Guided tour around an advert

Nothing is accidental in an advert.

The visual first attracts your eyes at an emotional level, in this particular case, the tall silhouette of this slender girl, which you will follow upwards (regardless of your gender as a viewer) until you reach the next step.

The flight of birds in the sky is obviously both visual   AND textual information. Its direction leads your eyes to the left, not accidentally again in a US-made ad referring to a product whose history is closely imbricated to how the West was won.

The next step is the catch phrase, whose graphic structure is also of a visual nature, and whose meaning is sufficiently enigmatic to make the viewer-reader want to explore further down.

The copy, in smaller type —to make us look closer— is carefully crafted, usually by a team of professional writers. It addresses the reader personally, almost intimately, makes her/him a close friend.This speaks to our intellect.

The product logo is obviously again of both kinds, as is the brand name.

Finally the best line leaves an ultimate subliminal message printed in the viewer's mind.

In other words, this approach has led the potential client from an emotional or aesthetic sensation to a more intellectual comprehension of the message. The advertising experts have moved us from viewing to reading, the better to seduce us.