simultaneously represented as resilient yet requiring monitoring and care. (Original figure available at: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Y-SA-Jp1Z-Vm-vS-NK2Wvg).

The composition of the image serves multiple rhetorical functions. The left panel evokes discipline, endurance, and physical activity, reinforcing the Confucian ideal of bodily self-regulation. In contrast, the right panel signals scientific care, cleanliness, and precision, locating the woman within a clinical health discourse. Together, they construct a dual subjectivity: women as both active participants in physically demanding spaces and passive recipients of technologically mediated beauty care. This contrast of discipline versus recovery and exertion versus restoration can be underscored through posture. The upright, rigid stances of the trainees are juxtaposed with the relaxed, reclined pose of the client in the clinical setting. Notably, no male figures are present in either panel, and although the product description refrains from using gender-specification, the consistent visual emphasis on women positions them as the intended consumers and moral agents within this advertising narrative. This visual configuration thus supports the construction of a female-oriented consumer identity, where health-related product use is embedded not merely in individual self-care, but in a broader ethical framework of bodily discipline and post-exertion recovery. By aligning beauty technologies with narratives of effort, service, and familial responsibility, the image appeals to Confucian-inflected ideals of female virtue, care, and interdependence, thereby enhancing its persuasive power.

The final step, “identifying the product or service”, functions as a direct response to the problem previously established through the strategy of “using pressure or anxiety tactics”. At the point where the advertisement underscores the consumer's need for a solution, Dingxiang Doctor strategically positions its product as the definitive answer to that need. In doing so, the text not only resolve the anxiety invoked earlier in the discourse but also reinforces the persuasive trajectory of the promotional narrative by presenting the advertised product as both necessary and sufficient to address the consumer's concern.

The concordance analysis further demonstrates that these pronouns frequently occur in evaluative and advisory contexts. For example, expressions such as nihui (你会, “you will”) and nineng (你能, “you can”) construct anticipated consumer actions, while wo qianglie jianyi (我强烈建议, “I strongly recommend”) establishes the publisher's experiential authority. These patterns show that Dingxiang Doctor combines interpersonal closeness with expert positioning: consumers are addressed as autonomous individuals capable of making health decisions, while the platform simultaneously maintains its role as a trusted health advisor.

In addition to the prominent use of second-person pronouns, the data also reveal the deployment of first-person single pronoun wo (我, “I”) and first-person plural pronouns women and zanmen (我们/咱们, “we”) within this move, which further strengthens audience engagement and fosters a closer interpersonal relationship between the publisher and the reader. Drawing on Hyland's (2005, 2019) model of stance and engagement, these first-person forms perform complementary functions. I typically signals the publisher's personal involvement, authority, or responsibility in endorsing health-related claims. For instance, in expressions such as wo qianglie jianyi (我强烈建议, “I strongly recommend”) and wo jiu gen yanfa jingli yizai queding (我就跟研发经理一再确定, “I repeatedly confirmed with the R&D manager”), the narrator establishes a dialogic space that invites the audience to identify with the speaker's stance and experiential authority. However, we constructs a sense of collective identity and shared experience with the audience. The “inclusive we,” which Wodak (2001) identifies as a strategy for constructing group identity, is employed to foster solidarity between the narrator and the audience. Examples include:

到 咱们 手时鱼肉还是硬邦邦的状态,新鲜度满分 (By the time it reaches us, the fish is still firm and fresh—full marks for freshness.)

(Extracted from Text 12, in which the advertised product is a kind of fish)

一默是 咱 老朋友了，它家做凉感席一直都是嘎嘎棒，用户反馈也都很不错 (Yimo (the company), has long been our old friend; its cooling mats have always been excellent, and user feedback has consistently been very positive.)

