Articulating a New Framework for Visual Metaphors in Advertising

This study develops and tests a conceptual framework for categorizing visual metaphors in advertising according to whether the pictorial elements in the ad are synthesized or juxtaposed. In this attempt, it subscribes to the view that creative ideas frequently share similar design structures and patterns in devising visual metaphors. This study demonstrates that compared with ad visuals that simply juxtapose metaphorical objects, ad visuals that synthesize conceptually similar metaphorical objects provoke greater elaboration and elicit more favorable consumer attitudes toward both the ad and the brand. These positive effects are not free of comprehension costs, however. Ads that synthesize very dissimilar objects (as compared with ads that juxtapose objects) fail to produce the same benefits and might, in some cases, even risk reducing the persuasiveness of the argument about key product attributes in the advertising message.     

Metaphor as Visual Thinking in Advertising and Its Effects: Focus on Brand Familiarity and Product Involvement

One of advertisers' favorite communication techniques is the visual metaphor. In fact, metaphor usage perennially increases in ad images. This study, which looks at consumers with varying levels of brand familiarity and product involvement, investigates how their attitudes and purchase intentions of are influenced by the persuasive effects of visual metaphors in various advertising conditions. The findings reveal that consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions are enhanced more by visual metaphor-based ads than nonmetaphor-based ads when the advertised product is in a low-involvement product category. Nonmetaphorical ads are found to have a more positive influence with high-involvement products than do metaphorical ads. The results show a significant three-way interaction effect. When the advertised product is in a low-involvement product category, visual metaphors lead to favorable brand evaluations and higher purchase intentions in the ads for a low-familiarity brand. However, nonmetaphors are more persuasive than visual metaphors only for the low familiarity brand in a high-involvement product category. Theoretical and practical implications are addressed in the discussion.     

Aspects of visual metaphor: an operational typology of visual rhetoric for research in advertising

Metaphor is routinely expressed through pictures in contemporary advertising. Earlier work on visual rhetoric in advertising sought direct analogues for the tropes and schemes specific to verbal rhetoric. More recently, theory has developed out of characteristics particular to pictures, culminating in a typology of visual rhetoric by Phillips and McQuarrie. Subsequent work by ?orm and Steen considers processing stages in metaphorical interpretation. Phillips and McQuarrie's typology is adapted and expanded here in order to better describe the variation found in ads that utilize visual metaphor and its allies, thus identifying a range of examples that confound the original. A new processing model that directly addresses visual features described in the expanded typology is outlined, which builds on ideas from ?orm and Steen, but represents a distinct framework. Additional variables are identified that advertising researchers should either investigate or control in experimental studies of visual metaphor.     

Making sense of metaphor: The impact of target-group-specific headlines in direct mail

Metaphors are used extensively to cut through the increasing volume of noise in contemporary, hyper-competitive markets. Whilst there is a growing body of literature on the impact of metaphor in marketing communications, much of it concerns style, whilst relatively little is understood about the relationship between creative execution and target audience response. In an exploratory study designed to measure the effectiveness of metaphor in direct mail, we introduce and investigate the concept of target-group-specificity. We find that carefully crafted headlines that contain target-group-specific (TGS) metaphors – in other words, both content and style created specifically for a particular audience – outperform less target-specific metaphors and their literal alternatives. Positive results are found in relation to attention, attitude and behavioural intention. The findings offer evidence that TGS metaphors are more persuasive than the alternative and have strong advertising effects.     

Attitude Change through Visual Imagery in Advertising

A new theory of the way in which advertising can influence consumers' attitudes toward products is proposed. The theory is based on visual imagery and classical conditioning rather than on the typical verbal belief summation approach to attitude. A supportive experiment is presented and the persuasive function of visual imagery in advertising is discussed.     

Metaphorical communication,self-presentation,and consumer inference in service encounters

In service encounters, the meaning inferred by a customer is a result of verbal and visual communication. This research focuses on how visual metaphorical communication in a service encounter can evoke the concept of power. We show that when representation of the service provider is at the bottom (versus top) of an image, the consumer's perception of their own power is increased (Study 1). Study 2 demonstrates that power perceptions interact with self-presentational motives to influence intentions to use the service. Further, perceptions of power mediate the effect of visual representation on usage intentions. This occurs only when consumption is public and self-presentational concerns are high. In Study 3, we demonstrate that when the concept of power has little applicability, visual representation of perceived power does not affect intentions to use the service provider. Further, only individuals with a high need for status access the conceptual link between power and visual representation (Study 4). Together, the results further our understanding of the use of visual metaphorical communication in a service encounter.     

Emoji rhetoric: a social media influencer perspective

ABSTRACT

Social media require a marketing rhetoric that embraces emerging language use and shifting communication norms. Emojis have become quintessential elements of social media communication; yet, their role in supporting persuasion attempts has not been systematically analysed. Drawing on general rhetoric literature, this paper dissects, portrays and labels social media influencers’ persuasive attempts to initiate engagement through emojis. The focus on influencers is justified because of their dual roles as marketers and active social media users. 600 Weibo posts by the top 200 Weibo influencers were collected to develop a taxonomy of emoji-based verbal moves aimed at encouraging responses in followers. The resulting taxonomy demonstrates that emoji use by social media influencers is complex and strategic and serves multiple persuasive and communicative purposes.     

