Beyond visual metaphor: A new typology
of visual rhetoric in advertising
Philips en McQuarrie
Summary
Abstract
The goal of rhetorical theory is always to organize the possibilities for persuasion within a domain and to
relate each possible stratagem to specific desired outcomes. In this article we develop a visual rhetoric
that differentiates the pictorial strategies available to advertisers and links them to consumer response.
We propose a new typology that distinguishes nine types of visual rhetorical figures according to their
degree of complexity and ambiguity.
Introduction
In print ads, the emphasis on pictures over words has steadily increased throughout the last century.
We take a rhetorical approach to organizing and understanding ad pictures.
We assume that advertisers select pictorial elements from a palette; that specific pictorial elements can
be linked to particular consumer responses; and, most important, that the palette of available pictorial
elements has an internal structure such that the location of a pictorial element within this structure
indicates the kind of impact that the pictorial element can be expected to have.
The goal of this article is to delineate that internal structure for one type of advertising picture – the
kind that can be considered analogous to verbal metaphor, or verbal rhetorical figures more generally.
The new typology makes a unique contribution by first, focusing on rhetorical figures constructed from
visual rather than verbal elements and second, specifying how different visual figures might affect
consumer processing and response.
A typology of visual rhetorical figures
Because the number of templates is limited and because consumers encounter the same template over
and over again, they have the opportunity to learn a response to that figure. Through repeated exposure
over time, consumers learn the sorts of inference operations a communicator desires the recipients to
undertake.
ex.: why weight for success? (diet ad – ‘wait’)
‘Can’t say no to pistachio’ (we have learned to treat this as a rhyme)
Because of this learning, rhetorical figures are able to channel inferences.
Visual structure and meaning operation
** classification model
of visual rhetoric in advertising
Philips en McQuarrie
Summary
Abstract
The goal of rhetorical theory is always to organize the possibilities for persuasion within a domain and to
relate each possible stratagem to specific desired outcomes. In this article we develop a visual rhetoric
that differentiates the pictorial strategies available to advertisers and links them to consumer response.
We propose a new typology that distinguishes nine types of visual rhetorical figures according to their
degree of complexity and ambiguity.
Introduction
In print ads, the emphasis on pictures over words has steadily increased throughout the last century.
We take a rhetorical approach to organizing and understanding ad pictures.
We assume that advertisers select pictorial elements from a palette; that specific pictorial elements can
be linked to particular consumer responses; and, most important, that the palette of available pictorial
elements has an internal structure such that the location of a pictorial element within this structure
indicates the kind of impact that the pictorial element can be expected to have.
The goal of this article is to delineate that internal structure for one type of advertising picture – the
kind that can be considered analogous to verbal metaphor, or verbal rhetorical figures more generally.
The new typology makes a unique contribution by first, focusing on rhetorical figures constructed from
visual rather than verbal elements and second, specifying how different visual figures might affect
consumer processing and response.
A typology of visual rhetorical figures
Because the number of templates is limited and because consumers encounter the same template over
and over again, they have the opportunity to learn a response to that figure. Through repeated exposure
over time, consumers learn the sorts of inference operations a communicator desires the recipients to
undertake.
ex.: why weight for success? (diet ad – ‘wait’)
‘Can’t say no to pistachio’ (we have learned to treat this as a rhyme)
Because of this learning, rhetorical figures are able to channel inferences.
Visual structure and meaning operation
** classification model
