Barbara J. Phillips

INDIRECT PERSUASION IN ADVERTISING: How Consumers Process Metaphors Presented in Pictures and Words

Indirect persuasion attempts are common in magazine advertisements. Although the use of an indirect claim presumably offers some advantage to an advertiser, as yet, little is known about how consumers process different types of indirect claims. We develop the proposition that when consumers are presented with an indirect metaphorical claim, they become more receptive to multiple positive inferences about the advertised brand. In addition, when the indirect metaphorical claim takes the form of a picture, consumers are more likely to spontaneously generate such positive inferences at the time of ad exposure. These ideas are supported in an experiment using response latency data. Because many of the inferences examined in this study could be considered misleading if claimed directly, the paper concludes with a discussion of the public policy implications of the findings.

Beyond Visual Metaphor: A New Typology of Visual Rhetoric in Advertising

The goal of rhetorical theory is always to organize the possibilities for persuasion within a domain and to relate each possible stratagem to specific desired outcomes. In this article we develop a visual rhetoric that differentiates the pictorial strategies available to advertisers and links them to consumer response. We propose a new typology that distinguishes nine types of visual rhetorical figures according to their degree of complexity and ambiguity. We then derive empirically testable predictions concerning how these different types of visual figures may influence such consumer responses as elaboration and belief change. The article concludes with a discussion of the importance of marrying textual analysis, as found in literary, semiotic and rhetorical disciplines, with the experimental methodology characteristic of social and cognitive psychology.

Narrative and Persuasion in Fashion Advertising

Narrative transportation—to be carried away by a story—has been proposed as a distinct route to persuasion. But as originally conceived, narrative transportation is unlikely to occur in response to advertisements, where persuasive intent is obvious and consumer resistance is expected. We analyze fashion ads to show how narrative transportation can nonetheless be a possible response to ads, if specific aesthetic properties are present, most notably when grotesque imagery is used. We then situate narrative transportation as one of five modes of engaging fashion advertising, each of which serves as a distinct route to persuasion. Interviews showed that consumers variously engage ads to act, identify, feel, transport, or immerse. We explain how aesthetic properties of ads call forth different modes of engagement and explore how grotesque imagery can lead to either narrative transportation or immersion. As routes to persuasion, transportation and immersion work by intensifying brand experience rather than boosting brand evaluation.

The Megaphone Effect: Taste and Audience in Fashion Blogging

The megaphone effect refers to the fact that the web makes a mass audience potentially available to ordinary consumers. The article focuses on fashion bloggers who acquire an audience by iterated displays of aesthetic discrimination applied to the selection and combination of clothing. The authors offer a theoretical account of bloggers’ success in terms of the accumulation of cultural capital via public displays of taste and describe how the exercise of taste produces economic rewards and social capital for these bloggers. The article situates fashion blogging as one instance of a larger phenomenon that includes online reviews and user-generated content and extends to the consumption of food and home decor as well as clothing. In these instances of the megaphone effect, a select few ordinary consumers are able to acquire an audience without the institutional mediation historically required.

Personification in Advertising

All forms of personification draw on anthropomorphism, the propensity to attribute human characteristics to objects. In an experiment, we show that visual personification—pictures in an ad that metaphorically represent a product as engaged in some kind of human behavior—can trigger anthropomorphism. Such personification, when embedded in an ad, appears to lead to more positive emotions, more positive attributions of brand personality, and greater brand liking. Implications for advertisers are discussed.

The Development, Change, and Transformation of Rhetorical Style in Magazine Advertisements 1954–1999

Abstract Rhetorical advertising style consists of the method or manner by which ad content is expressed; an example is the use of rhetorical figures such as metaphor or rhyme. Two studies of rhetorical style in U.S. magazine advertisements from 1954 to 1999 are reported. A qualitative content assessment suggests that rhetorical figures were prevalent throughout the period. In addition, the content assessment suggests more layering of multiple figures and less explanation of figures over time. The content analysis supports these trends and clarifies that one kind of figure—a destabilization trope that includes pun, metaphor, and irony—increased in incidence. Several possible explanations for these observed trends are considered, with a focus on how changes in rhetorical style may reflect the mutual adaptation of consumer and advertiser to changes in the advertising environment over this time period.

Impact of Advertising Metaphor on Consumer Belief: Delineating the Contribution of Comparison Versus Deviation Factors

The linguistics literature argues that different meanings can be conveyed by different metaphors, and that the meaning content so conveyed will structure the perceptions of message recipients in profoundly different ways. We set out to measure the impact of varying metaphor content within an advertising context on consumer beliefs. We report an experiment that isolates the effect of metaphor, which is a function of cross-domain comparison, from the effect of figurativeness, which is a function of artful deviation. We find that only a highly figurative metaphor is able to alter specific consumer beliefs under conditions of incidental ad exposure. Consumers who have a high degree of ability to process metaphors are an exception to this rule; in their case, metaphors, whether figurative or not, did alter beliefs. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

It's not Your Magazine AD: Magnitude and Direction of Recent Changes in Advertising Style

We examine how the style of magazine advertisements changed between 1969 and 2002, using ads included in the Which Ad Pulled Best? (WAPB) editions published over that period. Six aspects of ad style are examined: the proportion of space allotted to pictures, the amount of body copy used, inclusion of the brand name in the headline, incorporation of the brand into the picture, the layout of pictures and text, and the presence or absence of a stand-alone brand block. Using contemporaneous copy test data from the WAPB editions, we show that the style elements that became more common were those that had been more effective, and those that became less common were those elements that had proved less effective. Results suggest that during this period consumers increasingly approached magazine ads as pictures to be viewed and not as documents to be read. In response, magazine advertisers adapted by altering their stylistic and design choices to give more weight to pictorial elements and less weight to verbal elements.

Interactive Animation: Exploring Spokes-Characters on the Internet

Abstract We examine one type of animation that has strong positive effects in traditional media—the spokes-character—by asking: how are advertisers using spokes-characters on their Web sites and how should they be using them? A content analysis of corporate Web sites containing spokes-characters shows limited animation and opportunity for interactivity. An experiment that examines the impact of adding animation and sound to character Web sites suggests that animation can increase character liking, perceived entertainment, and Web site liking. A second experiment that examines the impact of adding opportunities for interactivity suggests that higher levels of interactivity increase perceived entertainment, social presence, and Web site liking.

In Defense of Advertising: A Social Perspective

Many critics have questioned the ethics of advertising as an institution in current American society. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine three negative social trends that have been attributed to advertising: (a) the elevation of consumption over other social values, (b) the increasing use of goods to satisfy social needs, and (c) the increasing dissatisfaction of individual consumers. This explanation yields a defense of advertising which argues that the underlying cause of these negative trends is not advertising, but a larger social factor - capitalism. Solutions that address the capitalistic roots of these negative social trends are suggested.