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REPRESENTATION IN ADVERTISING
Advertisements combine visual and written language for commercial purposes.
Don't forget to address both language techniques and visual techniques when analysing (or rationalising) how meaning is conveyed. You must know the metalanguage of both elements.
Don't forget to address both language techniques and visual techniques when analysing (or rationalising) how meaning is conveyed. You must know the metalanguage of both elements.
A.I.D.A.
-Attention
-Interest
-Desire
-Action
-Attention
-Interest
-Desire
-Action
Classical rhetoric can provide a framework for visual literacy and advertising
ETHOS-
The perceived credibility of the author/creator/ product
LOGOS
The logical appeals of the author/ creator/ product designed to influence the responder/ consumer
PATHOS
The emotional appeals of the author/ creator/ product designed to influence the responder/ consumer
The perceived credibility of the author/creator/ product
LOGOS
The logical appeals of the author/ creator/ product designed to influence the responder/ consumer
PATHOS
The emotional appeals of the author/ creator/ product designed to influence the responder/ consumer
Exploring images
Photographs and images created for commercial purposes aim to attract attention, develop interest and persuade the audience. Print advertisements are ideal for exploring familiar visual texts as they develop understanding of the language of visual elements, the aesthetics of visual texts, and the constructed nature of these texts as social products.
Advertisers create images for a product to target a particular audience then use the image as the main idea or feeling they want to associate with the product. The photograph, illustration or graphic must catch or arouse the interest of the audience.
Many advertisements use juxtaposition to create interest and desire in the audience. Advertisers often place the product next to visual objects to create a desire in the viewer.
In the digitally manipulated image on the right, the juxtaposition of a man with the face of a fish exaggerates the effect of climate change to evoke an emotional reaction from its audience.
Representation and Stereotypes
Many visual texts use representation to portray people, places or events. Composers use a range of conventions and choose visual texts to represent groups, ideas and popular objects to make connections with the audience.
Representations can range from a colour or icon to depict branding and product image to sophisticated layering of ideas about cultural and political issues.
Stereotyping is a representation based on the typical or commonly held idea of the subject. Stereotyping can be a way for the audience to identify familiar subjects and ideas. Advertisers will use familiar visual images and product images in sophisticated campaigns involving TV, online and social media to build brand recognition.
Many visual texts use representation to portray people, places or events. Composers use a range of conventions and choose visual texts to represent groups, ideas and popular objects to make connections with the audience.
Representations can range from a colour or icon to depict branding and product image to sophisticated layering of ideas about cultural and political issues.
Stereotyping is a representation based on the typical or commonly held idea of the subject. Stereotyping can be a way for the audience to identify familiar subjects and ideas. Advertisers will use familiar visual images and product images in sophisticated campaigns involving TV, online and social media to build brand recognition.
PERSUASIVE LANGUAGE IN ADVERTISING
COPY - the text of the advertisement
Advertisers know that 70% of people will not actually read the copy of an advertisement. So, they try to make sure that anyone who does READ the copy of an ad is “compelled”--persuaded to buy, to use, to go to, to try out their product. This is the overall purpose of the language used in an Ad—to persuade the reader. The specific purpose depends on each ad (to buy THAT product, use THAT service) It is in the copy of an Ad where the full power of persuasive and emotive language is unleashed on YOU—the reader.
Ads vary in their use of persuasive language from the Poetic (like poetry) to the Journalistic (like the news/feature articles).
YOU, YOU, YOU—and only YOU!
Advertisers know that almost everyone is the same—people are most interested in themselves first (self-interest), and then family and friends. The copy in Ads focuses on the self-interest of the reader. The most common pronoun in Ads is YOU (the second person pronoun). The word you will appear almost all the time. No other pronouns--I, me, they, mine, we will get much use.
This technique (using YOU almost always) works on the reader’s self interest. Advertisers try to cash in on human (and consumer) selfishness.
Advertisers try to make the reader (YOU) feel what its like to be there—to let the reader experience what it is like to use the product, get the benefits from using the product (more popular, slimmer, stronger, sexier). Then maybe when YOU are shopping, YOU will be compelled to buy, to use, to try.
Advertisers know that 70% of people will not actually read the copy of an advertisement. So, they try to make sure that anyone who does READ the copy of an ad is “compelled”--persuaded to buy, to use, to go to, to try out their product. This is the overall purpose of the language used in an Ad—to persuade the reader. The specific purpose depends on each ad (to buy THAT product, use THAT service) It is in the copy of an Ad where the full power of persuasive and emotive language is unleashed on YOU—the reader.
Ads vary in their use of persuasive language from the Poetic (like poetry) to the Journalistic (like the news/feature articles).
YOU, YOU, YOU—and only YOU!
Advertisers know that almost everyone is the same—people are most interested in themselves first (self-interest), and then family and friends. The copy in Ads focuses on the self-interest of the reader. The most common pronoun in Ads is YOU (the second person pronoun). The word you will appear almost all the time. No other pronouns--I, me, they, mine, we will get much use.
This technique (using YOU almost always) works on the reader’s self interest. Advertisers try to cash in on human (and consumer) selfishness.
Advertisers try to make the reader (YOU) feel what its like to be there—to let the reader experience what it is like to use the product, get the benefits from using the product (more popular, slimmer, stronger, sexier). Then maybe when YOU are shopping, YOU will be compelled to buy, to use, to try.
PURPOSE
Purpose refers to the recent creating text such as entertaining, informing, persuading or for profit ( making money). Advertising aims at mass market appeal by manipulating and exploiting the needs and desires of the target market.
THE ADVERTISING PITCH
An advertising pitch describes the proposals of an advertising agency to promote a product or service. The pitch states the objectives for the campaign and describes how the campaign will deliver its intended results. Companies request advertising pitches so that they can select the most suitable proposal from a number of advertising agencies.
THE TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience is the specific group of people the creators of the advertisement hope to reach. They are the consumers of the product or service being advertised.
Different people experience The same media message differently. Age, education, occupation, cultural background, personal beliefs and experiences affect the way each person responds to a media message.
the Target Audience influences product placement, timeslots, and the visual imagery used.
COMPOSITION
Composition refers to the way the whole text has been put together and the arrangement of elements within a visual text (sometimes referred to as layout). For example, by using images, borders and various features.
What is the visual text?
- Type: advertisement, magazine cover, poster, news photograph
- Mode: paper, electronic, billboard
- Source: print or electronic publication
- Main purpose: inform, persuade, entertain
- Subject matter: What is it about?
- Audience: Who is the targeted or intended audience?
- Date: When was the text composed?
- Composer(s): news photographer, creative director, graphic designer
- Context: personal, social, historical, cultural, workplace
How is the visual text constructed?
- Structure / layout / form
- What conventions are employed?
- Visual components: photographs, illustrations, images, animations
- Techniques: line, shape, space, movement, perspective, composition, framing, juxtaposition, appropriation
Why did the composer construct the visual text this way?
- What choices did the composer make, and why?
- What tone and style elements are used, and why?
- How do the visual elements relate to the target audience? – structure, form, appropriate, intertextuality, movement
a vocabulary checklist: |
☐ rhetoric
☐ imperatives ☐ inclusive language ☐ perspective ☐ emotive words ☐ neologisms ☐ modality ☐ generalisations ☐ statistics ☐ hyperbole ☐ puns ☐ clichés ☐ idioms ☐ figurative language ☐ bias ☐ stereotypes ☐ appeal to authority ☐ colloquialisms ☐ pathos ☐ logos ☐ ethos ☐ emotive appeals |