1. LESSON 11
Advertising as Visual communication
TOPICS COVERED
Advertisement Campaigns, Steps to develop Campaign concepts, ideas visualization,
making verbal/visual connections, how to approach idea visualization.
OBJECTIVE
Visuals are used heavily in Advertising. How do they work? We see them in hoardings,
in Point of Sale (shops) kiosks, newspapers, magazines, TV..
.You will learn how meaning is produced and conveyed in messages that are primarily
visual.
.Learning to make visuals work is the challenge of every media person.
VISUAL MEANING IN ADVERTISING
How is meaning produced and conveyed in messages that are primarily visual? This
question is particularly relevant when the message is one that relies almost exclusively on
visual communication cues. The production of meaning from visual messages in such
visually intensive areas as advertising has been largely uninvestigated even though the
question is of tremendous importance to designers of advertising messages. The reason is
because of the difficulty of capturing visual meaning and the lack of structured research
approaches to code and categorize such information.
Visual Semiotics
Studies of meaning evolve from semiotics, a philosophical approach that seeks to
interpret messages in terms of their signs and patterns of symbolism. The study of
semiotics, or semiology in France, originated in a literary or linguistic context and has
been expanding in a number of directions since the early turn-of-the century work of C.S.
Pierce in the U.S. and Levi Strauss and Ferdinand Saussure in France.
A sign can be a word, a sound, or a visual image. Saussure divides a sign into two
components--the signifier (the sound, image, or word) and the signified, which is the
concept the signifier represents, or the meaning. As Berger points out, the problem of
meaning arises from the fact that the relation between the signifier and the signified is
arbitrary and conventional. In other words, signs can mean anything we agree that they
mean, and they can mean different things to different people. Given the nonverbal nature
of the "1984" commercial, it might be expected that the complex sign system in the
commercial might produce a variety of meanings.

2. Pierce categorized the patterns of meaning in signs as iconic, symbolic and indexical. An
iconic sign looks like what it represents--a picture of a dog, for example. The meaning of
a symbol, like the flag or the Statue of Liberty, is determined by convention--in other
words, its meaning is arbitrary; it is based upon agreement and learned through
experience. Language uses words as symbols that have to be learned; in Western
languages there is no iconic or representational link between a word and its signified
concept or meaning. An indexical sign is a clue that links or connects things in nature.
Smoke, for example, is a sign of fire; icicles mean cold. Visual communication,--
including video forms--uses all three types signs. Because of the essentially nonverbal
nature of the "1984" commercial storyline, it is particularly rich in complex visual
signification.
Most signs operate on several levels--iconic as well as symbolic and/or indexical, which
suggests that visual semiotic analysis may be addressing a hierarchy of meaning in
addition to categories and components of meaning. As Eco explains, "what is commonly
called a 'message' is in fact a text whose content is a multi leveled discourse. In the
"1984" commercial, it would be interesting to deconstruct the visual image to determine
what elements are iconic, symbolic, and indexical.
The broadening concept of text and discourse encourages additional research into how
visual communication operates to create meaning. Deeply explains that "at the heart of
semiotics is the realization that the whole of human experience, without exception, is an
interpretive structure mediated and sustained by signs." Semiotics now considers a
variety of texts, using Eco's terms, to investigate such diverse areas as movies, art,
advertisements, and fashion, as well as visuals. In other words, as Berger explains, "the
essential breakthrough of semiology is to take linguistics as a model and apply linguistic
concepts to other phenomena--texts--and not just to language itself." Anthropologists like
Grant McCracken and marketing experts like Sydney Levy have even used semiotic
interpretations to analyze the rich cultural meanings of products and consumer
consumption behaviors as texts.
Visual texts are an important area of analysis for semioticians and particularly for
scholars working with visually intensive forms such as advertising and television because
images are such a central part of our mass communication sign system. Linda Scott has
deconstructed the images in perfume advertising as well as in Apple's "1984" commercial
using close readings of the various messages which can be interpreted from the ads. Shay
Sayre has also looked at perfume advertising images and the visual rhetoric in Hungary's
first free election television advertisements using semiotic analysis. Also using semiotics,
Arthur As a Berger has deconstructed the meaning of the "1984" commercial as well as
programs such as Cheers and films such as Murder on the Orient Express.
Systems of meaning, Culler and Berger tell us, is analyzed by looking at cultural and
communication products and events as signs and then by looking at the relationship
among these signs. The categories of signs and the relationships between them create a
system. Barthes, for example, has analyzed the "fashion system," and classified the
system of communication through fashion into two categories: image clothing and
descriptive clothing. Likewise, an advertisement has its own system of meaning. We
expect an appeal to purchase, either directly or implied, to be made and a product to be
shown, for example, as part of the advertising system.

3. We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who
have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have
persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our
talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a
tide of books and publications reinforces it.
Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog
biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers,
butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always
paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what
graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession’s
time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.
Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers
who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are
supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial
messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond
and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably
harmful code of public discourse.
There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented
environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural
interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational
tools, television programmes, films, charitable causes and other information design
projects urgently require our expertise and help.
We propose a reversal of priorities in favour of more useful, lasting and democratic forms
of communication – a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration
and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must
expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other
perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.
In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our skills to be put to
worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of global commercial culture, their message
has only grown more urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no
more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.
THE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
From time to time, we have made reference to the "advertising campaign." Now that the
basic elements of writing copy have been investigated, it is time that more detailed
attention be given to the overall picture of planning and executing a long-term program,
and subsequently, an advertising campaign.

