Most of the time when one is watching their favorite TV series, and it goes to a commercial break, an advertisement on a product or even service is shown on the television screen. As much as we rate the different types of products and services advertised, we also rate the advertisements based on their appeal and impact on the intended audience.
In this paper, I am going to focus on the visually rendered components of an argument. I am going to discuss this by examining two different TV commercials. I will pick on a commercial that had the attention of the audience and had its intended impact achieved by making a strong argument through its visual components. I will pick another commercial that failed to make a strong argument or rather did not achieve the intended purpose due to lack of adherence to the policies of visual arguments and their respective methods of persuasion.
In this year, 2018, there’s this commercial by Volvo advertising Volvo XC60. In this commercial, a fiery sunset is slowly ebbing into darkness as a man drives home, his 2018 Volvo navigating the winding, hilly roads with ease and freeing his mind to wander back through his memories. The man remembers how he acted by dropping off his wife at the space station and she smiled slyly when he asked if she was nervous. They stood separated by a glass wall as they said goodbye, their hands pressed the glass as they saw each other for the last time. When home, at last, the man looks up at the night sky pondering what comes next.
Pictures or videos play an important role in communicating emotions in advertisements. Picture materials act as rhetoric devices that contribute to the meaning and the persuasive effect of any visual argument. In this Volvo commercial, the developers took this into serious consideration (Liu, 2012). At the beginning of the advert, the man’s driving his Volvo home through a road winding up a hill with a lot of ease. It gives the impression of the power this engine has over this seemingly tedious road. Another impression is created of beauty that comes with Volvo due to the environment, the green surrounding in a cool evening. These pictures evoke the satisfaction feeling and comfort to the audience. Emotions drive the primary motivations that energize behavior, and this influences purchase behavior.
High imagery also referred to as detailed visuals are those that themselves arouse other mental images, e.g., mental pictures. Images contain the premise and or even the conclusion of an argument. A sound or even a sensory experience quickly and easily. In the Volvo advert, the graphics used and quality of pictures used and also the scenes captured are ideal for arousing the mental pictures of an audience.
Different sounds connote different meanings, leading the consumer to associate the individual commercial and the product that it advertises with some similar feelings. In the Volvo advert, there is no known background music, but there are sounds that convey important messages to the audience. There's rare talking in this advert except after the man picks his wife, he asks her if she feels nervous. The wife simply replies with a sly smile that indicates her confidence on the Volvo wheels. This helps build the audience confidence with Volvo and influences their purchase (Liu, 2012).
At the end of this commercial, the man is bidding of his wife to a space station standing opposite one another separated by a glass wall with both their hands resting against the glass wall while the background music conveys sadness but also satisfaction. Even if the wife is no longer around, the Volvo is there to at least keep him going till they meet again.This commercial is based on the premise that the Volvo XC60 is a vehicle built to give comfort in life to people in their times of need. The vehicle itself gives the calmness and assurance to the depressed and troubled at heart.
In conclusion, the vehicle is a real ideal and the best the motor vehicle industry can offer to comfort and luxury lovers. Volvo commercial is rated as one of the best commercials by Superbowl. It encompasses most dimensions as outlined by various methods of visual arguments. The advert would stick on my mind if it's accompanied by any of those sweet memories songs at the beginning to get my attention and later while the woman and the man drive to the space station, a sad goodbye song would make it even more concrete.
Another commercial is a 30-second advertisement for East Hills Shopping Centre in St. Joseph, Missouri promoting back to school items. The commercial starts with a young girl singing on back to school items at East Hills Shopping Centre (Devinder, 2014). It then shows several employees at the mall holding and showcasing back to school items present at the shopping mall. Another mall's employee says denim while holding up a pair of the season's newest blue jeans. Another punk rock is looking, employee sings about haircuts while another blonde one sings about backpacks. The last one with spiked blonde hair sings on boots and pants. Some conditions have to be fulfilled for visuals to perform the argumentative function successfully. Surrounding words in a visual play an essential role in building its claim. This commercial of East Hill shopping mall received different extreme reactions from the audience receiving over a million views on the internet. One thing that caused the anger in the audience was the terrible taste of the commercial, the line between promoting one's product and alienating its audience depends on personal taste. It, therefore, implies that the line separating appeal and irritation can be even narrower. You get as many likes as dislikes hence the ratio almost the same and dislike carries the day.
The sound is a significant concern in a visual argument. But again if it is not used n a right manner, t can blow the entire commercial making it a flop. In this East Hill back to school commercial, the sound used has done a great harm than good to the commercial, the young girl at the beginning of the commercial, sings with her voice totally off the key and mark you this is the part to draw the attention of the audience, and another part is someone trying to emulate the beats and keys with their sound (Devinder, 2014). The subsequent employees holding has screechy voices with very uncreative songs on the products they offer. The man singing boots and pants is like a passerby who just got invited to participate because he sings while his soul and mind are not with what he is undertaking. He continually repeats the words boots and pants in a very monotonous tone.
Music or rather sound accompaniment to the commercial has a major role to play on the taste of the commercial to the audience. Visual commercial to make agreements must display high visual imagery. This makes it easily noticeable and draws attention as well as making it stick in the audience mind. A lot of repetition of the same words in same positions also makes this advert boring.
Images in visual arguments emphasize, explain, narrate, illustrate, or given an emotional to the ideas contained in the commercial. In this commercial the captions seem like some casual minor retail shop advert yet, it's a shopping mall that should showcase class as well as elegance regarding its products and services. You do not claim by showcasing someone holding a pair of scissors to claim a nice haircut. This is more of informing than promoting the service. Images tend to contain the premise or the conclusion of any given visual argument.
Another claim in this East Hill commercial is that it is serving school goers yet those used in this advert and these I mean the characters except the young girl seem to be students and learners in my opinion and this contradicts the logic behind this claim. This makes unable to make a strong argument in convincing its intended audience.I have suggestions to the Volvo Company to add these elements to make their visual commercial have even a stronger argument.
Volvo commercial is rated as one of the best commercials by Superbowl. It encompasses most dimensions as outlined by various methods of visual arguments. The advert would stick on my mind if it's accompanied by any of those sweet memories songs at the beginning to get my attention and later while the woman and the man drive to the space station, a sad goodbye song would make it even more concrete. The second suggestion to Volvo is to try and make the commercial literal and make it easier to comprehend. Though symbolism is a new entity that thrills the audience, it limits understanding too
Suggestion to East Hills shopping mall; this is a commercial probably targeting the young generation that is exposed to a lot of noise and music whenever they are. It means the best way to get them watch this commercial is to create attractive music with a nice instrumental to grab their attention (Pagani, Goldsmith & Perracchio, 2015). Besides, peers putting on these outfits should carry out this commercial in the most stylish way to evoke their purchase behavior. Another suggestion is to be creative and avoid unnecessary repetition.
References
Devinder, P. (2014). East Hills Shopping Centre analysis. East Asian Journal Of Business Management, 4(3), 5-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.13106/eajbm.2014.vol4.no3.5.
Liu, P. (2012). The SWOT Analysis and Countermeasures Research on the Acquisition of Volvo by Geely. Advanced Materials Research, 452-453, 553-556. http://dx.doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.452-453.553
Pagani, M., Goldsmith, R., & Perracchio, A. (2015). Standardization vs. adaptation: consumer reaction to TV ads containing subtitled or English dubbed ads. International Journal Of Advertising, 34(4), 702-714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2015.1009349
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