Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:55:01.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Is It a Bird or Is It a Chameleon?

How Do Advertisers Maximise the Potential of Metaphor in Advertising Through Visual Creativity?

from Part I - Theoretical Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2021

Paula Pérez Sobrino
Affiliation:
University of La Rioja
Jeannette Littlemore
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Samantha Ford
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Get access

Summary

Chapter 2 considers aspects of visual design and explores the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of layout. It discusses the ways in which advertisers make use of visual resources to represent metaphors and metonymies. It shows how the same metaphor can be represented in multiple different ways leading to different processing or pragmatic effects. The chapter shows how two key dimensions of creativity (meaning and form) work together in the production and reception of figurative meaning in the context of advertising. It first reviews the ways in which scholars have operationalised ‘visual complexity’ as an experimental variable, and reports findings from the few studies that have attempted to measure its impact. It then proposes a new distinction based on the degree of schematicity versus content richness of the metaphorical/metonymic image. Schematic images contain very few visual elements to help the consumer interpret the message, whilst content-rich images contain numerous details on which the consumer can draw. In the final section, the chapter introduces another tool that advertisers can exploit in order to maximise the impact of visual creativity: that of colour.

Type
Chapter
Information
Unpacking Creativity
The Power of Figurative Communication in Advertising
, pp. 36 - 57
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×