(Extracted from Text 49, in which the advertised product is a cooling mat)

In Example 5, the publisher positions both themselves and the readers as co-experiencers of a shared concern for product quality. This discursive strategy fosters solidarity, mitigates hierarchical distance, and frames the message as mutually relevant (Hyland, 2005), thereby enhancing the interpersonal connection between Dingxiang Doctor and its prospective consumers. Example 6 exemplifies the use of 咱 (a colloquial Chinese first-person plural pronoun) that denotes an “inclusive we.” Culturally, zan (咱, “we”) conveys connotations of closeness and informality and is widely used in regional and interpersonal speech to signal friendliness and trust. Its deployment thus categorizes Dingxiang Doctor and its readers as members of the same collective group, reinforcing a sense of intimacy and shared identity that strengthens the persuasive impact of the promotional discourse.

The move of justifying the product or service

The communicative purpose of this move, as outlined by Zhou (2012), is to underscore the necessity or significance of a given product by constructing a niche between the promoted commodity and comparable products already available on the market. Within the present corpus, this niche is primarily articulated through a health-related lens. The rhetorical strategy involves highlighting the advantages of the promoted product in addressing shortcomings identified in competing products or in remedying deficiencies commonly observed in similar commodities. The following examples illustrate this pattern:

我们找了目前市面上常见的，销量排名比较靠前的几款湿厕纸发现：

常见的有 苯扎氯胺、苄索氯铵 等化学杀菌剂，虽然添加量通常都很低，但对皮肤敏感的人来说，确实就不太友好了。

尤其是对 女性私处 来说，阴道里本身有正常的定植菌群，长期使用杀菌剂反会容易破坏正常的菌群平衡。

We examined several popular brands of wet toilet wipes currently available on the market and found that most contain chemical disinfectants such as benzalkonium chloride or benzyldimethyl ammonium chloride. Although the concentration of these chemicals is typically low, they are indeed unfriendly to individuals with sensitive skin. This is particularly problematic for female intimate areas: the vagina naturally harbors a balanced community of resident microbiota, and prolonged use of disinfectants may disrupt this balance.

In this example, the highlighted drawback of competing wet toilet wipes, which is the inclusion of chemical disinfectants potentially harmful to individuals with sensitive skin, serves as the rhetorical anchor for constructing a market niche. Beyond the chemical composition of products, the communicative purpose of this move is further reinforced through the recurrent use of lexical items such as calories, sugar, and energy, which are commonly associated with the causes of obesity. These lexical choices implicitly evoke concerns related to weight management and fitness, domains that, in the Chinese media context, are often framed as a matter of individual responsibility, particularly for women (Huang, 2026). This framing is especially pronounced among urban middle-class women, who are frequently targeted in discourses emphasizing fitness (Bouvier and Chen, 2021). As neoliberal values, identities, and ideas increasingly permeate China's social media, notions of female self-betterment have become closely intertwined with consumer choices and health-oriented practices.

Although accompanying images appear less frequently in this move, a notable distinction emerges in their provenance. Whereas other moves often employ stock images, the present move features non-stock, purpose-shot images (as shown in Figure 5) with disadvantages or weaknesses (found in competing products) circulated. This choice implicitly conveys that the disadvantages of competing products are identified through rigorous and evidence-based assessment, rather than fabricated by the publisher. Such original imagery indirectly reflects the authoritative and scientific persona that the Dingxiang Doctor seeks to construct, thereby enhancing the perceived credibility and trustworthiness of its promotional discourse.

Figure 5 presents original product-label images showing ingredient information from different consumer products. Highlighted sections draw attention to the disclosure of food ingredients, chemical additives, and disinfectant components, illustrating how product information is visually mobilized to distinguish one brand from competing products and to construct claims of product differentiation. (Original figure available at: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ZsNDWJuB2zMfj6_5e3Vx-Q).

The move of justifying products and services represents a crucial stage in the promotional trajectory. By combining professional discourse, visual evidence, and multimodal explanation, Dingxiang Doctor transforms commercial recommendations into seemingly rational health decisions, thereby strengthening the connection between knowledge, consumption, and responsibility.

