Visual Persuasion: The Role of Images in Advertising

“Messaris (1997) observes that many fashion and cosmetics products, perfumes strive for global markets therefore pictures are likely to be part of the overall advertising strategy and this is commonly a feature of cross cultural and/or global advertising approaches that make them more suitable to cross borders (Messari…”

“…the accidental and deliberate substitution of illusion for reality by editors of newspapers and magazines, but also in false and persuasive advertising (Messaris 1997), and infringements of the moral rights of subjects in photographs (Gross et al. 1988; Lester 1991, 1995 & 1996 and Powell, 1998).”

“Since images are often interpreted as direct evidence of reality due to their perceived indexicality—the idea that photographs mechanically “capture” truth [65]–audiences frequently judge them as credible without requiring corroboration from accompanying text.”

“Visuals in politics have the critical function of trying to persuade the viewers by influencing their opinions (Birdsell & Groarke, 1996; Gallagher & Zagacki, 2005) and conveying messages that spark emotional reactions, emphatic associations, and semiotic and semantic interpretations (Messaris, 1997; Barry, 1997; Foss…”

“Arab World English Journal www.awej.org ISSN: 2229-9327 282 Messaris (1997) further outlined three major roles visual images play in an ad.”

“As Messaris comments, “in our real-world interactions with others, this view from the back can imply turning away or exclusion” (Messaris, 1997, p. 24).”

“Con la entrada del siglo XXI y el auge de la tecnología y de los distintos tipos de pantallas en nuestro día a día, los marcos docentes clásicos de alfabetización han evolucionado para incorporar nuevas habilidades dinámicas de literacidad visual y mediática (Messaris, 1997; Richardson, 2010).”

“As Messaris (1997) observes when drawing our attention to visual persuasion across cultures, while the iconicity of visual signs, compared to words, can be relatively more effective for cross-cultural communication about the surface appearance of reality (i.e. the contents of who, what, when and…”

“…such as de Saussure’s (1972/1983) linguistic signs and Barthes’s (1957/2009, 1964/1999) concept of ‘myth’ as a higher-level sign include, for instance, studies of advertising which often expose its ideological dimension (Goffman, 1979; Goldman, 1992/2000; Messaris, 1997; Williamson, 1978/2002).”

“Visuals, according to Messaris (1997), have a greater ability to evoke rich emotions because they are able to reproduce the real world, a strategy advertisers have used in JOURNAL OF VISUAL LITERACY 241”

“Visibility and vision, sight, display, picture and the sensual in general were more carefully approached in social scientific literature (Brennan and Jay, 1996; Howes, 2005; Jay, 1994; Lury, 1997; Messaris, 1997; Robins, 1996).”

“Messaris (1997) noted that some advertisers prefer to use a type of visual argument that adopts implicit and indirect messages, to persuade viewers.”

“In advertising, photographs and appealing images are used to speak to the “heart” of consumers: in fact pictures are more effective than textual or verbal messages in evoking emotions and changing attitudes (Ray & Batra, 1982; Mitchell, 1986; Messaris, 1997).”

“Open ads retain attention as long -or rather as short- as closed ones do, which corroborates the notion that consumers are not motivated to devote their attention to ads in general because they know they are dealing with persuasive messages (Kroeber-Riel and Esch 2000; Messaris 1997; Peracchio and Meyers-Levy 1994; To…”

“Images are powerful tools to perpetuate ideas and persuade people compared to other less visual forms of media [33].”

“Messaris (1996) explains that photographs can be persuasive because they offer visual evidence of a phenomenon.”

“The most prevalent and controversial practice involved photo staging (Messaris, 1997)—choreographing photos to convey a particular impression around pandemic guidelines.”

“Advertisements serve to draw attention, to arouse interest, to stimulate desire, to create conviction and to get action from the consumer (Egudu, 1985; Paul, 1997; Leech, 2006; Murthy, 2007; Kazmi and Batra, 2008; Ashipu, 2009; Shah, 2009; Sharma, 2009; Dada, 2013).”

“The indexical nature of the Snapchat photo (Messaris, 1997) suggests the object or event exists and that it is a digital trace of the original physical instantiation.”

“In addition to frequency and amount of use, the higher immediacy of visual, as opposed to text-based content, has been suggested to cause more potent audience effects (Draft & Lengel, 1984; Gibson & Zillmann, 2000; Messaris, 1997).”

“This follows from the fact that visuals are iconographic—that is, symbols that physically resemble the things they represent, in contrast with the arbitrary signs of spoken or written language (Messaris 1997).”

“‘Medium essentialism’ manifested itself in Shutter Stories through the claim that the photograph is best suited to telling narratives that maximize the visual language (see Harrison, 2003; Messaris, 1997).”

“For example, in Western and industrialised countries, photographs of people looking directly at the observer are used to tap directly into consumers’ emotions (Malefyt and Morais 2012: 60; Messaris 1997: 5).”

“Being well aware of this observation, producers of media messages intentionally design pictorial information in a way that it evokes certain viewer reactions and supports corresponding interpretations, attitudes, and beliefs (Bordwell, 1985; Messaris, 1996).”

“…one cannot deny that illustrations may be more effective and more communicative in immigrant societies (like Israel was in the 1950s and to lesser extent in the 1960s) because they do not demand from newcomers to be familiar with proper objects in order to make sense of the sign (Messaris, 1997).”

“Pour plus de détails sur cette discussion, voir Messaris (1996).”

“…more amenable to an international advertising approach, even when the audience fails to grasp all of their cultural implications and values (Messaris, 1997, p. 113), it seems now simplistic to disregard them in cross-cultural communication, especially if we consider how prevailing visual…”

“The image literally enters the viewer’s ‘real-life’ space, with Kitchener’s direct gaze creating an interpersonal interaction ( Messaris 1997, 21 ).”

