Download seeing into it: the role of visual rhetoric in global

SEEING INTO IT: THE ROLE OF VISUAL RHETORIC IN GLOBAL
ADVERTISING
Authors
Sandy Bulmer, Lecturer in Marketing, Department of Commerce, Massey University,
Auckland, Private Bag 102-904 North Shore Mail Centre, New Zealand.
Margo Buchanan-Oliver, Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing, The University
of Auckland, Private Bag 92019 Auckland, New Zealand.
Contact:
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[email protected]
64-9-414-0800 ext. 9595
64-9-441-8177
e-mail
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[email protected]
64-9-373-7599 ext. 86898
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SEEING INTO IT: THE ROLE OF VISUAL RHETORIC IN GLOBAL
ADVERTISING
ABSTRACT
Although TV is the overarching global marketing communications medium there are
few reported studies in the literature that help explain variations in TV ad
interpretation. Culture is widely accepted as an important factor in meaning
production and various language-based rhetorical devices in advertisements have been
analysed using literary approaches. However, in TV advertisements we suggest that
visuals are even more complex than text/language and strongly contribute to the
meaning of advertising. Whilst global advertisers are aware of issues surrounding
meaning in language-based communication we suggest that global advertisers need to
find an approach to understanding the interpretation of complex visual imagery. We
propose that TV advertising imagery may be better explained using the framework of
visual rhetoric.
INTRODUCTION
Successful marketing communication relies on congruence between meanings
actualised by consumers versus advertisers’ intentions and much has been written
about the motivational elements of advertisements that relate to brand information
(Baker and Lutz 2000; MacInnis and Jaworski 1989). Studies grounded in the
information processing perspective have investigated differences in response to
advertising due to factors such as varying media vehicles (Rossiter and Danaher
1998); message characteristics (Maheswaran and Meyers-Levy 1990; Meyers-Levy
and Sternthal 1991; Peracchio and Meyers-Levy 1994) and level of involvement
(Krugman 1973; Zaichkowsky 1994) etc. However, the more recent cultural
paradigm of advertising research conceptualises ads not as information but as an
indeterminate semiotic resource that becomes meaningful according to the cultural
lens used by the viewer (Holt and Mulvey 1997). The meaning approach advocated
by Lannon and Cooper (1983) stresses the subjectivity of advertising viewing
experiences (Mick and Buhl 1992). Hence, McQuarrie and Mick (1996, p.424)
suggest that a greater understanding of advertising phenomena is likely to occur now
that “researchers have at last permitted themselves to talk about meaning as well as
information, interpretation as well as stimulation”. Some empirical research has been
reported about viewer interpretation (Phillips 1997) and the ad consumption
experience (Ritson and Elliott 1999). Nevertheless, there is much to be learned about
consumer interpretation of ads, particularly in the global advertising environment.
Globalisation is an issue of great importance in the current integrated marketing
communication (IMC) environment as multi million dollar advertising campaigns are
used in many countries, in either standardised or adapted versions. The term ‘global
village’ has entered the popular lexicon thanks to McLuhan (1962) and we are told
that the world is becoming more of a single, homogeneous marketplace (White and
Griffith 1997). According to Schultz and Kitchen (2000, p.3) advances in
communications systems, digitalisation, intellectual property and information
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technology are driving changes in the marketplace. Increasingly sophisticated
computer mediated environments are making global communication more possible
than ever before (Ranchod 1998). Within the marketing literature much of the global
communication discussion has been about decisions to localise or standardise
advertisements, covering topics such as variations between national cultures (Alden et
al. 1999; Cutler et al. 1992), product category and brand age (Sandler and Shani 1992;
Whitelock et al. 1995) differences in product information (Cervellon and Dubé 2000)
and stages of product life cycle (Tai 1998). The expected advantages of a single,
global advertising campaign as envisaged by Levitt (1983) relate to cost efficiencies
and that Holy Grail – the truly global brand that has a consistent brand image in
different countries. Consequently, there is much interest in generalisable rules that
provide guidance to marketers when designing global advertising material (Domzal
and Kernan 1994; Hite and Fraser 1988; Link 1988; Theodosiou and Leonidou 2003).