The move of offering incentives and soliciting responses

Following the establishment of product value and legitimacy, the moves of offering incentives and soliciting responses represent the final stages of the promotional trajectory, where readers are encouraged to transform recognition and evaluation into concrete consumer actions. In conventional advertising genres, these moves function to motivate purchase behaviour by providing incentives and directing audiences toward specific responses (Bhatia, 1993, 2004). In Dingxiang Doctor 's digital health advertisements, however, these moves are integrated into a broader discourse of health responsibility, in which consumption is framed not merely as an economic transaction but as an appropriate action in response to health-related concerns.

The move of offering incentives is primarily realized through promotional strategies such as price reductions, limited-time offers, membership benefits, and festival-related campaigns. In conventional commercial advertising, such incentives are generally designed to increase purchase intention by reducing perceived economic barriers. However, within Dingxiang Doctor 's health advertising discourse, incentives are frequently embedded within narratives of health improvement and personal care.

Rather than presenting discounts as isolated commercial appeals, these advertisements often connect promotional benefits with previously established health concerns. For example, after constructing a particular health risk and introducing the product as a scientifically supported solution, the advertisement presents price advantages or limited-time opportunities as reasons for consumers to act immediately. In this way, the incentive move extends the problem–solution structure established in earlier stages of the advertisement.

This rhetorical pattern is significant because it transforms consumption from an optional market choice into a seemingly rational response to health needs. Once consumers have been positioned as responsible individuals who should recognize risks and manage their health actively, promotional incentives provide a final motivation for completing the expected action. Therefore, discounts and promotional benefits do not merely encourage purchasing; they reinforce the idea that responsible health management requires timely consumption decisions.

The move of soliciting responses represents the final transition from discourse to action. In traditional advertising, this move is often realized through direct instructions such as contacting sellers, visiting stores, or purchasing products. In WeChat-based health advertising, however, response solicitation is enabled through the affordances of the digital platform, including embedded product links, shopping interfaces, QR codes, and interactive buttons.

These multimodal resources create a seamless connection between persuasion and consumption. The reader can move directly from receiving health information to accessing the promoted product, reducing the distance between knowledge acquisition and purchasing behaviour. As a result, the communicative process established throughout the advertisement is completed through a technologically facilitated pathway from concern recognition to consumer action.

The linguistic realization of this move also contributes to maintaining a supportive rather than overtly commercial tone. Instead of using aggressive commands, Dingxiang Doctor frequently employs expressions that imply recommendation, encouragement, or shared decision-making. Such choices continue the interpersonal relationship established through earlier moves, where readers have been positioned not as targets of advertising but as individuals making reasonable choices for their own health.

The solicitation of consumer responses is further reinforced through visual resources. Promotional images often combine product displays, discount information, purchase instructions, and health-related visual symbols. These elements operate together to connect the product with both practical accessibility and desirable health outcomes.

Taken together, the moves of offering incentives and soliciting responses demonstrate how Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements transform health responsibility into consumption practice. The final stage of the promotional process does not introduce a completely new logic; rather, it completes the ideological trajectory established throughout the advertisement.

At the beginning of the discourse, consumers are encouraged to recognize health concerns and understand themselves as individuals requiring active management. Through product detailing and justification, consumption is presented as a rational and evidence-based solution. Finally, incentives and response mechanisms transform this responsibility into concrete purchasing behaviour.

This process reflects the broader operation of neoliberal health discourse, in which individuals are encouraged to manage health through informed choices and market-based solutions (Ayo, 2012; Galvin, 2002). However, as demonstrated throughout this study, such responsibility is frequently gendered and embedded within culturally specific expectations concerning care and family well-being. Therefore, the final promotional moves do not merely complete a commercial transaction; they consolidate the construction of consumers as responsible health subjects.

