The Language of Pictures in Print Media Advertising

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Diplomarbeit von Wilfried Pichler

Abstract:

Today we observe a development in which the role of language is steadily decreasing whereas the impact of pictures is increasing. This goes hand in hand with a development in which information relies more and more on visual concepts. More and more language takes the part of explaining how to read the visual presentations, more and more language takes the part of providing the background information which is necessary to understand the meaning of the visual foreground.

Kress and van Leeuwen (1998) argue that Today, we seem to move towards a decrease of control over language (e.g. the greater variety of accents allowed on the public media, the increasing poblems in enforcing normative spelling), and towards an increase in codification and control over the visual (e.g. the use of image banks from which ready-made images can be drawn for the constuction of visual texts, and, generally, the effect of computer imaging technology).

Although we may be aware of this tendency, we have not been taught in school how to read visual concepts and so most of us share some degree of illiteracy concerning a critical reading of information presented by images. This is remarkable because we all agree about their influence on our lives but at the same time when we do not develop analytical tools for describing what kinds of strategies, what kinds of concepts are working in visual presentations of information. We tend to overlook the importance of visual concepts simply because we generally do not know enough about their code.

This paper analyses photos and language which are parts of ads, which have definitely been designed for transferring messages because they have been made to advertise one specific product. Images and the text of advertisements never are casual products like family pictures. Although the photo in the family album is coded its coding is less elaborated than the coding of pictures in ads. We have to keep in mind that many people, experts in advertising, experts in public relations were involved in the process of designing an ad before we can look at the final result. This is why ads are definitely conceptually designed because they are meant to create a specific meaning in the viewer’s mind. It is a truism that no visual concept, no photo of an ad was chosen by chance. Photographs and language of ads are more likely to have been carefully constructed and selected according to the meaning they are supposed to create. This is why the analysis of ads provides an extremely effective means for the deciphering of the constructive code behind them.

A second important reason for the analysis of ads is that our present culture is a culture which is heavily influenced by ads. On television, in the cinema, in the newspaper, in videoclips, on walls, on cars; ads are surrounding us in contemporary society. To say it with the words of Guy Cook (1992):

In contemporary capitalist society, advertising is everywhere. We cannot walk down the street, shop, watch television, go through our mail, read a newspaper or take a train without encountering it. Whether we are alone, with our friends or family, or in a crowd, advertising is always with us, if only on the label of something we are using. Given this ubiquity, it is strange that many people are reluctant to pay attention to ads.

Table of Contents:

1.	Introduction	5
1.1	The importance of pictures	5
1.2	Reasons for the analysis of ads	5
1.3	Methodology	6
2.	Theory	7
2.1	Semiotics	8
2.2	Van Gogh and Critical Discourse Analysis	9
2.3	The creation of signs and their meaning	10
2.4	Coding and non - linear Reading ofPictures	10
2.5	Vectors	11
2.6	Transactional Processes	13
2.7	Reactional processes	14
2.8	The difference between man and woman in reactional processes	14
2.9	The Demand	16
2.10	The Offer	18
2.11	Creating the You	18
2.12	The analytical process	20
2.13	Modality	22
2.13.1	Situational Modality	22
2.13.2	Modality of time	23
2.14	Classificational processes	24
2.15	Parallelism	26
2.16	Deviation and foregrounding	28
2.17	Anchorage	29
2.18	The Symbolic Attributive Process	30
2.18.1	The four Criteria of Symbolic Attributes	30
2.19	The Symbolic Suggestive Process	32
2.20	Embedding	34
2.21	Relay	34
2.22	Social Distance	35
2.23	Perspective and angle	36
2.24	Different forms of angles	37
2.24.1	Oblique and frontal angle 37
2.24.2	Power and vertical angle 38
2.25	Fusion	40
2.26	Indexical and Iconic Relationships	41
2.27	Arguments	41
2.27.1	Premises 42
2.27.2	Missing Premises 42
3.	Analysis	44
3.1	Choice of material	44
4.	The Helsinki Series	44
5.	The Helsinki Series: ‚See Helsinki‘	44
5.1	Description of the picture	44
5.2	Vectors	45
5.3	Situational Modality	45
5.4	Setting	45
5.5	The Reactional Process	45
5.6	Carriers	45
5.7	Symbolic Attributive Processes	46
5.7.1	Criteria One and Three	46
5.7.2	Criteria Two and Four	46
5.8	Sensual Modality	47
5.9	Signifiers and Signifieds	47
5.10	Fusion	48
5.11	Choice of angle and perspective	48
5.12	Head and Body Copy	49
5.13	Text	49
5.14	Metaphorical woman and setting	50
5.15	Parallelism	50
5.15.1	Parallelism of picture and text	50
5.15.2	Parallelism between text and picture	50
5.15.3	Parallelism between text and text	51
5.15.4	Incomplete arguments	51
5.15.5	The missing premises of the incomplete arguments related to ‚seeing‘	51
6.	The Helsinki Series: Hear Helsinki	52
6.1	Description of the picture	52
6.2	A Vector and a Reactional Process	53
6.3	Situational modality	53
6.4	Sensual modality	53
6.5	Setting	53
6.6	Carriers	53
6.7	The Symbolic Attributive process	54
6.8	The Characteristics of the Symbolic Attributive Process involved	54
6.9	The Symbolic Suggestive Process – A Deciphering by Relay	55
6.10	Fusion	56
6.11	The you in the ad	56
6.12	Social Distance	57
6.13	Perspective and Angle	57
6.14	Text	57
6.15	Relay	58
6.16	The analytical process	58
6.17	Metaphorical Taxonomies	59
6.18	Missing premises	59
7.	Results of the Helsinki Ad Series	61
7.1	The Pattern of the Helsinki Ads	61
7.2	The elements of the Helsinki Ad – Layout	62
8.	The Ford Ad Series: ‚Introductory File Ad‘	62
8.1	Modality, Iconicity, Perspective, Creating the You	63
8.2	Situational Modality	63
8.3	Taxonomies	63
8.3.1	Left page	64
8.3.2	Right page	64
9.	The Ford Series: ‚Henry Ford Ad‘	65
9.1	At the back of the Time Earth Day 2000 Issue	65
9.2	A Vector	65
9.3	Modality, Point of View, Setting	65
9.3.1	Situational Modality	66
9.3.2	Setting	66
9.4	Ford the Reacter	66
9.5	Carriers and the historical point of view in time	67
9.6	Symbolic Suggestiveness	67
9.6.1	Ford as an icon	67
9.7	Relay and Ford Motor Company	68
9.8	Relay	69
9.9	Text	70
9.10	Taxonomies on the lexical level	70
9.11	Subordinate Expressions related to ‘idea’	71
10.	The Ford Series: ‚Ingenuity at work‘	72
10.1	Description	72
10.2	Situational Modality	72
10.3	Social Distance, Perspective and Angle	72
10.4	Reactional Processes	73
10.5	Analytical Features	73
10.6	Relay and Symbolic Suggestiveness	73
10.7	Metonymy and Symbolic Suggestiveness	74
10.8	Text	74
11.	The Ford Series: ‚Concluding File Ad‘	75
12.	The Ford Series: ‚Job Done Ad‘	75
12.1	Analysis of the processes working in ‚Job Done‘	76
13.	Results of the Ford Ad Series	77
13.1	The Concept of the Ford Ads	77
13.2	The standard elements of the layout	77
13.3	The Pattern of the Ford Ads	78
14.	Conclusion	79
15.	Deutsche Zusammenfassung	81
15.1	Vorgangsweise und Ziel	81
15.2	Materialauswahl	82
15.3	Ergebnisse	83
15.3.1	Helsinki Serie	83
15.3.2	Ford Serie	83
15.4	Ein Beispiel einer Werbeanalyse	85
15.4.1	Die Codierung von Bild und Text	85
15.4.2	Relay	86
15.4.3	Parallelismen	87
15.4.4	Text der ‘Henry Ford’ Werbung	88
15.4.5	Begriffe, die sich auf Idee beziehen	88
15.5	Schluss	89
	Bibliography	90

