This is my short essay that was not completely related to the prompt, but I thought it was still interesting.
Eunha
So
02.24.2013
Dr.
Leake
Images in Advertisements
"A picture is worth a thousand words." This
idea was “invented by an advertising executive, Fred R. Barnard. To promote his
agency's ads he took out an ad in Printer's Ink in 1921 with the headline
"One Look Is Worth a Thousand Words" and attributed it to an ancient
Japanese philosopher” (Dictionary.com).
As it an advertising agency executive brought this idea, it seems to be
appear the most in advertisements. In order for an advertising agency to use
images to deliver their thoughts, they need to make sure that the images to say
a thousand words, or perhaps sometimes, they need something more than just an
image.
There are two types of advertisement I want to mention in
this essay: an advertisement image that displays purpose so clearly that people
can notice what it is trying to convey, and one that that does not present the
purpose on the surface, but underlines it to make people to think about what it
is actually trying to speak.
On the left side, it is a advertisement of Maybelline’s “Moisture Extreme
Lipcolor” line (figure 1). This is a very obvious image of a cosmetic
advertisement. It has a picture of a lady who is wearing a rose red color
lipstick that is just as red as the red roses she is holding, and also there is
a lipstick on the right side that seems like the color of lipstick the lady
used. However, the part the makes this advertisement the most obvious is the
words. The name of the brand,
Maybelline,
and the description of the product, “Moisture goes deep, color comes alive.
Moisture Extreme LipColor, moisturizes with 3x the power a lip balm.*… protects
with SPF 15…” are what definitely makes it a cosmetic advertisement. It
explains what the picture is trying to promote, and makes it believable.
On the left side, there is a picture of a cow on a
trampoline (figure 2, I purposely removed the logo and caption at the bottom,
because I believe that people do not look at the description first before they
even look at the picture). What is this picture trying to tell? At first I
thought it was a trampoline advertisement saying how strong the trampoline is
by showing that it will not break even with a huge cow on it. However, my
thought was completely wrong. Look at this picture on right bottom (figure 3). There
are a McDonalds logo at the bottom and a statement saying “The Real Milkshake”.
They thought about bouncing a cow on a trampoline to shake the milk in the cow.
It is a very funny and clever way to promote their milkshake. It draws people’s
attention; make them to think about it for a long time, because they will not
understand it first time just by looking at the picture. Though, it is not
completely lost because it gives people a hint at the bottom of the
advertisement. It still needs some words for the people to understand it
completely.
In advertisements, they try to speak as many words as possible through the
picture. In a clever, funny and interesting way to arouse people’s curiosity,
so the advertisements are in people’s mind for longer and remain stronger. While
the picture can be thought provoking and draws people’s attention, it can also
be confusing and undefined without a caption. Picture can be add a great vivid
color to an idea, but words complete the picture.
Sources.
2. Maybelline
3. McDonalds
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