Students of advertising are often presented with a range of ‘do’s and don’ts’ that
summarise the key issues faced by global advertisers. Moriarty and Duncan (1991)
considered a number of marketing criteria relating to the ease or difficulty of
standardising advertisements. They suggest that if the target audience for global
product advertising have the same needs and wants, then a standardised approach to
advertising may be used. Other authors report textual and language based issues
(Hayden Jr 1997; Ricks et al. 1974), concerning advertising gaffes made by famous
brands in foreign speaking markets to illustrate the dangers inherent in creating global
ad copy. Literal and phonic problems, such as the translation, noted by the authors, of
Ansett Airlines into Chinese to form a calque that signifies death, should be avoided.
The implicit warning is that language is the big problem in trying to use standardised
advertising and that any creative strategy that relies on communicating languagebased information is highly problematic for a global advertiser.
Consequently, it has been assumed that image based creative strategies are easier to
standardise (Moriarty and Duncan 1991), as images are perceived as more nearly
universal. This view has persisted in the literature for many years as Cutler et al.
(1992, p.7) note - “Miracle (1966) suggests that the picture in an ad is probably the
element most amenable to standardization across cultures” and has largely gone
unchallenged. However, we argue that the visual dimensions of advertising are often
extremely complex and that simplistic discussions about the universal representation
of a smile or a mother and baby do not reflect the reality of advertising as they ignore
what we know about the importance of cultural factors in sense making. Usunier
(2000, p.471) asserts that “when comparing language to pictorial elements in
advertising, many pretend that pictures are understood everywhere. This is certainly
true but does not help the international advertiser much since the issue is not whether
pictures are understood but how they are understood.” The visual dimension of print,
TV and other visual media advertisements is more sophisticated than mere language.
Although concepts might be somewhat universal, visual communication of them is
not.
We suggest the production of meaning from advertising visuals is strongly referenced
according to contextual factors and cannot be generalised as being more or less
universal. Therefore, we argue that there is conflict between the global brand strategy
literature and other bodies of knowledge such as IMC practices (Schultz and Kitchen
2000), cross-cultural communication research (de Mooij 2000) and advertising
consumption studies (Ritson and Elliott 1995). Hence we propose an integration of
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research from various theoretical domains to better understand the interpretation of
visual imagery in contemporary advertising. In so doing we assume that people are
not passive receptors of advertising – “our relationship with advertising is both
proactive and reactive – we ‘do unto’ advertising and advertising ‘does unto’ us”
(Sherry 1987, p.442). The viewer interacts with an advertisement based on conditions
independent of the advertising medium and the creative strategy. This also has
implications for the delivery of meaning in interactive and new media (Chen et al.
2000; Hoffman and Novak 1996; Shih 1998). In the following sections we discuss the
literature on ad interpretation and visual complexity, and then identify one potentially
useful approach to investigating the production of meaning from the visual
dimensions of TV ads.
VISUAL COMPLEXITY
“Advertising in the twenty-first century is increasingly abstruse, open-ended and
conceptual - at times the product or brand is hardly mentioned.” (Boutlis 2000, p.14).
Compared to traditional advertising, current marketing communications tend to be
less explicit and more reliant on indirect, clever devices. Brand advertising has
become more eye-catching over the last century - commercials have more ‘cut
through’ and impact. This is noticeable in both print and electronic media - since
television was first introduced, advertising in this medium has become a more
sophisticated and creative art form that often employs subtle and complex visual
imagery. A cursory glance through contemporary magazines also reveals visually
rich, layered and abstruse advertising which invests products with meaning (Zakia and
Nadin 1987). Commentators such as Cova (1997) suggest that some advertisers,
particularly in western countries, are communicating with post-modern consumers by
creating highly visual, ironic and illusive ads that use familiar material recombined in
unconventional ways. Such unexpected combinations of imagery occur in some
traditional types of communication, as well as in post-modern advertising,
characterised by the use of hyperreality, decontextualisation and paradoxical
juxtaposition (Firat and Shultz II 1997). Even very simple television advertising may
involve complexity due to the combined dimensions of sound and video.
Theoretically, complexity in visual advertising arises from a variety of sources. The
visual portion alone may contain numerous highly sophisticated, interrelated signs and
multiple levels of meaning for many viewers. In some cases the visual dimensions of
an advertisement may have literal meaning, where the imagery refers to objects in the
real world – for example, brochures for a brand of outdoor goods may show the
outline of a tent, illustrating the appearance of the fabric and a range of colours. The
reader easily recognises the features and tangible benefits of the illustrated product.
