Worth a Thousand Words

There is so much more to a picture than what first meets the eye. Pictures are all around us; they are everywhere we look. Ads have consumed our society. From billboards to magazines to newspapers, its actually a challenge to avoid ads everyday. And the interesting thing about ads is that they are characterized more by pictures than by words. A typical ad has a few words to get at the main point, but many ads have no words at all. Those ads are simply a picture with a meaning, and that is visual rhetoric.

Without even realizing it, we look at millions of pictures that are telling us something, they are sending us subliminal messages. Words aren’t needed for ads like these, just pictures.

This picture of a baby covered in advertisements is an example of visual rhetoric. No words are needed to get the message across, it tells a story on its own. This picture simply saying that ads have consumed our lives so much that even babies at a very young age are surrounded by advertisements everywhere they look. This goes right along with what I’m talking about: ads are everywhere. It is simply a part of our culture to constantly try to “sell sell sell,” whether it be an actually object for sale or an idea.

What do you think about advertising in American culture? Is it all-consuming or simply a way of moving forward?