Hybridization of health promotion and advertising in digital genres

The analysis of Dingxiang Doctor 's advertising posts reveals both deviations from and creative adaptations of Bhatia's (2004) conventionalized move structures, reaffirming his argument that genre moves are not rigid templates but flexible rhetorical resources shaped by socio-cultural and institutional contexts. In this corpus, the sequencing of moves, the tailoring of rhetorical strategies to the publisher's identity, and the integration of domain-specific knowledge demonstrate a process of genre adaptation responsive to the affordances of digital health communication. Such adaptations show how promotional discourse in a health-oriented WeChat environment recalibrates established moves to maintain persuasive impact while aligning with the platform's ethos of trustworthiness, expertise, and public service. In this way, the findings not only corroborate Bhatia's conceptualization of promotional genres as dynamic and context-sensitive but also extend it by illustrating how genre conventions are hybridised in spaces where advertising converges with health knowledge dissemination.

This hybridization is inseparable from the ideological terrain in which it operates. Scholars have underscored that neoliberalism, often articulated as the withdrawal of state responsibility (Bouvier and Chen, 2021) or as “minimal government intervention” (Ayo, 2012: 102), remains a dominant ideological stance. In the Chinese context, neoliberal logics are evident in the promotion of individual choice and responsibility alongside market-driven development (Duckett, 2020; Huang, 2026). Within Dingxiang Doctor 's discourse, these logics manifest through the recurrent construction of women as the primary intended consumers. This finding resonates with studies documenting the heightened susceptibility of women's purchasing decisions to social media influence (Asogwa et al., 2020), and with broader research on the entanglement of neoliberal ideology with the sociocultural positioning of Chinese women in a Confucian context (Bouvier and Chen, 2021; Huang, 2026; Sun et al. 2021). The corpus shows how neoliberal ideals of autonomy, self-improvement, and productivity are woven together with enduring Confucian expectations of women's familial and moral responsibilities, particularly among urban middle-class women.

At the micro-discursive level, the promotional strategies mobilized by Dingxiang Doctor illustrate this ideological layering. The recurrent nomination of prospective consumers as female, either explicitly or through implication, constitutes a patterned rhetorical strategy. The Confucian scaffolding of gender roles, historically codified in doctrines such as the Three Obediences and the Four Virtues, provides a deep cultural reservoir for these discursive constructions. While neoliberal discourse encourages women to frame health consumption as an expression of individual agency, Confucian discourse positions such consumption as a moral obligation to family and community. The interdiscursive interplay of these two frames allows Dingxiang Doctor 's promotional discourse to appeal simultaneously to modern consumerist identities and to traditionalist values. This dynamic is evident in the lexical choices that index women as responsible for family health. Expressions such as jiemeimen (“sisters”), jimeimen (“online expression for female friends”), and phrases like wei laogong 、 nanpiao 、 fumu (for your husband, boyfriend, or parents) implicitly assign women the role of health custodians within the household. These address forms and culturally resonant signifiers work discursively to naturalize the expectation that women should assume responsibility for the well-being of both themselves and their families.

Furthermore, the platform strategically appropriates generic resources from academic research, such as technical terminology, charts, and tables, in order to bolster authority and project evidence-based credibility. Such multimodal appropriation underscores the permeability of genre boundaries in digital health communication, where scientific and commercial discourses are blended to enhance persuasive legitimacy.

As Huang (2026: 17) reminds us, it is essential to interrogate not only how a discourse is produced but also whose interests it serves. Advertising, regardless of its medium, ultimately aims to drive consumption. What is distinctive in this case is the hybridization of neoliberal health promotion discourse and Confucian moral discourse, which operates as a deliberate persuasive strategy. By aligning the neoliberal ethos of self-responsibility and active consumption with Confucian ideals of familial duty, Dingxiang Doctor constructs a powerful dual appeal. On the one hand, health product consumption is framed as an act of modern, self-directed agency; on the other, it is portrayed as the fulfillment of long-standing moral obligations. This dual framing enables the discourse to resonate across generational and ideological divides, thereby maximizing persuasive efficacy. In multimodal terms, this persuasive layering is reinforced through address forms, gender-indexed imagery, and health-related visual data, which collectively normalize the expectation that women's consumer choices should advance both personal aspirations and collective well-being.