(NB the terms reader, viewer and audience are used interchangeably.) In other cases,
the imagery may have no literal meaning, in that the elements placed together in a
picture or television commercial do not bear an analogy to nature (Scott 1994) and do
not appear to be showing anything positive about a product. An example of this can
be seen in the visuals of a contemporary New Zealand television ad for a pizza
company. A pizza deliveryman is seen running and tackling another unsuspecting
delivery person, knocking him to the ground. The visuals are quite puzzling without
reference to a voiceover that mentions ‘tackling the competition’. In this case there is
a play on words, with a pun on the term ‘tackle’. Similarly, complexity arises when
incongruous rhetorical figures such as repeated patterns (e.g. rhyme, alliteration etc),
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substitution (e.g. hyperbole) and more complex irregularities (e.g. metaphor, pun,
irony and paradox) are used in advertising (McQuarrie and Mick 1996).
Pictures, especially videos, provide a rich form of communication in advertising.
Pictures are capable of representing “concepts, abstractions, actions, metaphors and
modifiers” (Scott 1994, p.253). For this reason many advertisers create complex
messages almost entirely through the use of visuals that refer to pre-existing
knowledge about products and consumption practices, long running commercial
campaigns and historical precedents in advertising, cultural myths and works
(Hirschman and Thompson 1997; Johar et al. 2001). Movement, text, voice, sounds
and music add complexity to visual imagery in television and cinema advertising. In
addition, the time compression required to tell a story in 30 seconds leads to
complexity that may be affected by the story grammar or episodic construction of the
television advertisement (Mick 1987). This complexity leads to a situation where the
interpretation of advertising is subject to variation in substance and depth.
Television viewers produce meaning from visuals and verbals, and from the wide
range of signs employed in complex codes and conventions. Communication in
television is not entirely linear (one word or sign after another) unlike written
language and other forms of exchange. Signifiers such as speech, music, sound
effects, colours, gestures, facial expression and movement are delivered
simultaneously. The complexity and diversity of signs and codes employed in
television means that it is potentially a highly polysemic medium open to a variety of
readings and interpretations (McQueen 1998). If the advertiser reinforces certain
meanings through repetition and over coding, then other meanings are more likely to
be suppressed, in what may be described as a closed text (Chandler 2001).
In summary, television advertising is a complex marketing communication with the
potential to signify an enormous amount in less than one minute. Television, more
than most media, offers the advertiser the opportunity to state or imply all manner of
things. If, as the saying goes, ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ then the information
embedded in a 30-second television commercial running 25 frames per second has the
potential to be equivalent to a lengthy essay. The richness and density of the
communication provides the viewer with ample opportunity to create distinctive and
unique interpretations from a single television commercial.
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MEANING PRODUCTION AND CO-CREATION
Models of communication have traditionally centred on the sender–message–receiver
paradigm whereby the advertiser sends a predetermined meaning as if it could be
parcelled up and delivered. However, Ritson and Elliott (1995) suggest that reading
an ad is not akin to using a tin opener to reveal the meanings of the message.
Similarly, the pipe model that implies that advertising flows to us through a conduit
that is inert and ‘invisible’ (only the contents are apparent to us) is flawed. Although
it is tempting to accept Saussure’s view of language as a conduit - or a drainpipe through which encoded meanings flow from one mind to another, Cook (2001)
suggests that this model is somewhat simplistic because thought is not so universal
amongst people in a community. The receivers of an advertisement may interpret it in
substantially different ways. A combination of linguistic coding and non-linguistic
knowledge creates an interpretation, perhaps resembling the intention of the sender,
but by no means identical to it.
The model of advertising literacy proposed by Ritson and Elliott (1995) suggests that
viewers work with advertisements to produce a unique interpretation of meaning. In
particular, Ritson and Elliott (1995, p.1036) presented a view of the advertising
audience “as not passive, homogenous receivers of ads containing pre-specifiable,
intended meanings but as active co-creators of meaning who display an ability to read,
co-create then act on polysemic meanings from ads that they view”. This view is
supported by Mick and Buhl (1992) who note that the meanings of fictional texts
(literary and advertising) are not given, but are actualised by the reader, given that
they make the assumptions and have the knowledge to make texts meaningful. At a
superficial level, most people viewing an advertisement (within a culture) will recover
the same denotative content – what Eco (1979) calls the first-order signification (Mick
and Buhl 1992). However, connotative meanings, or higher order significations, are
variable and idiosyncratic.
