Visual metaphors in advertising: An interplay of visual structure, visual context, and conceptual tension

This study examines the role of figurativeness and conceptual tension in the effectiveness of visual metaphors. It proposes that the level of figurativeness is rooted in both visual structure and visual context. An experimental study was conducted to test the effectiveness of contextual fusion over simple fusion and contextual replacement respectively in both low and high conceptual tension conditions. The results showed an interaction between metaphor type and conceptual tension. When conceptual tension is low, contextual fusion metaphors are more artful, more humorous and generate more favorable ad attitude than simple fusion and contextual replacement. When conceptual tension is high, simple fusion metaphors are more artful, more humorous and generate more favorable ad attitude than contextual fusions. For low conceptual tension metaphors, there is a simple mediation through artfulness to ad attitude, and a serial mediation from metaphor type to artfulness, humor and to ad attitude. For high conceptual tension fusion metaphors, artfulness and comprehension both mediate the effect of simple fusion (vs. contextual fusion) on ad attitude, and there is a serial mediation from metaphor type to comprehension, humor and to ad attitude. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.