The article deals with the controversial problem of variability in the speech genre. Briefly, different approaches to understanding the variant in linguistic literature are highlighted. On the example of comparison of well-studied appeal genres in political discourse and slogan in the advertising discourse, they are offered an understanding of them as variants of one genre. The authors’ point of view is justified by the coincidence of the communicative goal (illocutionary function) and a minor modification of other genre-forming features.