Meaning is developed or ‘co-created’ (Ritson and Elliott 1995) by consumers of
advertising in an act of synthesis that is dependent on several factors. The process of
co-creation is mediated by the influences of the social and individual realm – how the
individual reads an advertisement depends on the uses the person has for the
interpreted meaning and on their unique life experiences and plans (Ritson and Elliott
1995). Traditionally, advertising researchers have studied consumer responses to
advertising as if people were without identities and whose sole purpose in interpreting
advertising is to judge brands (Mick and Buhl 1992). However, using a
phenomenological approach, Mick and Buhl (1992) identified that life themes and life
projects shape the interpretations and deeper meanings drawn from advertisements.
Advertising invites the consumer to project their fantasies into the commercial and to
receive fantasies from the commercial (Stern 1989). During the dialogue between the
ad / art and the mind, when meaning is produced, the viewer may be engaged in a
vivid, dreamlike flow experience, reworking the ad content in an inner conversation
(Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson 1990; Rutherford 1994).
From Peirce’s (1991) semiotic perspective, the interpretation of signs is a dynamic
process. Signs get their meanings from a semiotic web in an ongoing historical
evolution (Brier 1995). The process of advertising interpretation is not merely a
matter of decoding but of active synthesis where the meaning is extended and
elaborated as the involved audience engage in processes involving cognition and
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emotion (Moriarty 1996) and where an individual’s interpretation of an advertisement
is related to their range of experiences and their cultural competence.
Hirschman, Scott and Wells (1998, p.37) propose that consumers make sense of
commercials by “tacking back and forth between their iconic recognition of the
product being shown and their ideological knowledge” (of the product). Their model
of the interpretive strategy used for making meaning from television commercials
involves passing the observed iconic representations through an interpretive lens of
culturally shared conventions that includes knowledge of advertising genres and the
socialised scepticism we have acquired about advertising.
The production of meaning takes on yet another dimension in the post-modern
literature. Brown (1993) proposed that the post-modern consumer has the tendency to
emphasise and value, form and style, as opposed to content and Leach (2000)
suggested that consumers buy the lifestyles, stories, experiences and emotions that
products convey. Marketers and their agencies connect with customers by
constructing brand imagery and linking experiences in advertising that offers the
consumer a means of connecting with others in ephemeral tribes or sub-cultures of
consumption (Cova 1997). In this view of advertising, the story becomes the product
and consumers buy brand meanings - for example, marques of cars acquire meanings
through advertising that become reality for a community of believers (Firat and
Venkatesh 1993). Car owners feel and attribute power, respect, attractiveness and
pride to the brand of car to which these meanings are attached.
Postmodern advertising may be structured and composed quite differently to more
traditional marketing communications that have direct and clear calls to action.
Instead of providing a coherent story, the text may be “littered with ambiguous
dangling signifiers”, so viewers must supply a narrative based on their knowledge of
the connotative and denotative associations of a signifier (Goldman 2001).
Consequently, consumers do not need to be offered an explicit rational product benefit
within the advertisement. An advertisement’s imagery may be meaningful and
relevant to some of the audience while others, who do not link with the imagery, may
feel that the commercial has no obvious point and is virtually senseless.
THE IMPACT OF CULTURE
We know that culture impacts on advertising meaning production (McCracken 1986)
and Sherry (1987) has proposed that advertising is “a system of symbols synthesised
from the entire range of culturally determined ways of knowing that is accessible
through ritual and oriented toward both secular and sacred dimensions of experience”.
Similarly, McCracken (1986) advanced the view that advertising works by bringing
the product and a representation of the culturally constituted world together in an
advertisement. There is an increasing awareness that the interpretation of advertising
is shaped by cultural values and the symbolic meanings of words and rituals, and an
understanding that the symbolic meanings of advertisements have to be examined “in
regard to their association with the cultural stack of stories and myths” (Belch and
Belch 2001, p.134). Furthermore there is an increasing acceptance that the relative
success of an ad depends not only on the rational merits of the message, but also on
how well it appropriates desirable mass media images, styles and cultural icons. The
persuasive appeal is not tied to the literal or factual content of the message but the
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“consumer constructed pastiche into which the images could be concocted”
(Hirschman and Thompson 1997, p.58).