Multimodal construction of gendered consumer identities

Addressing the second research question, the findings demonstrate that gendered consumer identities in Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements are constructed through the interaction of linguistic and visual resources. The corpus-assisted analysis reveals that interpersonal resources play an important role in establishing a conversational relationship between the platform and potential consumers. The frequent use of ni (你 “you”) positions readers as directly involved participants in health-related decision-making, while inclusive forms such as women and zanmen reduce institutional distance by constructing a sense of shared experience and collective concern.

These interpersonal strategies are significant because they transform health communication from a one-directional transmission of expert knowledge into a more interactive form of engagement. Rather than presenting consumers merely as passive recipients of medical information, Dingxiang Doctor positions them as active participants responsible for recognizing health problems and making appropriate choices. At the same time, the use of inclusive pronouns enables the platform to soften the commercial nature of promotional discourse by framing consumption as a shared health practice rather than an explicit market transaction.

Beyond interpersonal positioning, gendered nomination forms further demonstrate how consumer identities are discursively segmented. They invoke culturally meaningful identities associated with friendship, femininity, and motherhood. As van Leeuwen (2008) argues, nomination practices contribute to the categorization of social actors by making particular identities more visible and socially recognizable. In Dingxiang Doctor 's discourse, these address forms contribute to the construction of women as a distinctive consumer group whose health-related choices are connected to broader social relationships.

Importantly, these linguistic resources gain ideological significance through their interaction with visual representations. Consistent with multimodal approaches to discourse analysis (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006; Machin and Mayr, 2023), images in digital advertising should not be understood as merely decorative additions to verbal messages. Rather, visual participants, settings, actions, and compositions work together with linguistic choices to construct particular social roles and consumer identities. In Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements, the repeated representation of women as users of health products, participants in domestic scenarios, or individuals managing everyday health concerns reinforces the positioning of women as both autonomous consumers and relational subjects embedded within networks of care.

This multimodal construction extends existing research on gender and digital discourse by demonstrating how consumer identities are produced through the coordination of multiple semiotic resources. The advertisements do not necessarily impose gender roles through explicit statements alone; instead, they rely on subtle combinations of address forms, visual representations, and everyday scenarios to make certain relationships between gender, health, and consumption appear natural and familiar.

Confucian neoliberalism and the responsibilization of women's health

Addressing the third research question, this study demonstrates how neoliberal and Confucian discourses intersect in constructing women as responsible health consumers. Previous studies have shown that neoliberal health discourse increasingly frames individuals as responsible for managing, monitoring, and improving their own health through personal choices and market-based resources (Ayo, 2012; Galvin, 2002). In the Chinese context, neoliberal logics have developed alongside existing cultural and moral frameworks rather than simply replacing them (Bouvier and Chen, 2021; Duckett, 2020). The discourse of Dingxiang Doctor illustrates this ideological intersection by positioning women simultaneously as autonomous individuals responsible for self-care and as relational subjects responsible for the well-being of family members.

This finding resonates with previous research on the relationship between neoliberalism, gender, and Chinese cultural values. Bouvier and Chen (2021) demonstrate that female-oriented fitness discourse on Weibo combines aspirations for bodily improvement with enduring expectations concerning femininity and self-discipline. Similarly, Huang (2026) shows that Chinese health discourse may disproportionately assign responsibility for bodily management to women, particularly within discussions of weight and family health. Extending these studies, the present research reveals how commercial health advertisements operationalize similar ideological patterns by transforming health-related consumption into both an individual practice and a moral responsibility.