“They are “hyper-visible” [ 40 ] as delivery workers yet invisible as individuals.”

“The Role of Guilt in Effective Advertising and Gender One of the most commonly utilized strategies of cause-related marketing is the inclusion of guilt within the advertising message itself.”

“While providing rich heuristic cues (Messaris, 1997), semantic illustrations might reduce the speed of processing complex non-narrative information that involved logic and analytic reasoning.”

“As Messaris (1997) points out, the role of images in advertising is twofold: drawing attention to the ad and evoking emotions on behalf of the product advertised.”

“…that would be buttressed by journalism playing on the mythology surrounding the indexicality of the photographic process—that the picture represents a fragment of literal truth, captured mechanically in a way that frees it from the mediating artist (see Barthes, 1977; Messaris, 1997; Sontag, 1973).”

“A photographer's vertical angle corresponds to producer-viewer power relations ( Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996 ; Messaris, 1997 ).”

“In Model 2, we can also observe an interesting set of depictions regarding images ( γ = 0.057; p < 0.001 ) and emotion ( γ = 0.018; p < 0.001 ) that reflect the imaginary persuasive function [77].”

“Numerous visual communication studies have investigated the differences and similarities between writing, spoken language and the language of images, with divergent conclusions (e.g. Messaris 1994; 1997; Messaris and Moriarty 2005).”

“Semiotic theories of codes are the groundwork of numerous advertising studies(Chandler, 1994; Messaris, 1997; Scott, 1994).”

“As a contemporary discourse on media, authenticity is often framed technically, in terms of authentication and evidence (Burton et al., 2023): whether objects bear an “indexical” relationship or “physical trace” to real events, places or people (Messaris, 1997: 12).”

“Another line of research focused on (metaphorical and non-metaphorical) visuals, suggesting that images can also be persuasive, and are often more persuasive than (metaphorical and non-metaphorical) linguistic argumentation (Jeong, 2008; Messaris, 1997; Scott, 1994).”

“A rule of thumb is that these types of perspective relate to power: superiority, equality or subordination (Messaris 1997).”

“For one, because of their iconic nature (Messaris, 1997), pictures bear some degree of similarity or resemblance with their real-world referents and are thus easy to process.”

“Other examples emerge from domains of cognitive development (Taylor and Flavell, 1984), literature and art (Schreiner, 2003), politics (Connolly, 1981), and more (e.g., Messaris, 1997; Hellman, 2001; Simon-Kerr, 2020).”

“Visuals tend to deliver more powerful messages compared to words (Messaris, 1997).”

“In this study of gendered messages in Australian car advertisements since the 1950s, we adopt the framework proposed by Messaris (1997).”

“Research has shown how an event is framed verbally and visually can indeed influence one’s emotional appraisal of the event (Messaris, 1997; Smith & Lazarus, 1993).”

“Photographs’ subtlety, pervasiveness and affect (Lester 2013; Messaris 1996; Nielson 2011) render them particularly powerful in influencing audience’s understanding of issues (Gibson and Zillmann 2000; Messaris and Abraham 2001; Scheufele and Tewksbury 2007).”

“GENERAL DISCUSSION Comparing with literal expressions, the ambiguity of visual signs has been clearly illustrated in prior literatures [23].”

“Visual intelligence (Seward Barry, 1997), visual arts (Alperson, 1992), visual perception (Arnheim, 1986), visual lexicon (Cohn, 2007), visual rhetoric (Handa, 2004), visual thinking strategies (Yenawine, 2013), visual culture (Barnard, 2001; Mirzeoff, 1998), and visual persuasion (Messaris, 1997) are all related in s…”

“Adding further communicative power to this landmark scene is the image’s ability to communicate simultaneously as icon, as index, and as symbol (Messaris, 1997).”

“(Messaris, 1997, p. 90), they generally agree that they are more successful intercultural communicators than words, at least on a superficial level (Barthes, 1982; Messaris, 1994, 1997).”

“Though created years apart, both Rohm and the Uncle Sam caricature “seem to reach into the viewers’ space and actively get him or her to pay attention” (Messaris, 1997, p.21).”

“…message processing by reconciling the latter to the syntactic indeterminacy of visuals or the absence of “explicit syntax for expressing analogies, contrasts, causal claims, and other kinds of propositions” when visuals are used as the primary mode of presenting messages (Messaris, 1997, p. xi).”

“The aspirational tone of these ads highlights products/brands as desirable (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2021; Messaris, 1996), and also align with creative content typically seen on TikTok.”

“Visual elements increase narratives’ persuasive power (e.g., see Ching et al., 2013; Slater, 2011) because they invite generalizations and causal interpretations, heighten contrasts, and create analogies for the viewer (Messaris, 1997; Niederdeppe et al., 2008).”

“However, visuals do not merely play a role of noesis in argumentation; based on visual studies (e.g., Gombrich 1982; Messaris 1996), Kjeldsen (2015b) argues that the complexity of meaning in images marks their unique role in argumentation.”

“…reversible figure ads as a unique form of marketing communication, augmenting the research on reversible figures (Long and Toppino 2004), experimental esthetics (Berlyne 1971), indirect advertising (Scott 1994), and visual persuasion (Messaris 1997) and thereby contributing to theory and practice.”

“Third, to capture the health communication perspective, we employ the visual persuasion theory of Messaris (1997) to determine whether different audio-visual collocations influence students’ consumption of unhea lthy products.”

“The ideas using text and image descriptions convey a richer message and are more easily understood [54].”