Visual Persuasion: The Role of Images in Advertising

Author: Paul Messer
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Images in television, magazines, and other forms of advertising often convey meanings that are difficult or even impossible to express effectively through words and music! This book delves into the implicit characteristics of visual persuasion in images, as well as the social responsibilities they bear compared to text. Visual Persuasion is a recommended reading for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in communication studies and media research. Some of its content is also highly valuable for students in subculture studies, sociology, archaeology, and advertising. Visual Persuasion explores this unique field within advertising. Advertising often creates connections between products and people's desires or emotions, while images, with their ability to simulate the appearance of the material world, can serve as substitutes for these desires and emotions. Images formed through photography leverage the audience's belief in the direct and natural link between images and reality, providing evidence for the claims made in advertising. Visual Persuasion discusses the implicit characteristics of visual persuasion, as well as the relatively smaller social responsibilities images bear compared to text, which allows some unacceptable advertising content expressed in words to be conveyed through images. Starting from these features of visual persuasion, the author analyzes various types of advertisements in this work, including commercial, political, and social issues, with a special focus on the role of images in advertising that spans multiple cultures.