This paper critically analyzes the visual rhetoric situation, typography, design of the document, AIDA and the colour theory of “ The back seat’s no safer, belt up” advert.
In real-life situations to pass information or creating awareness about a critical issue can be difficult. People are busy as they try to meet their ends and may not even notice some adverts with important information. These adverts are commonly in bus stops, train stations, along the streets or any other place of public social gathering. To ensure that the information in the advert is conveyed effectively to the public, some extent of creativity needs to be applied to the advertisement so as to attract the attention of the people and create a desire to view the advert. Today, visual rhetoric images are designed for adverts that rhetorically display information that attracts the attention, interest and desire of the intended audience to view the advert. Therefore this paper critically analyzes the rhetoric situation, typography, design of the document, AIDA and the colour theory of “The back seat’s no safer, belt up” advert.
“The back seat’s no safer, belt up” is an advert placed along a street. The intended audiences of this advert are the passengers, especially those sitting in the backseat of a vehicle. This advert aims at creating awareness among the passengers that sitting in a vehicle’s backseat is not safe as many people think so. It encourages passengers setting in the backseat to always fasten their seatbelts when travelling. The rhetorical situation in this advert is the image of a man portrayed to be seating in a car’s backseat while the seat is tied to an elastic sling attached to a big metallic handle. This representation is like a sling used to throw stones, especially when hunting for birds. To use the sling to throw a stone, one has to hold the handle with one hand while the other hand holds the stone at the centre of the sling then stretch the sling and releases it to throw the stone. In this advert, the same concept of the capacity of a sling to throw a stone has been applied to depict how dangerous sitting without a seatbelt in the backseat of a car can be. The advert rhetorically used this concept of using a sling to portray how someone can be thrown out of a car during accidents when the seatbelt is not fastened. This rhetoric situation is unique and catchy to the intended audiences.
To be unique, outstanding and catchy, the aspects of AIDA have been applied to the advert. First, the advert seeks to attract the attention of its audience who are the passengers. To ensure an effective attraction of the audience’s attention, the advert has been designed in a unique and outstanding way (MacRae, 179). Moreover, the advert has been placed on a big billboard on the roadside which is easily viewed that easily attracts the audience’s attention. The size and strategic position of the billboard is appealing and attracts attention. The advert as well as managed to create and attract the interest of its audiences by the compilation of both texts and the image of a man sitting in a backseat of a car without a backseat on. This attracts the interest of the audience effectively as it creates curiosity wanting to know what is happening (MacRae, 180). The information in the text matches exactly with the idea depicted in the image, therefore, making it look more appealing and interesting to view. In terms of colour, the advert has used simple colours on the billboard and used a bright and shouting colour to create emphasis on the dangers of sitting without a seatbelt in the back seat. In fact, a red sling has been used as a sign of danger of not buckling up the seatbelt that it can lead to someone being thrown out of the car in case of an accident or an emergency stop.
Additionally, the sling is the only object that has been given an outstanding colour to show the point of interest in the advert and create a desire for the audience to take their time to view the advert. The additional text added on top of the image written “look” creates the desire of the audience to view the advert (MacRae, 181). Also, the setting of the image and the way the advert has been portrayed look realistic thus causing a desire for the audiences to take the information seriously and ensure that they belt up when travelling in the backseat of a car. The idea in the image is clearly presented and easy for the audience to interpret as it thus being able to take action and ensure that they always belt up their seatbelt when sitting in the backseat of a vehicle.
The topographic setting of the advert is appropriate. The advert is placed at a strategic location clear from obstruction of natural resources such as trees or flowers. Moreover, the image has been raised higher to a height that any plantation cannot obstruct. In terms of document design, the advert has been designed on a big billboard that is easily viewed from some distance away. The design is unique, especially in the part where the legs of the man sitting are hanging out of the billboard attracts people’s attention as people might think it’s a real person sitting on that billboard. Another unique design of the advert is the use of a sling to demonstrate the dangers of travelling without a seatbelt on.
With regards to colour theory, the advert has various colours to not only create a good look for the advert but also to bring out the information that is being conveyed. For instance, the red colour signifies danger. In the advert, red colour has been applied to the sling to show the danger that can be incurred when someone sits in the backseat without a seatbelt on. In areas of less interest, dull colour has been used. For instance, the handle of the string has been applied a black dull colour to show that it is not the point of interest.
To sum up, the “The back seat’s no safer, belt up” advert has been appropriately presented. It has rhetorically brought out the key theme of the advert and as well considered the use of various aspects of advertisements such as typography, design of the document, AIDA and the colour theory. These aspects have ensured that the advert communicates effectively. In essence, the advert intends to inform its audiences who are the passengers that it is not safe to sit in the backseat of a car without a seatbelt on as someone can get thrown out of the car in case of an accident or an emergency stop. With the aid of these various advertising aspects, the advert is effective and efficient.