Explain why Responding to Visual Representations Matters

Explain why Responding to Visual Representations Matters
Images are a constant and persistent presence in our lives. A billboard invites us to visit a local museum. The lettering on a pickup truck urges us to call for a free landscaping estimate. Advertising images surround us, trying to shape our opinions about everything from personal hygiene products to snack foods to political issues.

Besides ads, all sorts of cartoons, photos, drawings, paintings, logos, graphics, and other media work to evoke responses. The critical skills you develop for analyzing these still images also apply to other visual representations, including commercials, films, and stage productions. Whether visual images provoke a smile or a scream, one thing is certain: visuals help to structure our views of reality.

In a College Course
You perform visual analysis in your composition, art history, and marketing classes.
You consider visual representations of data in your health-sciences lab or clinical experience.
In the Workplace
You evaluate the values conveyed by proposed images for a new Web page.
In Your Community
You gather recent newspaper images of local teens to document the need for a community sports program.
When have you responded to visuals in your writing? In what situations might you analyze images in future writing?

Learning from Another Writer
Following is an analysis of an advertisement in which student writer Logan Sikora analyzes a commercial to investigate how advertisers influence our perceptions.

Logan Sikora Student Analysis of an Advertisement
The Attention Test

The commercial for Škoda Fabia has gotten a lot of media attention, including headlines like this one: “You Won’t Be Able to Take Your Eyes Off This Cheap Škoda Hatchback” (Sorokanich). Although this claim certainly is warranted, the attention viewers pay to the Škoda Fabia has little to do with the car and almost everything to do with the design and content of the commercial, an instructive example of how advertisers shape our perceptions to their advantage.

At the start of the commercial, the following words appear on the screen: “The Attention Test” (Škoda). We are then taken to a street scene that features an unimpressive blue hatchback parked between a scooter and a black van, with shops in the background. (The car is the Škoda Fabia, an economy car built by the Czech subsidiary of Volkswagen.) At this point the voiceover begins, and throughout it the camera never veers from the parked Fabia:

To test just how much attention the attention-stealing design of the new Škoda Fabia actually steals, we left one parked on this ordinary road in West London. We wanted to see if its sharp, crystalline shapes, bold lines, and lower, wider profile would attract the desired level of attention. Will the seventeen-inch black alloy wheels stop passers-by in their tracks? Will the angular headlights attract the attention of other road users? Will a crowd gather to check out its fresh, sporty look? Well, not quite. But did the attention-stealing design distract you from noticing that the entire street has been changing right before your very eyes? Don’t believe us? Have another look. Did you spot the van changing to a taxi? How about the scooter changing to a pair of bicycles? Or the lady holding a pig? Let alone the fact that the entire street is now completely different. Didn’t think so. So there we have it. Proof that the new Škoda Fabia is truly attention-stealing. (Škoda)

The narrator is right: it is likely that most viewers’ eyes will stay trained on the blue car, not noticing all the changes that take place in the background until the narrator points them out. The car remains the center of attention because it is the focal point not only of the camera but also of much of the narrator’s commentary, which refers to the Fabia’s “attention-stealing design,” “sharp, crystalline shapes,” and so on. The lesson here is that an automobile company doesn’t need a sports car to attract this kind of attention; it just needs the right kind of advertising.

Fig. 1. “The Škoda Fabia Attention Test.” Škoda Australia. YouTube, 26 Feb. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpPYdMs97eE.

Viewers’ focus on the car in the Škoda commercial is an example of selective attention, a result of the fact that we can pay attention to only so many things at the same time. As writer and psychology expert Kendra Cherry has noted, “Attention acts somewhat like a spotlight, highlighting the details that we need to focus on and casting irrelevant information to the sidelines of our perception.” Effective advertising trains that spotlight carefully, setting our visual priorities to advertisers’ advantage.

Another appealing aspect of the Škoda commercial is its tongue-in-cheek humor, from references to the “fresh, sporty look” of the plain-looking car to the mention of the “lady holding a pig.” The advertiser wants us to feel as if we are in on the joke, while also making a pitch for the Fabia. As noted in a blog post from Lumen, an “attention technology” company, humor is an especially effective approach for reaching Millennials, an important audience for advertisers.

Given its design, content, and humor, the Škoda commercial certainly is appealing; more than that, it sheds an interesting light on strategies that advertisers use to attract, and hold, our attention.

Questions to Start You Thinking
Meaning
How does the commercial keep viewers focused on the blue car?

In what way is this focus an example of selective attention?

What other strategies does the commercial use to appeal to viewers?

Writing Strategies
Where does Sikora introduce her thesis and her major supporting points?

How does Sikora ensure that readers know enough about the commercial to follow her discussion?

What different kinds of support does Sikora draw from her sources?

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Writing Assignment-Visual Analysis
Visual analysis is a strategy used to recognize and translate the impact visual choices have on the viewer.
Watch “The Attention Test” commercial on YouTube.

Read “The Attention Test” by Logan Sikora – Textbook (p. 231-233).
Use APA format for your submission.
Answer “Questions to Start You Thinking” 1-6 on page 233. It is not necessary to write the questions, just list them numerically. Provide examples from the text and be sure to correctly cite the last name of the author and the page number.
Example: (Sikora, p. 231)

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