At the micro-discursive level, the promotional strategies identified in this study reveal the coexistence of neoliberal autonomy and Confucian relational obligation. On the one hand, health product consumption is framed as an expression of self-improvement, informed choice, and personal agency. On the other hand, women are frequently positioned as caregivers whose purchasing decisions contribute to the health and comfort of parents, partners, and children. The discourse extends women's health responsibilities beyond the individual body and into the broader familial sphere.

Therefore, the persuasive power of Dingxiang Doctor 's advertising discourse lies precisely in its ability to combine these two ideological frameworks. Rather than relying solely on consumerist appeals or traditional moral expectations, the discourse constructs health consumption as simultaneously modern and morally meaningful. Women are encouraged to purchase health-related products not only because such consumption improves personal well-being but also because it demonstrates care for significant others. In this way, neoliberal self-responsibilization and Confucian familial morality become mutually reinforcing rather than contradictory.

As Huang (2026: 17) reminds us, critical analysis should examine not only how discourse is produced but also whose interests it serves. Advertising, regardless of its medium, ultimately operates within commercial systems oriented towards consumption. What distinguishes Dingxiang Doctor 's discourse is the way in which commercial objectives are embedded within culturally familiar narratives of health, responsibility, and care. Through the combined operation of address forms, gender-indexed imagery, and health-related knowledge representations, the advertisements contribute to normalizing the expectation that women's consumer choices should simultaneously advance personal aspirations and collective well-being.

This study has examined how Dingxiang Doctor, one of China's influential digital health platforms, constructs gendered consumer identities through the hybridization of health education and promotional discourse. Combining critical genre analysis, corpus-assisted analysis, and multimodal critical discourse analysis, the study investigates how genre structures, linguistic choices, and visual resources work together to shape contemporary health advertising discourse.

In response to the first research question, the findings demonstrate that Dingxiang Doctor 's posts constitute a hybrid promotional genre in which commercial objectives are embedded within health-oriented communication. Rather than simply reproducing conventional advertising structures, these posts adapt promotional moves to accommodate the platform's dual identity as both a health-information provider and a commercial actor. The integration of scientific explanation, professional knowledge, and persuasive strategies illustrates how digital health advertising negotiates credibility and commercial appeal.

Addressing the second research question, the study reveals that gendered consumer identities are constructed through the interaction of linguistic and visual resources. Corpus evidence shows that interpersonal strategies, including second-person pronouns and gendered nomination forms, are frequently employed to establish relationships with targeted audiences. These linguistic patterns are further reinforced through multimodal representations that depict women as particular types of health consumers, combining images of personal self-management with scenarios of everyday care and responsibility.

Regarding the third research question, this study demonstrates how neoliberal and Confucian discourses intersect in shaping women's health responsibilities. Dingxiang Doctor 's advertisements encourage women to view health consumption as an expression of individual agency and self-improvement while simultaneously connecting such consumption to familial care and moral obligation. In this process, women are positioned as both autonomous consumers and relational subjects whose choices affect the well-being of others.

Theoretically, this study contributes to research on digital health communication in three respects. First, it extends genre-based approaches to promotional discourse by demonstrating how health advertisements in social media environments develop hybrid forms that combine informational and commercial purposes. Second, it advances multimodal discourse research by showing that consumer identities are produced through the coordinated operation of linguistic and visual resources rather than through individual semiotic modes. Third, it contributes to discussions of neoliberalism and gender in contemporary China by illustrating how market-oriented health rationalities are negotiated through existing cultural frameworks of family responsibility and care.

Several limitations should nevertheless be acknowledged. First, the study focuses on a single health communication platform, Dingxiang Doctor, and therefore does not claim to represent all forms of Chinese digital health advertising. Future research could examine whether similar patterns emerge across different platforms, products, and consumer groups. Second, although the corpus-assisted approach provides quantitative evidence of recurring linguistic patterns, future studies may incorporate larger-scale computational analysis to explore broader variations in digital health discourse. Finally, further research could investigate how audiences themselves interpret and negotiate the gendered health expectations constructed through such promotional communication.