Different audiences bring different cultural competencies to their readings and not
everyone employs the same codes to interpret communication. Even simple signs
have multiple connections - for example, the sign of a bluebird, either written or
pictorial, has many possible meanings. Some of the references that come to mind are
Bluebird potato chips, Nissan Bluebird car, a Vera Lynn song and a Shirley Temple
movie. Bluebirds are also associated with love and joy and are used on greeting cards
to commemorate marriages and anniversaries. The polysemic nature of texts is such
that although there may be an intended meaning, individuals within the same culture
will draw on different resources and generate new meanings. Rich and varied
reactions to advertising are the product of a co-creation process that is driven by
personally relevant events and practices. Thus, researchers are now considering
advertising in context i.e. linked to cultural, linguistic and historical factors, rather
than as an isolated event.
BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE
When interpreting an ad consumers may draw on multiple bodies of knowledge to
make sense of a vast range of stimuli that may be explicitly recognised,
subconsciously acknowledged or totally unfamiliar. Viewers use a number of
different resources to detect the evidence of intentions provided by the advertiser and
people use knowledge acquired about the characteristic structures of traditional stories
through their listening and reading experiences. Similarly, television viewers who are
familiar with genres of advertising use their knowledge to comprehend complicated
advertising stories. This type of knowledge contributes to the audience’s schemer
schema that guides interpretation and responses to advertising (Wright 1986).
The persuasion knowledge model proposed by Friestad and Wright (1994) explains
how consumers recognise, interpret, evaluate, remember and respond to persuasive
techniques. Persuasion knowledge is conceptualised as a resource based on three
different knowledge structures (1) persuasion knowledge (2) agent knowledge and (3)
topic knowledge, where the agent is the advertiser and the topic is the subject of the
advertising message (Friestad and Wright 1994). A viewer’s response to an
advertisement draws not only on the meaning of the signs they perceive (both aural
and visual) but also on their depth of knowledge regarding the brand, the product
category, previous advertising and advertising techniques in general.
Persuasion knowledge is further overlaid with knowledge of symbols, icons and
indices - signs that have connotative as well as denotative meanings. Advertising
researchers using interpretive methods have found that consumers draw meaning from
the situation as much as from the ‘message’ itself (Hirschman and Thompson 1997).
Studies of linguistics, sociology and anthropology have considered advertising in
context and much insight has been gained from research into semiotics (Mick 1986;
Passikoff and Holman 1987; Zakia and Nadin 1987), consumption behaviour
(Grayson 1999; Hirschman and Thompson 1997; McCracken 1986; Ritson and Elliott
1995; Sherry 1987), rituals, myths and binary oppositions (Broms and Gahmberg
1987; Floch 2000; Hirschman 2000; Hirschman 1987; Otnes and Scott 1996;
Rutherford 1994; Stern 1995), narrative structure and story grammar (Heilbrunn 1995;
Mick 1987; Stern 1994). Intertextuality studies (Hitchon and Jura 1997) acknowledge
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that viewers identify and use references to other texts – possibly other advertisements,
or some part of a story, film, song or artwork (Chandler 2001) – and is another area of
enquiry that augments the study of possible interpretations made of an ad.
Many different conventional systems or codes may be used to interpret
communications but ultimately codes exist within a cultural framework (Chandler
2001) and audiences may utilise knowledge systems such as tonal codes, codes of
taste and sensibility, rhetorical codes, stylistic codes and prior social knowledge etc to
guide them towards a preferred reading of the media text (Chandler 2001; Eco 1979).
Consumers know that advertisers combine fictitious stories and images together as
part of the marketing process (Holt 2002) and are able to interpret the authenticity and
judge whether they approve of the combination or not. It is clear that many different
aspects of an advertisement and of pre-existing bodies of knowledge play a role in
determining the way in which advertisements are understood. Moreover, this
knowledge evolves and increases with each exposure to an advertisement.
IMPLICIT THEORIES OF VISUAL EFFECT
Previous analyses of advertising have implicit theories of visual effects, especially,
that pictures are reflections of reality (Scott 1994). In the most extreme cases, visuals
are considered to have a direct and unconscious effect and in most cases visuals are
considered as “sensory analogues, rather than as a symbolic form” (Scott 1994,
p.257). Many studies of advertising visuals have not taken into account the context of
the visuals or the likelihood of viewers treating the entire ad, no matter how
incongruous, as information of some sort.
