One of the best uses of “affect transfer” in advertisement I found comes from the Web Media Brands website. On this site, students from the University of Texas (Advertising Program) designed an Orion Telescope ad. The students took a symbolic moment in history and exploited it through a series of images.
The intent is clear: Orion sells the best lenses and telescopes. The viewer’s eyes are immediately pulled through the images. Looking at the moon with the viewing power of 200x, the image looks original. At the viewing power of 400x, the viewers see an iconic image of America’s first successful moonwalk, the American flag. Finally, at 800x viewing power, the horrifying reality of the American flag having been produced in China.
The image is manipulative and invokes many emotions. However, viewers might form mental images (based on fear) that China was truly the first nation to make their mark on the moon (Hill 6). In addition, viewers might feel betrayed at concept that America has been outsourcing jobs longer than previously thought. Will the image of the American flag conjure up the idea of Orion Telescopes? According to Charles Hill (The Psychology of Rhetorical Images), advertisers want to “Transform” the consumer (7). The idea is to push consumers to purchase their products without thinking. Hill indicates buying “their product” will eventually become instinctive (7).
Despite what the intentions of Orion or the students from the University of Texas, the image is thought provoking. According to Charles Hill (The Psychology of Rhetorical Images), exploiting images and emotions in advertisement creates relationships (6). The purpose is to persuade viewers to buy their telescopes with effective use of associations. Viewers can only contemplate the many questions of: Does Orion make a telescope that can see the moon? Can anyone buy them? Was the American flag used in the Apollo 11 mission really made in China? Does China know about this? What cultural implication does this have? Has America been outsourcing for years? Is this real?
One thing is for sure; the affect transfer process is now complete. As a viewer, I have been consumed with questions since viewing this photo. I may not buy an Orion telescope, but my thoughts are surrounded by the power of the message and the product. Lastly, Orion drives the point home with the iconic cultural acceptance that their product is American made!
Works Cited
Chump, Matt, and Nancy Jeng. Orion Telescopes: Moon | Ads of the World. Digital image. Ads of the World | Creative Advertising Archive & Community. WebMediaBrands Inc, 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2010. <http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/orion_telescopes_moon?size=_original>
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Hill, Charles. "The Psychology of Rhetorical Images." Defining Visual Rhetorics. Ed. Charles A. Hill and Marguerite Helmers. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. 25-40.
<http://www.paulmuhlhauser.org/355/Schedule.html>.
Great work! You apply so many of Hill's terms well in your analysis of this ad.
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