Introduction
Images always have had their high pedestal in advertising. A picture is actually worth a thousand words when it comes to advertising. Advertisers chose to appeal on the visual senses of their target audience rather than bog them down with long text. According to Scott, visual imagery is used to command attention, stimulate curiosity, and demonstrate product features and benefits (Scott, 1994). When the product, which is neutral to the target audience, is paired with an image that elicits some kind of reaction in the intended audience, they try to draw parallels between the image shown and the product being advertised.
According to the findings of The Visual Communications Conference, held in 1960, the targeted audience follows several involuntary steps in decoding the information relayed in visual advertisements. The steps employed in analyzing image advertisement are, analysis by content and context; Holistic analysis seeking what they image represents and the initial reaction the image invokes from the viewer.
This paper is going to examine three images, describe, compare and contrast them in a bid to understand the features that make them effective tools of advertisement.
The first image is an image advertising the R&D insecticide. The contents of the image are a frog carrying a placard with the words ‘will work for food’ inscribed in it. To the bottom of the image is an image of the R&D insecticide with a message simply stating ‘no insects left’ (http://webneel.com/webneel/blog/25-creative-and-brilliant-advertisement-design-examples-your-inspiration). The main image of the frog carrying the placard, centrally placed in the image, is the first object within the image that captures the viewer’s attention. This image immediately invokes the viewer to contemplate on the implication of the unusual combination of a frog, an un-intellectual being, carrying a written message. The unusual event conveyed in the image is the aspect that lends the main message of the advert weight. The relatively smaller image to the bottom right showing the R&D insecticide and the words ‘no insects left’ implies that the insecticide is so effective such that even frogs, who feed mainly on insects, will have to work for food after its application. The clever manner in which the images are used relay the message so strongly in a way words would not have achieved
The second image shows a baby lying in a bed wearing adult pajamas and spectacles, with a book lying in its chest implying it had previously been reading. In the bottom, there is a smaller image of a bed with the words ‘comforta’ as the brand name for the bed. (http://webneel.com/webneel/blog/25-creative-and-brilliant-advertisement-design-examples-your-inspiration).Further, there are the words, ‘sleep like it used to be’ A baby clad in adult pajamas, spectacles and seemingly reading a big volume is not a common sight. The image provokes the viewer to know why a baby would be dressed in that manner and laid in a bed with a book. From further thought and consideration of the context of the image, the viewer is able to decipher that the baby plays a symbolic role, while the main subject of the image is an adult. The baby represents the experience of peaceful sleep, while the adult clothes and spectacles point towards adults having the opportunity to sleep with as much peace as a baby. The smaller image connects the inviting prospect of comfortable and peaceful sleeping to a product, ‘comforta’. The viewer is invited to peaceful and comfortable sleeping experience by buying the comforta bed. The image concludes with a promise of satisfaction by inviting the viewer to ‘sleep like it used to be’
The final Image shows a couple in bed and the interesting choice of use of their sleeping masks. At the bottom of the image is an image of a bottle of Colgate Plax, a mouthwash product from the Colgate Palmolive. (http://webneel.com/webneel/blog/25-creative-and-brilliant-advertisement-design-examples-your-inspiration).The man is seen sleeping with his eye mask covering his eyes while the girl has hers covering her mouth and nose. On closer inspection, the man has his mouth open. The image leads one to wonder why the girl in the Image chose to use the mask in the way she did. Since the man is seen sleeping with his mouth open, the girl is likely shielding her nose from a smelly mouth by covering it with her sleeping mask. From the posture of the couple, they seem like intimate individuals and thus try as much as they can to keep each other comfortable. The choice of the girl, covering her nose with her sleeping mask rather than looking the other way, implies that she cares for him but suffers in the process of doing so. The image of Colgate Plax at the bottom of the image, without any remarks to it, provides closure by offering Colgate as the solution against a smelly mouth and towards a more comfortable sleeping experience between couples.
The images all have common characteristics such as the use of images to invoke thought in the viewer, before offering an image of the product and creating a link between the circumstances in the main image and the product. The product in the smaller images solves an existing problem. For instance, the Colgate Plax image in the final advertisement offers a solution to a smelly mouth. The first image provides a scenario that would occur, albeit in a humorous way, following the use of the R&D insecticide where all insects would die and frogs would have to work for food. Finally, the other image invites the viewer of the image to a near unlikely but highly desirable scenario of sleeping as comfortably as a baby does.
All the images employ aspects of humor in different ways in trying to bring into perspective the message they carry. The portrayal of need in a humorous way helps the viewer in avoiding the feeling of shame for suffering from the problem and thus seeks ways to solve the problem more readily. The images have two segments with the major image presenting the message of the advertisement, while the smaller image provides the means to achieving the end.
References
25 Creative and Brilliant Advertisement Design Examples for your inspiration. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://webneel.com/webneel/blog/25-creative-and-brilliant-advertisement-design-examples-your-inspiration
Scott, L. M. (1994). Images in Advertising: The Need for a Theory of Visual Rhetoric. Journal of Consumer Research. doi:10.1086/209396
Visual Communications Conference, I. (1960). Symbology: The use of symbols in visual communications. New York: Hastings House.
