EOC Week 8: Really Good Example of Chapter 8

“Using the product as the main visual usually puts the potential consumer on alert… if you see an ad where the most dominant visual element is a striking metaphor for something soft or strong, then you might be more likely to look at it.” (Advertising by Design, Robert Landa pg. 142)

Most ads have the product that their trying to sell as the dominant visual component. If advertisement is as simple as that, then why not just take a picture of the product and call it an ad? If the ad looks like other ads that people always see, then people probably wouldn’t take the time to stop and pay attention to it. In this Toyota ad, the main visual component is the geometric outline of a Toyota car, but not the car itself. Below the car, to the left, says “We see beyond cars.” The car is see-thru and you can see the view of a town beyond it. Instead of an actual car on the ad, they used that image to represent their employees building a great relationship with their customers and the community. Even though it looks like they’re not trying to sell their cars in this ad, they are trying to let people know about the good things that their company do for the community, which makes people like them a lot more so people buy their cars.

“If you have an unusual verbal message (one that is humorous, odd, curious, zany, or shocking), then the visual should be straightforward… If you have an unusual visual, then the verbal message (the line of copy) should be straight forward.” (Advertising by Design, Robert Landa pg. 159)

This quote clearly supports this Toyota ad. The visual is obviously unusual because they only show the geometric outline of the car, and not the car itself. The main verbal message in this ad is “We see beyond cars,” which is a pretty straight forward message. In the image, you can see what’s “beyond” the car, which is a town or a community. They support the verbal message by explaining with a short paragraph on the bottom of the page. Then, they put the logo on the top right corner. They used the color black so that it stands out with the light blue sky background.

Overall I think that this is a great ad. It delivers the message to people very well and it creates an emotional connection.