The Persuasive Power of Pictorial Iconography

Whether through imperial propaganda

religious iconography,

consumer advertising,

or subversive graffiti,

societies have attempted to influence mass culture through images.

British Art Historian Norman Bryson writes about the two sides of a picture: its purely visual elements and its textual elements. In other words, pictures on one hand provide an immersive, pure experience, and on the other hand attempt to express specific meaning through the logical relationships they present.

Let’s look at the sprite ad more closely as an example:

The Sprite advertisement presents the experience members of our society recognize as a crispy can of Sprite – and also the blatant textual command “obey”. This example presents a very strong dichotomy between visual and textual elements. But maybe that’s the point of the ad.

By presenting an overt dichotomy, the ad creates a strategic sleight-of-hand that buries a subtler array of visual and textual codes within the frame.

For example, the refreshing and comforting cool colors, the iridescent flecks of liquid indicate soothing satisfaction. The onomatopoeic burst of color indicates energy upon cracking open a bottle.

The Sprite commercial plays on the interesting relationship between both word and image and the suspension of disbelief that occurs when a spectator focuses on either end of the visual-textual spectrum through implicit meaning.

On the other end is a subversive graffiti work:

Which focuses on textual strategy to convey a paradoxical statement. However, this is a highly medium-reflexive piece which recognizes the act of painting anything on a wall is spectacular in and of itself- the hidden visual meaning lies behind the pure text, and redefines the textual statement through self-conscious irony.

Hence, whether commercial or subversive, acts of persuasion begin at the margins of textual and visual communication, on the liminal ends of our cognitive capacities.