Automatisiert erstellter Textauszug:

The reading of the right side of this ad points out that the copy contains all the better ideas which are introduced by the stamp below the copy. (Since this stamp reappears in each single ad of the series, I will name the stamp the ‚label‘ of the ad). This means that the copy on the right is subordinated to the stamping on the right. Compared to the tree structure on the left side, the structure on the right represents a definite turnaround. The stamp, the label has the head BETTER IDEAS. Thus BETTER IDEAS becomes the Superordinate and all the ideas above the label, become the Subordinates. With regard to the Subordinates of the copy, they are paralleled by the way they relate to the term ideas. Second, they are also paralleled on the level of sentence structure. [...]

I have mentioned in the chapter semiotics (see Semiotics, page 8) that the meaning of a sign is based on the concept of signifier and signified. Here, the sign is the photograph of a file. This file looks like one of those files which are widely used for presentations such as briefings in a marketing department of a business company. That’s why the photograph generates the meaning of being in such a situation. Several different devices were used to create such an effect. The viewer’s built in point of view is a point of view in which he looks at a folder as if he himself was the person who is going to turn over the page on the left side. The imaginary relation to the picture is one in which he or she becomes that person. The message of the photo is : This is you, you are checking the content of this folder. The perspective which is chosen here is central. As I have mentioned, central perspective is a way of saying that this situation is part of the reader’s world. The distance which is chosen is exactly the distance at which a person is when looking through such a folder in real life. The central perspective and this distance between reader and file have the effect of putting the reader in that situation. [...]

One main feature of the photograph is that it is in black and white. This means that colour is reduced to its minimum. The background of the photograph is out of focus and its colour fades into one light grey. The background is plain and neutral and so it does not distract from the foreground. The photo is taken against the sunlight and that’s why the woman and the boat become silhouettes in the photo. Colour and information is restricted to a minimum as the photo does not convey more details than absolutely necessary. This is the feature of an analytical process. This kind of presenting the possessive attributes of Helsinki is highly effective. There is nothing individually personal in this picture. The vague presentation of the participants prevents the viewer from identifying the woman as an individual woman, the boat as a specific boat. Both participants, the woman, the boat, become stereotypes in the mind of the viewer. Thus he or she can more easily identify with the woman, with the situation depicted. It is as if the ad created a cliche‘, the cliche‘ of being such a woman on a boat. The effect is that this cliche‘ of enjoying oneself in the nature, the cliche‘ of coming down to one’s senses and becoming part of nature becomes a metaphor of Helsinki. [...]

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In den Warenkorb
58,00 €

Erhältlich als:
PDF-eBook Download: 58,00 € PDF-eBook auf CD: 58,00 € Ausdruck eBook: 58,00 €

Link zur Arbeit:
http://www.diplom.de/ean/9783832451998

Arbeit zitieren:
Pichler, Wilfried Mai 2001: The Language of Pictures in Print Media Advertising, Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag

Schlagworte:
Layout, Symbolik, Printmedien, Überzeugungsstrategien, visuelle Kommunikation