The Visual Message in the Broader Frame of Communication

The Visual Message in the Broader Frame of Communication

So far the discussion has centred on the language of advertising and its devices, now let us proceed with exploring the visual message of an advertisement. No one would argue against the fact that pictures communicate, nevertheless, analysis of a picture message is challenging. Picture-appeal range and its impact differ considerably from person to person. Vestergaard and Schroder claim that: ‘Outside such conventionalized sub codes as road signs, it is not possible to analyse images in terms corresponding to the sentences, words, morphemes and phonemes of language” (36). Thus, pictures offer almost countless variety of possible interpretations. This chapter discusses pictorial modes and their essential role in understanding a particular message of advertising wholly.

1. The Visual Message: Iconic Images, Indexical Images and Symbols

As stated above, pictures play an important role in the communication process of advertising “creating mood, imparting information, persuading and making claims so strongly that, if language features at all – and there are many ads in which it does not – it is often only in a peripheral or auxiliary way” (Cook. 42). Even in those advertisements in which the language mode is dominant, images contribute to the meaning of words used. Let us now go on to describe different types of images used in advertising: iconic images, indexical images and symbols respectively.

To conclude, both verbal texts and images can be described as means of communication. A combination of these two modes is highly used in advertising with the difference that images offer a wider range of possible interpretations. An interesting finding is that the majority of important verbal and pictorial information can be found on a diagonal heading from the upper left corner of the advertisement to the lower right. This diagonal might be explained by the fact that most people scan texts and pictures in this way (ibid. 60). The last chapter of the theoretical part of the thesis thus broaches the area of how to create a captivating layout of a print advert. At this point, terms such as Illustration, Headline, Body Copy, Signature and Slogan are covered.

3. The Structure of an Advertisement/What People React to the Best

One of the most successful admen of all time, David Ogilvy, in his guide to the world of advertising, shares his life-long experience with responses of people to different types of printed advertisements: “I never cease to be struck by the consistency of consumer reactions to different kinds of headline, illustration, layout and copy – year after year, country after country” (Ogilvy. 70).

Already mentioned objectives of an adman’s tasks, i.e. attracting attention, arousing interest, stimulating desire, creating conviction and getting action, need to be reflected in the structure of an advertisement as well. Taking into consideration the usual constituents of a printed advertisement: an illustration, a headline, a body copy, a signature line and a slogan, let me now investigate the roles of the first three, the most important ones, more thoroughly.

1. Illustration, Headline, Body Copy

Based on several factor analyses and direct customer response tests, Ogilvy provides a summary of typical customer behaviour as far as the structure and constituents of a printed advertisement are concerned. According to his findings “readers look first at the illustration, then at the headline, then at the copy” (Ogilvy. 88), the constituents are thus detailed respectively.

1. Illustration

A well chosen picture can be worth of thousand words. Studies show that photographs attract more people than drawings; furthermore, “the kinds of photographs which work hardest are those which arouse the reader’s curiosity [...] ‘What goes on here?’ ” (ibid. 76). To answer the question, the reader is forced to go through the advertisement, thus the more appealing the photographs are the more people read the advertisements. Ogilvy further argues that illustrating the end-result of using a particular product fascinates readers. This approach is apparent mainly in the branch of cosmetics advertising. Another successful strategy concerning images is called endorsement, in which human’s need for identification is exploited, that is why so many famous people are asked to lend their faces and bodies to different brands.

2. Headline

While creating a headline, which is, according to Ogilvy, read five times more than a body copy, it is inevitable for an adman to catch the attention of a possible buyer by promising him or her a benefit or offering helpful information. Ogilvy further goes on claiming that headlines which contain news (a new product, improvements to the old product, etc.) are recalled by 22 per cent more people than headlines without news. Focusing on vocabulary people tend to react to, the adman should not “scorn tried-and-true words like amazing, introducing, now, suddenly” (ibid. 71). Several studies on the subject of words and their emotional impact have been carried out in order to get an indication of which words are typically used in advertising. Other facts the adman should consider is the length of the headline (headlines of ten words sell the best) and the use of specifics: “Specifics are more credible and memorable than generalities” (ibid. 74).

3. Body Copy

According to Ogilvy the average readership of a body copy of a printed advertisements is about 5 per cent, which does not seem to be much, but taking into consideration another research carried out by MPA-The Association of Magazine Media in 2012 claiming that “92 per cent of Americans read magazines – including hard-to-reach millennials”, then 5 per cent can equal an enormous number. Moreover the study also shows that: “Magazines are motivating. More than 60% of print magazine readers took action as a result of a magazine ad” (MPA-The Association of Magazine Media). Thus nothing should be neglected. The text of the body copy should address the reader directly in the second person singular. Short sentences and short paragraphs should be used and an adman is advised to avoid difficult words and analogies because they tend to be widely misunderstood. (Ogilvy. 82) The length of the text is not decisive as much as the typography might be, while badly chosen typography might prevent people from reading it. As Ogilvy concludes borrowing the words of a German architect Mies van der Rohe: “God is in the details” (ibid. 90).

Having arrived at the end of the theoretical part of the thesis, I have managed to cover several issues necessary for the oncoming analyses of the Coca-Cola advertising posters. Setting the practical part into this broad general frame, makes carrying out the task as well as drawing a more precise picture of information contained in the chosen samples more feasible.