HYPERBOLES

USE OF HYPERBOLES IN ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS

Use of hyperboles in advertising effectiveness’’ published in the International Conference Redefining Community in Intercultural Context 2015 (RCIC’15)  by Oana Barbu-Kleitsch from Department of Faculty of Political Sciences, Philosophy and Communication, West University of Timisoara, Romania. She is practitioner as well as an academical researcher in Brand Communication and online PR since 2005.


This paper investigates one of the most common used figures of speech in the persuasive context of the advertising discourse. hyperbole is exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. One type of visual and textual figures that has been little analysed yet enjoys wide popularity in todays advertisement production, is Hyperbole. As a case study, the author will take into consideration the way hyperbole is used in alimentary and gustative imaginary of advertising production and effectiveness. Various causes of flowed perception of the message will be suggested briefly, as the question remains debatable : ‘’does the use of hyperboles fall short, meet or exceed subjects expectation. Is hyperbole used in advertising as a visual puffery or does it appeal to more?’’.
The purposes of this analysis is mainly to understand how a hyperbole works and what are its main features as a communication tool.
The author used qualitative research by interview and multiple choice, will be developed by semiotically interpreting a hyperbolised printed ad. Semiotic analysis are often made on the intrinsic decription and analysis of the message, which is considered to be in itself the carrier of means ,being the prior container of the significance.

Visual Rhetorics And The Use Of Hyperboles In Advertisements

This ad deviates from realistics representation in ads (such as ordinary products and their typical uses) by showing an augmented reality juxtaposed on a realistics character’s face, over his lips, chin and neck creates an optical (and intended designed) illusion, focusing viewers attention on this central point. As our group will show, consumers are unlikely to consider the ad as a blunder ; they have seen this type of communication tool used in advertisement before.

The exaggerated replacement of a human mouth in Figure 1 is so beyond belief that a logical mind would not take the claim seriously, but may influence his attention as the image can be appreciated for other reasons (aesthetically, contextually etc.).

SEMIOTIC FOCUS GROUP ANALYSIS

All the participants recognised the image as an advertising poster. A majority of 65,4% recognised this image as a visual representation or a visual persuasion image, confirming our assumed hypothesis that visual rhetorics is recognised and interpreted by its viewers. 30,8% of the participants deepened their interpretation by recognising the image to be the representation of hunger, only 3,8% of them misinterpreting the message as “fear”.
A majority of 96,2% recognised the focus point of the image to be the hyperbole used as a rhetorical figure, the oversized body art painted on the ad’s character being the stirking element of the image. Thus, the effectiveness of this hyperbole in drawing attention towards the ad can be confirmed.
The effectiveness of the ad was recognised by 80,7% from the total answers, 53,8% of them pointing out the striking design used in perceiving the message. Only 26,9% recognised that they would try the product after seeing the advertising poster, and a number of 11,5% listed this ad as exaggerated. Two participants listed that the ad has no effect on them, although, for the next question, both recognised the ad as being creative.

this results show that the visual cues and imagery in the selected ad are decoded, under certain conditions (targeted group, personal preferences, lifestyle) to result in product expectations that exceed actual product evaluations, suggesting the existence of visual hyperbole. Visual rhetorical figures are recognised and reinterpreted by their viewers in a specific context by making use of their personal experiences and preferences. Creativity is a key factor in creating visual rhetorical figures that carry a targeted message and can also impact the product choice process. this results cannot be generalised beyond the product's category nor beyond the consumer segments used in this study in the context of city print advertisements.

The strengthness of this article is the researcher uses simple and easy to understand by some examples and references. the weakness of this article is so many data the author used. The conclusion this article recommended to read and valid data to understand.

you can read original article in http://www.afahc.ro/ro/rcic/2015/rcic'15/PC/Barbu-Kleitsch.pdf

thankyou