Visual Metaphors in Ads: The Inverted-U Effects of Incongruity on Processing Pleasure and Ad Effectiveness

ABSTRACT

Ads with visual metaphors are commonplace in advertising, but are characterized by varying degrees of incongruity. Across two experiments, this article presents the first empirical evidence that incongruity in a visual metaphor (VM) ad has an inverted-U (nonlinear) effect on attitude toward the ad. We find that a moderate level of incongruity in a VM ad produces maximal processing pleasure, which in turn yields the most positive attitude toward the ad. The findings confirm that processing pleasure mediates the effects of incongruity on ad attitude. Consequently, when creating ads, advertisers should choose advertising elements to obtain moderate levels of incongruity in the visual figures.     

The Underlying Mechanisms of Multiscreening Effects

Multiscreening, a relatively new form of media multitasking in which people use multiple screens simultaneously, has implications for the effects of persuasive messages due to limited cognitive capacities of people and concurrent modalities of the screens (i.e., both visual). The aim of the study is to examine underlying mechanisms (i.e., recognition, counterarguing, and enjoyment) of the effect of multiscreening on evaluative outcomes (i.e., brand attitude, message attitude, and purchase intention). The experiment (N = 182) showed that both recognition and counterarguing are underlying mechanisms of the effect of multiscreening on evaluative outcomes. Multiscreening has a negative effect on evaluative outcomes by recognition and a positive effect on evaluative outcomes by counterarguing.     

Effects of culturally verbal and visual congruency/incongruency across cultures in a competitive advertising context

Existing consumer behavior theories suggest that consumers tend to recognize, better comprehend, and respond favorably to information that is both relevant and consistent with their beliefs and values. This study extends these theories by employing cultural arguments and pictures to examine the effects of culturally verbal and visual congruency/incongruency on consumer ad and brand attitudes in multiple-ad and multiple-brand environments. The studies were conducted with subjects in Canada and China. The results suggest that, when the contrast ad is culturally incongruent, an ad containing a culturally congruent argument and congruent picture elicits the most positive responses, compared to other ads with different combinations of arguments and pictures. However, an ad containing a culturally incongruent argument and incongruent picture also elicits more positive responses than an ad with a culturally congruent argument and incongruent picture or a culturally incongruent argument and congruent picture.     

Making ads less complex,yet more creative and persuasive: the effects of conventional metaphors and irony in print advertising

Rhetorical tropes like metaphors and irony are widely used in print advertising. Current advertising literature assumes that these different tropes (metaphor, irony) are persuasive when they are sufficiently novel and complex to increase advertising elaboration. However, we propose that, in some cases, tropes can also be persuasive when they present conventional and concrete images of abstract product qualities. To test if conventionality can explain the persuasiveness of various tropes (metaphor, irony), we conducted a 2 (conventional metaphor vs. no metaphor) × 2 (conventional irony vs. no irony) multiple-message experiment. Results demonstrate that conventional metaphors are persuasive by reducing complexity and increasing creativity and ad appreciation. Conventional irony, in contrast, has little effect on persuasiveness. Thus, differentiating between various tropes (metaphor, irony) is important in predicting persuasion effects: advertisers should refrain from using conventional irony, but including conventional metaphors about abstract product qualities in print advertising is advisable.     

Preston,Ivan L., The Tangled Web They Weave: Truth,Falsity, & Advertisers,Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994

Abstract

In an experiment, children in three grade levels (second, fourth, and sixth) viewed four advertisements. The children were shown advertisements with either metaphors in both pictorial and verbal form or a literal equivalent. The sixth graders interpreted more metaphors correctly than the fourth and second graders. In terms of recall of advertised content, the sixth and fourth graders recalled brand names, products, and additional copy better than the second graders. Within each grade level, metaphors did not enhance children's recall of advertised content or perceptions of the understandability of the advertisements and liking of the advertised products. The authors speculate that metaphors are most likely to enhance recall under conditions in which the metaphor serves as a direct representation linking the metaphor to the advertised product. Their findings suggest that advertisers should be aware that young readers may have difficulty interpreting metaphors and that metaphors may not be more effective in terms of children's recall and perception of understandability than literal versions of advertisements.     

The interplay between consumer self-view,cognitive style,and creative visual metaphors in print advertising

This paper examines the use of an advertising rhetoric technique – visual metaphor, and its persuasion effects in light of consumers’ cultural and individual dispositional characteristics when processing visually relational information. Of particular interest are the culturally driven self-views and individuals’ cognitive thinking styles. An experimental study involving visual metaphor manipulations in the context of print advertising was conducted. Results showed that, visual metaphor techniques significantly enhanced the persuasion outcomes through consumers’ evaluation of the advertising message and the brand. Both consumers’ self-construal orientation and their analytic-holistic processing style, moderate the effects of visual metaphors in print ads for low-involvement products, but not for high-involvement products. Implications for academics and practitioners, as well as future research directions suggested through the current experiment, are discussed.     

