ADVERTISING

Advertising: Images, Industry and Audience

Out of home advertising project

Advertising: Images, Industry and Audience

Out of home advertising project

Introduction

This food court advertisement analysis examines the impact of the national economic conditions on advertising and its visuals. This advertisement suggests the current trend of food markets in modern societies. Advertisement related to any food product is more prevalent in our modern world today. Also, the use of literal visuals is dominant in today's food courts. The difference in the use of advertising visuals is statistically significant due to the colors that have been used to attract customers. This study supports cultural historian's argument that advertising is viewed as mirrors of society, being influenced and shaped by the culture and society.

Analysis

Advertising visual and its graphical components has long been the target of studies since food marketers began to adopt full-scale marketing activities in the early 21st Century century. The important theme of this food court advertisement is how the visual appeal could be translated into an effective selling message. The role of advertising visuals includes obtaining attention, creating impact, and stimulating interest from an indifferent audience through conveying a main selling point of food products or brands. Advertising visuals perform two main functions - literal and symbolic. Literal visuals provide factual information on food products or services, and symbolic visuals perform an indirect role to connect the images of products or services with the meanings that are appropriately assigned to them.

As we know, advertising is part of the changing social, economic, and cultural environment, and its visuals might have been created in a way that could reflect those changes that people would want to adjust themselves to. Another way of linking advertising and its visuals to society and culture is the cultural approach to advertising. Cultural historians argue that advertising is an important window through which different aspects of society and culture can be explained. But also, the advertising itself can be explained to determine how it might have been shaped by society. This approach recognizes advertising not only as a window to culture but also a mirror that reflects the culture, or the cultures.

Visual appeal always had a prominent place in advertising. The old saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words, so many advertisers usually try to visually communicate messages, rather than bog down the receiver in heavy text. Hecker & Stewart (1988, p.13) state that visual recall is becoming ...