"VAE, DÁ PRA FAZER!": Entrepreneurship and Neoliberal Discourse

Abstract

This study proposes a linguistic-discursive analysis of the jingle "Vamos Ativar o Empreendedorismo (VAE)", aired by Rede Globo since 2020. The commercial project circulates in Brazilian television space and digital environment, propagating the neoliberal ideology in one of the largest Brazilian broadcasters. We discuss neoliberalism and its ideology from a Marxist perspective, through studies by Saad Filho (2015), Boito Jr (1999), Harvey (2005), and Dardot and Laval (2016), emphasizing the centrality that entrepreneurship assumes in its discourse. Neoliberal ideology abstractly and selectively rejects state participation in the economy. Thus, the discourse of entrepreneurship, based on free enterprise and the market, emerges as a counterpoint to state action, placing the solution to complex social problems such as unemployment and poverty in the individual sphere. To reflect on this enunciated discourse, we base our investigation on Charaudeau (2010, 2011), especially on the discourse linguist's studies on political language and media language. Although it is an advertisement conveyed by the Brazilian press, the neoliberal ideology is present practically everywhere in the world, varying according to each concrete reality. Supported by this ideology, the neoliberal policy has resulted in the increase of inequality and labor precariousness, but it remains hegemonic. We seek to reflect on the role of discourse in its legitimation.