Abstract
Visual rhetoric is considered a powerful tool of persuasion. It is widely used in political discourse, poetry and advertising language. This study tackles the topic of visual metaphor in print advertisements. It examines visual metaphor complexity on the viewer’s comprehension and attitude. It uses Phillips and Mc Quarrie’s classification of visual metaphor which offers an accurate classification of the different types of visual rhetoric. It distinguishes two dimensions, namely; visual structure and meaning operation. The former refers to the nature of the relation between the two pictures in comparison while visual structure refers to the way the relevant pictures are placed together. The combinations of the two dimensions result in nine types of visual metaphor which are: Juxtaposition/connection, juxtaposition/similarity, juxtaposition/opposition, fusion/connection, fusion/similarity, fusion/opposition, replacement/connection, replacement/similarity and replacement/opposition. The main findings show that complex and rich visual metaphors are more difficult to understand and are not positively perceived by the viewers. In fact, viewers of visual metaphor enjoy solving incongruity and are willing to devote extra efforts in understanding and processing visual metaphor. However, a complex and rich visual metaphor is not very appealing as their complexity will lead the viewers to opt out from enjoying and processing visual metaphor incongruity.
Highlights
The extensive use of visual metaphor in print advertisements led the topic of visual rhetoric a rich and valuable area of research for scholars and researchers
According to Mc Quarrie and Mick [2], visual rhetoric is “a rhetorical figure that occurs when an expression deviates from expectation, the expression is not rejected as nonsensical or faulty, the deviation occurs at the level of form rather than content, and the deviation conforms to a template that is invariant across a variety of contents and contexts (p. 425)”
This study offers a theoretical contribution that lies in its attempt to develop a clearer framework about visual metaphor in theory
Summary
The extensive use of visual metaphor in print advertisements led the topic of visual rhetoric a rich and valuable area of research for scholars and researchers. According to Mc Quarrie and Mick [2], visual rhetoric is “a rhetorical figure that occurs when an expression deviates from expectation, the expression is not rejected as nonsensical or faulty, the deviation occurs at the level of form rather than content, and the deviation conforms to a template that is invariant across a variety of contents and contexts This study focuses on the classifications of visual metaphor according to their degree of complexity. This study uses Philips and Mc Quarrie’s [1] classification because it offers a complete framework to the classification of visual metaphor complexity. 2. Visual Metaphor in Philips and Mc Quarrie’s (2004) Typology
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