Visual Persuasion: The Role Of Images In Advertising
by Dr. Paul Massaris

Sage Publications, 1997

The other day in the University library I stumbled across this excellent book for those of us that need advertising online but can’t afford to pay someone to do it for us. Written by Paul Messaris, a professor of visual communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and published in 1997 it obviously isn’t a new book.  But what it has to say about images in advertising is truly ageless.  Take this little gem for example, which, if I took nothing else away from the book would have made the whole thing worthwhile: “You are wrong if, in your ad, you stand a man on his head just to get attention.  But you are right if you have him stand on his head to show your product keeps things from falling out of his pockets.”

That’s exactly how I feel about a lot of websites.  What in the world does this image or video have to do with the problem at hand?  How does it answer my questions?  Where in this visual cacophony is the information I am searching for?  I’m not a mule; you don’t have to hit me over the head to get my attention.  In fact, like the mule, all you’re going to do is irritate me and I’ll get back at you the one way that I can—by exiting your website and buying the product someplace else.

Visual Persuasion was written for students of advertising, but much of what it says will be of interest to any reader, not just those who make a living from advertising.  For instance, have you ever watched a television commercial written and edited for the young and wondered what was going on? I certainly have, and I’ve always thought the problem to be mine because I am getting old and I am not as up to date on recent cultural nuances as I should be. So imagine my relief when Dr. Messaris announced that his research determined that the same rapid-fire editing that confused me was also confusing to the younger consumers; they liked the accelerated video but missed the advertisers’ point almost as much as older viewers.

Before there was Visual Persuasion there was The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard, supposedly an expose of the methods advertisers used to worm their way into our unconscious minds and pocketbooks.  The book came out in 1957 and put the fear of advertising into an entire generation.  Now, after reading Visual Persuasion I discovered that the fear I’ve always had that I bought that 1979 Chevy after viewing a “See The USA In Your Chevrolet” commercial with subliminal messages was unwarranted.  The television technology of the time simply couldn’t support subliminal advertising; a refresh rate far faster than the 60 times a second then possible was necessary. Even today the technology isn’t on the desk of the average viewer.  That sort of disappoints me: not only can’t I trick people into purchasing my product with subliminal advertising on my website, I have nobody to blame for my stupid purchases but myself.

Another concept I found fascinating was the idea that our belief in the honesty of the visual image is gradually being eroded by the number of ways that it can be falsified.  It used to be that a photograph was accepted as representing reality, truth if you will.  Today everyone knows that that is no longer true; any image can be altered so that only an expert can be sure of its veracity.  Does that mean that photographs will soon go the way of numbers?  You know, as in “Figures lie, and liars figure!”

This book depends on a great number of illustrations of dated adverting to get its point across. That these images are from advertising wars of an earlier century in no way diminishes Visual Persuasion’s value.  What it does do, however, is make it a bad choice for an ebook purchase off any of the commercial electronic libraries; as yet e-ink simply doesn’t do justice to images.

I believe “Visual Persuasion” is still in print; I know copies can still be purchased at online bookstores. A well-written book of interest to both advertising professionals and the average reader interested in the advertising world.

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