The role that visuals play in advertising has been conceptualised in a number of ways.
In general, researchers have used conditioning or association models and information
processing models to explain the role of visual imagery (McQuarrie and Mick 1997).
Traditionally, pictures have been used to attract attention and reinforce copy or
message claims, while verbal communication, whether text or speech, has been at the
heart of the advertisement. Visuals have been used in advertising to activate attention
and feelings, convey cognitive messages, differentiate a brand from competitors and,
unlike dense copy, they are intended to be interpreted in some way after only a
cursory glance (Franzen 1994).
The Elaboration Likelihood Model suggests that pictures are often a peripheral ad
feature that influence attitudes when people are not motivated to process other
information (Petty et al. 1991). Belch and Belch (2001) refer to the role of visuals as a
cue, suggesting that the use of an unexpected visual will grab the viewer’s attention
and get them to engage in more effortful and elaborative processing. According to the
classical conditioning paradigm, appealing visual imagery may be used to improve
attitude toward a brand; the use of attractive visuals such as adorable animals,
beautiful scenery and sexy women leads to direct affect transfer that occurs without
semantic meaning (Kim et al. 1998). Advertising researchers have also found that
pictures have a greater effect on attitude formation than words (Percy and Rossiter
1978).
Pictures, whether they be pure art forms, or those devised for overtly commercial and
persuasive purposes do not simply reflect reality. Consumption theorists complain that
advertising images shamefully misrepresent reality, forgetting that imagery is used to
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“pose arguments, raise questions, create fictions, present metaphors” and are not
intended as representations of reality (Scott 1994, p.260). Copy theory posits that
pictures resemble reality – art imitates or represents nature. However, there is some
question as to what is being imitated - “it may be the eternal forms or the essential
qualities of an object; it may be nature as an ideal or it may be a representation of the
emotions, as in Aristotle’s theory of tragedy, where the intention is to represent pity
and fear so that the spectator may undergo a cathartic experience” (Jordan 2003).
Jordan also notes that Goodman and Gombrich have somewhat divergent views on
representation, arguing for cultural conventions and psychological theories of
perception respectively to explain the idea of imitation within visuals. Although
certain elements such as style, colour and size are sometimes assumed to have
automatic and uniform impact on the ad viewer, it is hard to accept the idea that visual
perception occurs without thought.
PICTURES ARE NOT UNIVERSAL
We have established that the interpretation of visual meaning is a complex process in
advertising and that contrary to the sender-message-receiver model, the production of
meaning is far more sophisticated than a delivery and filtering system. Meaning is
known to derive from combinations of symbols and the resonance or dissonance that
arises from the visual dimension and advertisement viewers co-create meaning
through a process of bricolage and synthetic inference. Consequently, their unique
and idiosyncratic responses to advertising visuals are based on depth of resources,
personal experiences, social motivation and cultural competence.
Observers of culture and consumption also suggest that, in the post-modern world,
there is not necessarily a stable correspondence between a signifier and the signified –
that is that the meaning of things does not always correspond to the referent (Firat and
Dholakia 2003). Imagery and styles that could once identify “certain ideologies and
lifestyles” (Firat and Dholakia 2003, p.151) cannot be relied upon to mean the one
thing. We also note that an advertisement is not a neutral forum for expression.
Consumers of advertising have an expectation that positive statements about brands
are explicitly expressed or implicit in the visuals. Thus, the interpretation of an
advertisement depends on the consumer’s purpose for viewing an advertisement.
Depending on placement and context a sign may have different meanings.
Furthermore, the visual elements of an advertisement can emphasise tone and
meaning through the camera angles, lighting, typeface and other aspects of style. For
example, the selection of grainy film stock and black and white imagery may promote
a sense of gritty reality and a scene shot close up in soft focus may position the viewer
in an intimate and romantic environment (Selby and Cowdery 1995). Viewers of an
ad also engage with it as art, judging the aesthetic value and gaining satisfaction and
pleasure from understanding hidden meaning (Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson 1990).
Finally, according to Scott (1994), pictures in advertising are not merely analogues to
visual perception but are a highly motivated arrangement of symbolic artefacts. None
of the elements of the advertisement are independent of the message – visuals are not
an adjunct to the verbal message but are an inherently persuasive device.
