Title: The Verbal and the Visual in Advertising Language: A Cross-cultural Analysis
Abstract: Modern adverts, which are primarily aimed at influencing the viewer, are a combination
of text and images, although the verbal and the visual can also be complemented by
music in audiovisual commercials. In successful advertising, textual and graphic elements
combine together to form a type of discourse which has the power to provoke feelings
and actions, shape values, expectations and life-styles, and which is addressed to a
particular audience.
This paper examines the complex interdependence betwen verbal and visual
representation in different versions of adverts for the same makes of cars intended for
sale in different countries. An attempt is made to ascertain whether the text or the image
plays the primary role in creating the advertising message. The paper also examines the
universal and culture-specific clements in the verbal and the visual means of making an
impact on the viewer of an advert and analyses the differences and similarities both in the
verbal and the visual components of advertising messages. It is argued that the culture-specific
differences in audiovisual adverts are more important in the verbal message than
in the visual image, since the aesthetic feelings that adverts appeal to through images are
more universal than the verbal information that humans interpret rationally.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 4
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