From Emotional Investment to Commercial Asset: A Critical Digital Discourse Analysis of Affective Brand Relational Narratives on Platform X

Abstract

In the contemporary digital landscape, brand communication on platforms like X has transformed into interactive, participatory engagement. This study employs Critical Digital Discourse Analysis (CDDA) to examine the quasi-romantic narrative constructed through the interaction between Toshiba TV and Amanda Brownies. By bridging Fairclough’s critical discourse perspective with Bowlby’s attachment theory, we analyze how this constructed persona generated deep relational expectations and collective emotional investment. Organized through a five-phase model emergence, intensification, rupture, repair, and resolution, the findings reveal how communicative shifts, such as sudden silence, triggered anxious attachment dynamics in the audience. Subsequent repair was achieved through visually "controlled authenticity," actively co-constructed by stylized fan art. While the symbolic "engagement" provided affective closure, the study concludes it was immediately converted into quantifiable commercial success metrics, proving that affective branding functions as a creative site of continuous social negotiation between corporate actors and affective publics.