The first advertisement selected for the assignment has been produced by McDonald’s and is titled “Fall is Here” (2016). According to the review conducted by Wedel and Pieters (2008), objects that commonly attract a lot of visual attention include faces and bright or large-sized elements of design. The advertisement by McDonald’s is extremely straightforward in terms of how the accents are placed. There are no faces, but viewers can intuitively single out the objects that they are supposed to look at because the poster actively exploits the principles of minimalism. All attention is drawn to the hamburger in the center and a short slogan consisting of only three words. Based on the case study that Verify International conducted in 2000, effective advertisements are those that combine short and easy to comprehend slogans and visually attractive design elements (Wedel & Pieters, 2008). If these criteria are taken into account, the selected advertisement will attract enough attention, and people will not misinterpret the message.
The second advertisement titled “Lipton Yellow Label Dali” (n.d.) is way more unusual compared to the previous poster in terms of the composition since it mimics the style of Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Memory in its complexity. On the one hand, this complexity and the combination of two easily recognizable features (Lipton’s logo and the elements of Dali’s famous painting) can make Lipton’s poster more interesting to look at compared to the previous advertisement by McDonald’s. However, according to the study by Rainer et al. conducted in 2001, familiarity with the brand causes less attention to the brand object (Wedel & Pieters, 2008). Lipton’s poster has the brand object in the center, and the melting tag is the brightest element of design that any viewer will be able to find. However, considering the results of the study cited above, it is likely that people will pay more attention to secondary design elements, including the background, after recognizing the logo.
References
Lipton Yellow Label Dali. (2009).
McDonald’s: Fall is here. (2016).
Wedel, M. & Pieters, R. (2008). A review of eye-tracking research in marketing. In N. K. Malhotra (Ed.), Review of marketing research (pp. 123-147). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.