Visual Persuasion and the Campaign Ad

I’d like to add another element of visual persuasion that has not yet been mentioned in the posts. As we approach an election year, our TVs will be inundated with more and more campaign ads. The political campaign is another example of how visuals can make or break a persuasive argument. We are all familiar with the “standard” negative campaign ad – the black and white still images, the severely edited newspaper headlines, all changing to color as the new candidate who will save the day is mentioned – not only from the actually ads, but also from the numerous times it has been lampooned on comedy outlets. These persuasive are not subtle, but their visual design is very simple. These ads appeal to the basic visual principles of human sight and employ the four basic principles of design that were mentioned in this week’s reading in The Non-Designer’s Design Book.

The use of contrast is obvious in the color scheme of the ad. Words are also incorporated into the ad – not only spoken, but also written and repeated to drive the point home. Even alignment and proximity come into play – during the negative part of the ad, the words or quotations are thrown across the screen at odd angles or randomly rise out of the screen. When the candidate the ad is promoting is mentioned, the words take on a font or color scheme that is more pleasing and often employ font size and positioning to properly emphasize the candidate and his or her message. Although I couldn’t tell you how statistically effective these ads are, I know that they are common and that they are often used in local elections where the general population may be unfamiliar with either of the candidates. These ads use the basic human reactions to design to appeal to the informed and encourage them to form emotional opinions that are based on distorted or exaggerated fact.