The impact of animal metaphors on consumer response to courtesy advertising

This paper investigates how consumers feel and react to animal metaphor advertising in the context of the public service environment. Three studies are carried out using both field and experimental data. The results show that ads with an animal-like transgressor (vs. a human transgressor) elicit a stronger moral outrage response (e.g., contempt, anger, disgust), which generates a stronger perception of dehumanization toward the transgressor, consequently enhancing the consumers’ persuasive reaction to follow public etiquette. The animal metaphor effect is robust, irrespective of whether the metaphorical objects are high or low in conceptual similarity, but the consumer reaction is more intense when the metaphorical pairing is conceptually high in similarity. However, this effect is diminished when the ad is displayed as a drawing as opposed to a photograph. The implications of the findings for retailers or service providers considering the use of animal metaphor in their ads are also discussed.     

Special Section Introduction: Artificial Intelligence and Advertising

The effect of visual metaphor in advertising is claimed to follow a curvilinear pattern: visual metaphors that constitute a moderate challenge are said to have a bigger impact on appreciation than simpler or more complex metaphors. Until now, empirical evidence has been scarce. This study verifies whether the tipping point can indeed be identified. In an experiment, 485 participants judged 16 different metaphors (in advertisements for 16 different product categories) varying in conceptual complexity. Mediation analyses showed that metaphors of moderate complexity, although comprehended less well than simpler metaphors, are appreciated more than simpler and more complex metaphors.     

Visualizing the Phronetic Organization: The Case of Photographs in CSR Reports

Aspects of phronetic social science and phronetic organization research have been much debated over the recent years. So far, the visual aspects of communicating phronesis have gained little attention. Still organizations try to convey a desirable image of respectability and success, both internally and externally to the public. A channel for such information is corporate reporting, and particularly CSR reporting embrace values like fairness, goodness, and sustainability. This study explores how visual portrayals of supposedly wise and discerning values (phronesis) are used to reinforce the verbal features of CSR reporting. The two propositions underlying this study is (1) that visual images form some of the major parts of the structures of contemporary corporate reporting (particularly CSR reporting) and (2) that phronetic action in organizations is subjected not only to textual documentation, but also to visual expressions. This study also discusses how the Aristotelian concept of phronesis can be linked to contemporary concerns about responsibility, and how this is visually represented in CSR reporting. Finally, this study addresses the symbolic and contextual signification of images in corporate accounts of wisdom and responsibility.     

Comparing TV Ads and Advergames Targeting Children: The Impact of Persuasion Knowledge on Behavioral Responses

Although thousands of advergames are directed at children, little is known about how advergames affect children and whether this persuasive process differs from traditional advertising formats. Investigating the underlying persuasive mechanism, Study 1 shows that, for TV advertising, persuasion knowledge drives the persuasive effects while, for advergames, persuasion is mainly driven by the attitude toward the game. Adding advertising cues to the advergame does not increase persuasion knowledge but does diminish the positive attitude toward the game effect, influencing behavior indirectly. Study 2 demonstrates that, for an advergame, the persuasive mechanism does not differ between a commercial versus a social persuasive message.     

Affect and persuasion: The influence of pleasantness and arousal on attitude formation and message elaboration

In contrast to past research that viewed affect as unidimensional, this study examines the effects of affect's two primary dimensions, pleasantness and arousal, on ad-based persuasion outcomes (attitude favorability) and processes (degree of elaboration, thought positivity). After assessing their naturally-occurring levels of pleasantness and arousal, subjects were exposed to a persuasive communication and assigned to an involvement (low/high) by message strength (low/high) design. GLM analyses revealed that higher pleasantness accentuated the typical involvement X message interaction on attitude favorability, and that higher involvement enhanced message elaboration only when accompanied by higher pleasantness. Path analyses further suggested that (1) higher pleasantness enhanced message elaboration under higher involvement but decreased it under lower involvement, (2) under higher involvement, both pleasantness and arousal positively impacted thought positivity, and, (3) higher arousal decreased message elaboration only for the weaker message. The importance and implications of a broader than unidimensional view of affect in persuasion are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Using food pictorial metaphor in the advertising of non-food brands: An exploratory investigation of consumer interpretation and affective response

Using visual metaphors in ads is one of the communication techniques that brands have adopted to grab consumers' attention. The phenomenon of using food pictorial metaphors in non-food brand ads has spread in recent years, and given food's sensory nature, using this cue for a non-food brand can affect the way in which consumers interpret such ads. This research seeks to understand whether and how consumers perceive and process such a rhetorical figure. An exploratory qualitative approach is taken in two studies by using semi-structured interviews to explore consumers' reactions to different types of ads with food visual metaphors. The results reveal the predominance of congruency as a key processing mechanism of the ad at three levels: (a) between the food pictorial metaphor and the brand product category, (b) between the food visual metaphor and the brand itself, and (c) between the visual metaphor and the headline. Moreover, the food appetizing dimension, ad creativity, aesthetic appreciation of the ad, and consumers' aesthetic sensitivity are all revealed to play major roles in attitudes toward the ad.