Thus we must conclude that meaning in advertising visuals is not universal. Pictures
do not convey the same thing to people with the same needs within certain geographic
or cultural boundaries. Paradoxically, as Levitt (1983) suggested, some consumer
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demands may be universal and consumption experiences may be global - Firat and
Dholakia (2003) suggest that young people everywhere feel cool when they put on
their Levis. The existence of globally dispersed consumer segments for world brands
(Domzal and Kernan 1994) is not in dispute. However, representation of the universal
consumption experience is not a global phenomenon.
VISUAL RHETORIC
One conceptualisation that might help us understand meaning in ads is the visual
rhetoric approach proposed by Scott (1994). The key concept of rhetoric is that
communication of a single proposition could occur in many ways but some
expressions are more persuasive than others (McQuarrie and Mick 2003). Advertising
can be conceptualised as a form of rhetoric where the advertiser tries to use the most
effective devices to inform, remind and persuade the target market. Language based
elements of advertising such as verbal presentation and copy are inherently rhetorical
but until recently the possibility of rhetoric in visuals has not been fully accepted.
Since ancient times rhetoric has been recognised as the art of persuasive or impressive
communication designed to produce an effect on the receiver (Allen 1990). The art of
rhetoric involves manipulating the presentation of an argument in the most impactful
way. The communication may leave a different impression depending on the order of
presentation - it is common to ‘set the scene’ or ‘plant an idea’ to gain maximum
impact. In the past, great orators would moderate their vocal delivery to provide cues
to the listener and create effect – this is very evident in ‘Hell-fire and Brimstone’ type
sermons. Rhyme and other plays on words are rhetorical devices used in advertising
to attract attention but also to embed messages that may be evaluated and easily
memorised (McQuarrie and Mick 2003). Similarly, the strategic use of characters in
advertising to create and deliver a persuasive message may be conceptualised as an
invocation of rhetorical power (Mulvey and Medina 2003). Presentation by a
celebrity, fictitious personality, animal or cartoon character tells the television viewer
far more than words alone (Mulvey and Medina 2003). Hence the rhetorical
perspective suggests that the manner in which an argument is expressed may be more
important than its propositional content (McQuarrie and Mick 1996). This view
contrasts markedly with the assumptions made in many traditional studies of
advertising where certain types of images are classified as “content free” (Scott 1994,
p.253).
Scott (1994) has called for a theory of visual rhetoric that acknowledges the
importance of visual elements used in the invention of a complex argument and
argues that the visual and other sensory aspects of an advertisement can be
conceptualised as rhetorical devices. She notes that if figurative rather than
straightforward representation is used in advertising, viewers may have to engage in
metaphorical thought and abstract thinking to make sense of the visuals (Scott 1994).
Therefore, a print or television advertisement can be considered as a pictorial field
with marks that connote objects and relationships (Scott 1994) and the symbols are
arranged for the primary purpose of persuasion, not for accurately portraying reality.
The specific arrangement of the elements and the stylistic delivery of them all
contributes to the rhetorical impact. In film and radio, for example, the order of
processing the elements of an ad can be transformed by temporal placement and the
interpretation of all visual media may be modified by spatial placement.
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Whilst traditional conceptualisations of rhetoric were centred on persuasive linguistic
factors relating to tone, style and mode of delivery, visual rhetoric extends the
boundaries to conceptualise advertising pictures as a figurative argument drawn from
a convention based symbolic system (Scott 1994). Depending on the intended
viewership and the desired commercial outcome, a specific argument is crafted using
particular evidence, delivered in a deliberately selected order and style (Scott 1994).
The television viewer watching such an advertisement draws on her visual vocabulary
to interpret the meaning of the commercial message, guided by the awareness that
“the sender of the ad is trying to be relevant to her” (Phillips 2003, p.301).
Visual rhetoric is an underused theoretical construct. A visual rhetoric approach does
not direct participants to analyse specific elements in advertising rather it requires
them to evaluate the ad as a whole. Forceville used such an approach in studying
billboards and suggests that “not all assumptions in a message can be taken as
communicated with equal force, nor with the same degree of strength to different
people” (Forceville 1996, p.177). Phillips (1997) used a similar approach in studying
magazine ads and reported that in order to make sense of complex imagery people had
to “think into it”. However, overall, this conceptualisation of the visual component in
advertising is under-utilised at present.
