LESSON 10Visual Persuation in Advertising

TOPICS COVEREDVISUAL PERSUASION IN ADVERTISING, PUBLIC RELATIONS

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this chapter you should know:

. The uses and abuses of shock advertising.

. How the Benetton clothing company uses the media for additional advertising.

. The difference between persuasion and propaganda.

. How visual persuasion is used in advertising, public relations, and journalism.

The Ethics of what we see. Visual massages are a powerful form of communication becausethey stimulate both intellectual and emotional responses—they make us think as well as feel.Therefore images can be used to persuade and to perpetuate ideas that words alone cannot. Whencontrolled by economic interests and corporate considerations, pictures can be powerful tools topersuade people to buy a particular product or think a specific way. Any viewer or producer ofvisual messages must be aware of the ways that pictures are used to convince others of a certainpoint of view.

A creator of images also has an ethical and moral responsibility to ensure, for example, that apicture is a fair, accurate, and complete representation of some one from another culture. Toooften, however that knowledge is gained after an image causes harm. Fortunately, sensitivity andknowledge about other cultures can give you an understanding of the correct use of pictures.

Shock AdvertisingAdvertisement and social issue

Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation, aimed at serving an agenda. Even if themessage conveys true information, it may be partisan and fail to paint a complete picture. Theprimary use of the term is in political contexts. A similar manipulation of information is wellknown, e.g., in advertising, but normally it is not called propaganda in the latter context.

Kinds of propaganda

Propaganda shares many techniques with advertising; in fact, advertising can be said to bepropaganda promoting a commercial product. However, propaganda usually has political ornationalist themes. It can take the form of leaflets, posters, TV broadcasts or radio broadcasts.

In a narrower and more common use of the term, propaganda refers to deliberately false ormisleading information that supports a political cause or the interests of those in power. Thepropagandist seeks to change the way people understand an issue or situation, for the purpose ofchanging their actions and expectations in ways that are desirable to the interest group. In thissense, propaganda serves as a corollary to censorship, in which the same purpose is achieved, notby filling people's heads with false information, but by preventing people from knowing trueinformation. What sets propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy is the willingness of thepropagandist to change people's understanding through deception and confusion, rather thanpersuasion and understanding. The leaders of an organization know the information to be onesided or untrue but this may not be true for the rank and file members who help to disseminatethe propaganda.