4. THE CAMPAIGN
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisements concerned with a product or family
of products (or services), having generally the same objective, with a unifying central
creative theme or idea. This may be expressed in any number of appeals or approaches,
but each advertisement indicates a "family resemblance" when it is varied for different
media. The "personality" of the verbal and visual elements gives a campaign identity and
continuity.
For example, the Ford Motor Company maintained the same basic campaign for several
years with "The Better Idea," a central theme running through season after season of
advertising campaigns. From billboards to television, the unifying idea ,was retained with
many variations, but always clearly making its impact on the public. Recently a corporate

5. variation has been added, extolling the factory operation and the finished cars as an
"incredible" product.
This, in essence, is the importance of a campaign, and the importance of a strong central
idea. It provides the maximum impact on the consumer for every dollar spent. No matter
what the budget, the continuity and cumulative effect provided by a unified campaign
make each advertisement more memorable. In addition, a campaign forces each
advertisement to contribute to the one that follows it. This continuity provides a
cumulative impact, which is the synergism the advertiser hopes, will give him extra sales.
For the copywriter, there is a special plus derived from the aesthetic satisfaction of
having created an effective campaign. (The satisfaction is not what the client pays for, but
it adds immeasurably to the excitement of the job!)
THE COPY PLATFORM
A copy platform is a written statement of creative plans that goes through two stages.
First, when a presentation is made to a copy supervisor and finally to the client, as all
advertising agencies must do at regular intervals, a copy platform is included at the
beginning of the section on copy. The copy platform has been discussed by copy chiefs,
art directors, and, sometimes, account supervisors. It is hoped that it will later be
approved by the client.
Before the campaign goes into production, the copy platform must be approved by the
client whether or not some few changes have been or will be made. Then, in its second
stage, it becomes the bible for each copywriter who works on that account.
PROCEDURES FOR DEVELOPING CONCEPTS FOR CAMPAIGNS AND COPY
Up to now, we have covered a reasonably deep study of the factors that combine to
produce effective concepts for advertising campaigns and copy. In fact, it would seem
appropriate at this point to give the student copywriter an opportunity to look back and
see how it is all put together.
The following are the steps generally covered in developing concepts (central ideas) for
campaigns and then writing the copy. This need not be taken as gospel; it is a guide to a
reasonable procedure that can be helpful before the copywriter gains enough experience
to prepare her own procedures.
Steps to Develop Campaign Concepts
1. Assemble and analyze all the facts for planning a strategy: (a) The company you are
writing for.
(b) The audience you are writing to.
(c) The product you must sell.
(d) The objectives (product and/or institutional) of the immediate advertisement.

6. (e) The medium you are writing for.
2. Assemble and study the ad facts, mechanical facts about the proposed advertisement:
(a) Is this a single ad, or a part of a campaign?
(b) If print, what is the size and shape of the space?
(c) Black and white or color?
(d) If on radio or television, what is the length of the commercial? How will it be
produced? What is the time slot?
3. Review the product facts_ use buyers' fact sheets, all research, surveys, trade
publications, etc.
4. List all the product's selling points.
(a) Study and number them according to strength; relist them in order.
(b) Decide on a cut-off point of usable selling points (usually three or so).
5. Determine the most effective copy appeal on the basis of the selling point chosen as
the most important and dominant, the one that offers the greatest consumer benefit and
becomes the theme of the copy and the headline area.
6. Decide on the copy approach. (At this point, the copywriter has developed a concept.)
7. Decide on tentative idea visualization; do lots of vizthinks and thumbnails. Make nota-
tions for the guidance of the art department.
8. Outline the body copy.
9. Write the headline. (Steps 7, 8, and 9 are interchangeable; sometimes one, sometimes
another comes first.)
10. Write the first draft.
11. Check all facts again. Check copy against copy checklists and copy platform given
you by your own company or against any other guides you may wish to use.
12. Confer with the art department on actual layout and artwork.
13. If necessary, rewrite the body copy or details of the copy to fit the final layout
exactly. Be prepared to do a character count if exact typographical specification is
required. This is called copy fitting. This technique is fully described in Chapter II.
14. Write final copy, complete in all details, ready for typesetting. (Do not rely on the
typists to do your detail work for you.)
15. After the advertisement is set in type, see the proofs at ever-y stage. You are
responsible

7. As suggested in Step 11 above, it is wise to review the copy against a checklist, as well as
to look at it critically, before rewriting it in final form. Some of the following may be
pertinent questions to ask yourself:
1. Does the copy state customer benefit(s)?
2. Will it be interesting to a prospective buyer?
3. Is it accurate?
4. Is it clear?
5. Is it specific?
6. Does it give adequate information?
7. Is it plausible and believable?
8. Does it call for proof? If so, is your proof impressive?
9. Can it be made more concise?
10. Does it make the reader want the product?
WRAP-UP
To summarize this chapter's discussion of advertising campaigns, the following may be
observed:
1. Start with a basic consumer (customer) benefit.
2. Keep the central idea simple but strong.
3. Do not be timid or fainthearted. Strike out with new, innovative ideas.
4. Subordinate techniques of advertising production, either verbal or visual, to a strong
central idea. In other words, do not create the central idea around tricky type faces or
grotesque camera shots.
5. Test a single idea against others.
6. Keep the central idea fresh with numerous variations.
7. Do not be swayed by "armchair" research.
8. Stick with your campaign idea so long as the marketing goals remain the same.
9. Plan ahead for change.
10. Be ready to change when basic marketing conditions or new product benefits call for
new goals.