Abstract

Contemporary advertising is increasingly based upon the successful implementation of two creative design tools, visual metaphors, and “white” space. Yet, despite their established coexistence, there is not enough evidence on the mechanism that takes place to affect consumers’ attitude toward the ad (Aad). The present study builds on the scarce evidence on the combination of visual metaphors with “white” space to decipher the role of “white” space on the effectiveness of metaphoric advertising. A content analysis of 405 international print ads establishes the widespread use of visual metaphors (fusions) with extended “white” space (monochrome, in shades of grey). Based on Berlyne’s theory of aesthetic preference this study proposes a serial mediation model with novelty, arousal, aesthetic response, and pleasure as successive mediating factors on the impact of visual metaphors (and especially visual metaphors with “white” space) on Aad. Three between-subjects (two with a Greek sample and one with U.S. and U.K. sample) experiments provide solid evidence in support of the proposed model. The attested sequence of effects fire starts a discussion on the significant creative opportunities and the associated communication implications for both academics and practitioners.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2021.1914446 .

摘要

当代广告越来越多地基于两种创造性设计工具、视觉隐喻和“空白”空间的成功实施。然而，尽管它们已确定共存，但没有足够的证据表明影响消费者对广告的态度 (Aad) 的机制。本研究基于视觉隐喻与“空白”空间结合的稀缺证据，以破译“空白”空间对隐喻广告有效性的作用。对 405 个国际平面广告的内容分析确定了视觉隐喻（融合）与扩展“白色”空间（单色，灰色阴影）的广泛使用。基于Berlyne的审美偏好理论，本研究提出了一个具有新颖性、唤醒性、审美反应、和愉悦作为视觉隐喻（尤其是带有“空白”空间的视觉隐喻）对 Aad 影响的连续中介因素。三个受试者之间（两个带有希腊样本，一个带有美国和英国样本）实验提供了支持所提出模型的确凿证据。经证实的一系列效果引发了关于重要的创造机会以及对学者和从业者的相关沟通影响的讨论。

本文的补充数据可在 https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2021.1914446 在线获取。