Images vs Writing.

This reminds me of Noelle’s first blog entry about the male and female crab. Reading Kress’s article has helped me concretise my thoughts about how writing and image support each other for the ‘maker’ to communicate meaning and for the viewer to make meaning. Each domain (writing and image) have to be amalgamated and work in combination to propel the expression of meaning forward and with greater success.

Let’s look at a MacDonald’s advertisement for the Beijing Olympics 2008:

Based on one’s prior knowledge and the social awareness of MacDonald’s, one would know that it is a fastfood restaurant that fares the lowest on the health scale. It has been labelled unhealthy and fattening for decades, However, recently ever since the movie “Supersize Me”, it has started to clean-up its image, marketing the restaurant as a healthy restaurant (selling apples, salads and printing the nutritional value of their menu on their placemats) . This movie documents the eating habits of a man for 30 days. In this 30 days, he has MacDonald’s for every meal and ends up ballooning in size, fat content and health risks. Thus, it is rather ironic that MacDonald’s is advertising itself in this manner.

Perhaps, it is easier to convince people through visuals, as it shows a form of example especially using sportsmen, than through pages and pages of refute and counter-arguments.

This advertisement uses a variety of modes, images, sound and writing. This combination compliments each other as it communicates several layers of meaning at one time;

1) Friendships are made and bonds are forged over a meal at MacDonald's.

2) MacDonald’s provides a good platform for socialising, especially with the well-known athletes.

3) It is cool to be seen in and/or eating MacDonald’s

4) It is healthy, nutritious and provides one with maximum energy to complete the race... (All the athletes eat it and are doing very well in their sport.)

5) It is endorsed by athletes.

6) The sporting body endorses it too as it has been “Feeding the Olympic Spirit for 40 years” and it is the “Official Restaurant of the Olympic Games”.

There are only two sentences in the advertisement and they come at the end. This serves as reinforcement for the viewer that MacDonald’s is the right choice.