Outline, illustrate and critically discuss the persuasive potential of the non-verbal dimension in advertising.

Guidance

For general guidance see the guidelines for writing essays and reports.

What Key Features Do I Look For? Familiarity with relevant texts Evidence - the stronger the better Argument - coherent and balanced Theoretical discussion - relation to relevant theories Understanding of relevant concepts Reflexivity - reflections on methodology Examples - insightfully analysed Style - readability and effective presentation

Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here. For examples of essays by UWA students click here.

Advice for this particular assignment: Note that although the obvious application of this question is to the visual dimension of advertising, note that 'non-verbal' also includes other modes, such as the aural mode. If you choose to restrict yourself to the visual due to considerations of space in this assignment you should say so at the outlet. Avoid the issue of so-called 'subliminal advertising' because there is a question in batch two on this mythical advertising practice. Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations is essential.

Some suggested reading

• Baker, Stephen (1961) Visual Persuasion: The Effect of Pictures on the Subconscious. New York: McGraw-Hill
• Barnard, Malcolm (2005) Graphic Design as Communication. London: Routledge
• Beasley, Ron & Marcel Danesi (2002) Persuasive Signs: The Semiotics of Advertising. New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Chapter 1)
• Berger, Arthur Asa (1989) Seeing is Believing: An Introduction to Visual Communication. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield
• Berger, John (1972) Ways of Seeing. London: BBC/Penguin
• Birren, Faber (1956) Selling Color to People. New York: University Books
• BLOCK (Ed) (1996) The Block Reader in Visual Culture. London: Routledge
• Bullock, August (2004) The Secret Sales Pitch: An Overview of Subliminal Advertising. San Jose, CA: Norwich [a generator of controversy rather than a source of evidence!]
• Carson, Fiona & Claire Pajaczkowska (Eds) (2001) Feminist Visual Culture. New York: Routledge
• Cook, Guy (2001) The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge
• Dyer, Gillian (1982) Advertising as Communication. London: Methuen
• Dzamic, Lazar (2001) No-Copy Advertising. Hove: RotoVision
• Emmison, Michael & Philip Smith (2002) Researching the Visual: Images, Objects, Contexts and Interactions in Social and Cultural Inquiry (Introducing Qualitative Methods). London: Sage
• Evans, Jessica & Stuart Hall (Eds) (1999) Visual Culture: The Reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
• Forceville, Charles (1998) Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising. London: Routledge
• Fowles, Jib (1996) Advertising and Popular Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
• Fox, Roy F. (Ed) (1994) Images in Language, Media and Mind. Urbana, IL: NCTE
• Goffman, Erving (1979) Gender Advertisements. New York: Harper & Row
• Gombrich, Ernst H (1982) The Image and the Eye: Further Studies in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. London: Phaidon [includes his argument that pictures cannot make statements]
• Handa, Carolyn (Ed) (2004) Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World. Boston, MA: Bedford/St Martin's
• Hecker, Sidney & David W. Stewart (Eds) (1988) Nonverbal Communication in Advertising. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books/D C Heath
• Heywood, Ian & Barry Sandywell (Eds) (1999) Interpreting Visual Culture: Explorations in the Hermeneutics of the Visual. London: Routledge
• Hill, Charles A & Marguerite Helmers (Eds) (2004) Defining Visual Rhetorics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
• Hocks, Mary E. & Michelle R. Kendrick (Eds) (2003) Eloquent Images: Word and Image in the Age of New Media.. Cambridge, M: MIT Press
• Howells, Richard (2003) Visual Culture. Cambridge: Polity
• Jenks, Chris (1995) Visual Culture. London: Routledge
• Jones, Amelia (Ed) (2003) The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. London: Routledge
• Key, Wilson Bryan (1992) Subliminal Ad-Ventures in Erotic Art. Boston, MA: Branden [a generator of controversy rather than a source of evidence!]
• Langholz Leymore, Varda (1975) Hidden Myth: Structure and Symbolism in Advertising. New York: Basic Books
• Lester, Paul Martin (2000) Visual Communication: Images with Messages. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
• Lewis, Richard W. (1996) The Absolut Book: The Absolut Vodka Advertising Story. Boston, MA: Journey Editions
• Messaris, Paul (1994) Visual 'Literacy': Image, Mind, and Reality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press
  
• Messaris, Paul (1997) Visual Persuasion: The Role of Images in Advertising. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
• Mirzoeff, Nicholas (Ed) (1998) The Visual Culture Reader. London: Routledge
• O'Shaughnessy, John & Nicholas Jackson O'Shaughnessy (2004) Persuasion in Advertising. London: Routledge
• Packard, Vance (1962) The Hidden Persuaders. Harmondsworth: Penguin
• Prosser, Jon (Ed) (1998) Image-Based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers. London: Routledge
• Schirato, Tony & Jen Webb (2004) Understanding the Visual. London: Sage
• Schroeder, Jonathan E. (2002) Visual Consumption (Routledge Interpretive Marketing Research). London: Routledge
• Scott, Linda M & Rajeev Batra (Eds) (2003) Persuasive Imagery: A Consumer Response Perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
• Sharpe, Deborah T. (1975) The Psychology of Color and Design. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams
• Sobieszek, Robert A. (1988) The Art of Persuasion: A History of Advertising Photography. New York: Abrams
• Tomaselli, Keyan G. (1996) Appropriating Images: The Semiotics of Visual Representation. Højbjerg, Denmark: Intervention Press
• Underhill, Paco (1999) Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. New York: Simon & Schuster
• van Leeuwen, Theo & Carey Jewitt (Eds.) (2001) Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage
• Walker, John A. & Sarah Chaplin (1997) Visual Culture: An Introduction. Manchester: Manchester University Press
• Worth, Sol (1981): 'Pictures Can't Say Ain't' (from Studying Visual Communication) [WWW document] URL http://astro.temple.edu/~ruby/wava/worth/ssev.html
• Zettl, Herbert (1990) Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics (2nd Edn). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth