Memory for the visual and verbal components of print advertisements

A model is developed and proposed to describe the underlying processing of the visual and verbal components of print advertisements. Based upon past research, the processing of these two components of print advertisements is viewed as consisting of (1) different levels of processing, (2) elaborative encoding, and (3) encoding distinctiveness. An empirical test of the model indicates that the visual/pictorial component of the print ad is more elaboratively and more distinctively encoded than the verbal component. Results of the research are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding vivid versus salient effects of information presentation.