How Word & Image Work Together: Advertisement Edition

Take this picture. Look at it as though, there were no words on the page? Would you know what the ad was about? It could be trying to sell a dress, a pair of shoes, maybe even that giant ice cream cone.


Or this one? Is it advertising hand accessories or mascara? It could even be trying to sell hair products?


If so, the visionaries for this photo advertisement did a great job. This, however, does not always happen.

And what if, you took the picture away, but kept the words? In the first ad, it would give an idea of what the company sales because the website is aldoshoes.com. But then, one could wonder What kind of shoes are being sold?

Like comics, advertisements would not be the same without BOTH image and word. In a sense, they complete each other. What you do not understand from just the picture can be further explained by the words, and vice versa.