Selling the need for change Messages for our future

Environmental ads Advertisements are one way that the organisations concerned with promoting messages about the serious global issues effecting the sustainable future of our world communicate their ideas. Using a powerful combination of visual language features and well-considered word choices, advertising texts are constructed in such a way as to convey concise messages about big problems.

Advertisements about the environment are often emotive in order to move their audience to care about the issue being represented. Since sustainability is about balancing present and future needs, texts selling ideas about the need for to protect the environment and its natural resources into the future need to cause their audience to care enough to make lifestyle adjustments they may not like.

Visual language features The effects of visual texts on their audiences are purposeful – things are not there by chance, they are there for a reason. When looking closely at the way a visual text is constructed, what are some of the main features we might notice in the way they generate their meaning? Things like: colours used (contrasting, b&w/monochrome, and their associative meanings) size and position of objects (fonts, foreground/background, rule of 3s, use of blank/open space) angles (camera) and distance (shot length) vectors (directions of movement/eye-lines (demand/offer))

What kind of product would an image like this promote? What are some of the features of this image? Image source

Examining some ads Have a look at the following ads and choose one to examine more closely. Then work in pairs to discuss your ideas and make your own dot-point observations about the elements used in the ad you selected. Use the following questions as a guide: What is the main thing the ad is trying to say? How do the visuals support this message? How do the words of the ad support this message? What persuasive language devices does it use? Is the ad effective? Why or why not?

For example, on the previous ad The ad is for an investment and superannuation fund and is suggesting that ethical choices about where to invest your money will be beneficial for the well-being of your children and their future. The visuals show a young girl playing with a toy windmill, while in the background there are larger, energy generating counterparts receding into the distance on the horizon line. The child is symbolic of the future and its dependence upon careful environmental decisions in the present. She and her toy represent ideas of vulnerability and the simplicity of the choice to be made. The child, the toy windmill, the field and the distant windmills are all windswept, suggesting the abundance of that energy source. Colours are bright and hopeful.

The description on the ad refers directly to harnessing wind power and the company’s investment focus on renewable energy sources. By saying that the company ‘actively avoid[s]’ (alliteration) investment choices that ‘do harm’ to the environment, the ad appeals to its audience’s environmental conscience, implying that any other choice is ethically irresponsible. An example of the way this ad uses persuasive language is that the slogan has a repetitive structure and repeats the words ‘put’ (a directive) and ‘here’. The ‘here’ in both cases is relative to visuals above and below the line marking the division between the image and the information about the company. The ad effectively gives life and colour to a fairly dry and boring product. Reducing difficult global issues and big personal investment decisions to a simple idea about the needs of the future, this ad is likely to appeal to its target audience, the parents of young families, since it represents something with which they identify, the child, and that they value above anything.

Posters Now that you have had a chance to examine the way some environmental issues have been represented visually, it’s your turn. You are to create a persuasive poster on a sustainability subject of your choice (for example, water use, mining, climate change, deforestation, waste disposal, pollution, etc.). Consider carefully how you will use visual language features. You may use any application you choose to create your poster, but must create a digital file. Some options you may not know about include Polyvore and Glogster (my educator code for the latter is 754164), but Word, Publisher or PowerPoint will also serve. You are encouraged to use Creative Commons to find image files, but must still acknowledge the source of any images you use (do this in fine print somewhere on the poster). Upload your finished work as a PDF or image file to the submission point on Moodle.