STUDYING TELEVISION ADVERTISING
Despite the increasing use of complex visual images in advertisements, limited
academic research has been done to determine how consumers interpret them. There
are some reported studies of visual metaphors used in magazine advertising (Mick and
Politi 1989; Phillips 1997) as well as a small study on billboards (Forceville, 1996).
There is a noticeable gap in the published literature with respect to consumer
interpretation of advertisements containing complex and stylised imagery in television
and other electronic media. Most studies of global and national brand television
advertising investigate factors such as the structural elements of advertisements as
perceived by expert researchers (Cervellon and Dubé 2000; Farrall and Whitelock
2001), and very few published studies concerned with global advertising
conceptualise visuals in the way anticipated by Scott (1994).
It is proposed that the visual rhetoric approach would offer a number of advantages to
the study of visuals in TV advertising. A study using qualitative research methods
would contribute towards an understanding of consumer interpretation of visually
complex TV advertisements and provide evidence of the resources that consumers use
to interpret those advertisements. Moreover, a closer examination of the interpretation
of visuals would be of considerable benefit to advertisers interested in global
campaigns and research in this area would lead the way to providing ad creators with
much needed information about the semiotic meaning of different brands and
consumption practices. Similarly, the questions of whether richer interpretations are
made by loyal consumers compared to brand switchers or non-users could be
investigated in order to improve our understanding of this topic.
What a study of visual rhetoric in TV ads might deliver is some clearer understanding
of the actual bodies of knowledge that contribute most to interpretation in certain ads.
We could then better understand how ads are interpreted and contribute to the
understanding of visual advertising in the global setting. It could also be determined
whether particular imagery was more useful in communicating with different sub-
12
segments of a broad target audience such as the consumers of Coca Cola or customers
of FedEx. New studies would also give some insight in to how meanings of brands
are drawn from the consumer’s socio-cultural milieu and focused or refined by the
messages crafted about them. Longitudinal studies into the issues listed above would
also make a contribution to knowledge by mapping the progress of meaning over
time.
The managerial implications of such studies would be significant for marketers of
local and international brands. An investigation of the visual rhetoric in TV
advertising would help identify appropriate images for use in specific ad campaigns
and as such would have predictive value. This would be a real benefit to creative
personnel searching for factors specific to product category, consumption practices
and advertising genres that might aid in developing suitable ads and help avoid costly
visual mistakes. More comprehensive research could establish whether the use of
certain types of imagery leads to increased brand awareness, ad liking, attitude
towards the brand, purchase intentions and, eventually, to increased sales. Again,
such research would make a managerial contribution, giving direction to advertisers
about what works and what does not in the context of different global markets.
CONCLUSION
The issues facing marketers who wish to communicate effectively with global
consumers have been well established. Factors such as new communication
technologies, the proliferation of closer economic ties fostered by the European
Union, World Trade Organisation, North American Free Trade Agreement and AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation and the saturation of domestic markets have helped
drive the move towards globalisation. As economies develop, more people than ever
are able to access television and other highly visual new media. Consequently,
marketers have the opportunity for richer, visual communication with potential
consumers in geographically diverse markets. Ideally, brands that achieve global
status would realise synergies in advertising that ultimately lead to cost reductions,
simplified control and coordinated brand development. Despite the theoretical
benefits of a common denominator global advertising campaign (Rutigliano 1986),
researchers in the marketing communications literature are divided on whether
standardisation or localisation is the optimal strategy in particular situations.
However, in general, visuals are considered to be more universal than language based
advertising.
We have identified that TV commercials contain highly complex visual imagery and
are evocative because of the co-creation of meaning by the viewer. A wide variety of
resources including knowledge of brands, consumption practices and typical
advertising claims influence the viewer and help to determine which meanings are cocreated. Visual imagery has rhetorical value that is much more significant than once
thought, rendering visuals at least as powerful as words. The authors have identified a
number of interesting and important directions for future research. In particular,
future research into consumer interpretations of TV advertising could benefit from
considering visual rhetoric. The TV medium offers the researcher many more
challenges than static print media, and methods that allow more in-depth probing and
capture more of the richness of responses to visual complexity would help to
consolidate our understanding in this area of research. Finally, we offer a relatively
13
new approach to identifying what works and what does not in the global advertising
arena.
14
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