Advertisers are constantly trying to grab the attention of a viewer. Using rhetoric theory, an advertiser will take a poster, design it in such a way so a person will stop for a moment, review it, digest it, and be influenced take action (buying a product, service, etc.). Take the ad above for instance. You might walk by this poster, glance at it and say, what is going on here. The consistently light background draws your eye to search for something. You find a spot to look and that is the center where you see a strand of hair going through some liquid. You wonder, what is the purpose of this? You seek for a definition that leads you to look for something. Normally you would look from left to right and then downward. But nothing is on the left so you see that there is a dark colored bottle in upper right with small text above it. You might step up to the poster to read what the text is that says “for thick hair”. You then realize this must be some kind of shampoo, you look at the bottle and it is. You have now have been hooked, you looked, you consumed what was being conveyed, you figured out what the hidden message is (hair shows thicker in the liquid), you discover it is Parachute shampoo, you have an ah ha moment and a “that’s cleaver” moment. That adds a feeling to the message which in turn will allow for a better memory to be created. Parachute shampoo is the linguistic piece of the photo and it is very easy to see how creative advertising ties in the photo to the linguistic messaging.
Awesome picture to tie in with what you have written. It is a great depiction of creative advertising and it is very easy to see how the advertising ties the photo to the linguistic message. I enjoyed reading this
ReplyDeleteGreat take on creative advertising. I agree, when an ad or commercial is funny, clever, or interesting it sticks more with me. I also like your example. It seems that the use of "empty space" may be something advertisers utilize, because it causes us to really look at the picture.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post to understand the reading. It is an interesting ad, which i had to try to figure out, but once you explained, it made perfect sense. This is almost like a before and after image too. Say with shampoo that is supposed to make your hair shinier. To the left you'll see the dull hair before shampooed and to the right the new shiny hair after it has been shampooed. Great example you had!
ReplyDeleteGood blog. Are you a marketing major by any chance? You did indeed pick a perfect advertisement to help explain the rhetoric theory.
ReplyDeleteIt takes unique and creative minds to put together an ad like the one you shared above to get the attention of consumers.
@Kelly.bruns- I am not a marketing major, I am in media and technology. But, I have been a web designer for 16 years so in a way I do do marketing but have never had any offical training. Maybe I should go into marketing, I really do like it and do know a lot about it. Glad you liked the post. Time to change careers, thanks ;)
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone here that this perfectly explains rhetoric of an image and that when an ad is funny or odd it stands out more to me than any old ad that describes a product plainly. Taking a different approach is an effective way to market a product.
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