Portrayals in Visual Advertising: Evidence From an Eye Tracking

The depiction of individuals in advertising campaigns has been demonstrated to be an effective strategy for attracting consumers and fostering brand and product trust. The purpose of the study was to explore research questions relating to the portrayal of individuals in visual communication. Thesub-objective of the study was to determine which image in a visual advertisement (print layout for a scientific conference) attracted the most attention from respondents. The methodology of the study included the experiment with a total of 20 respondents, based on an eye tracking study and in-depth interview. The findings identified two distinct approaches to facial recognition applied to both images. Twelve respondents employed an analytical process, while eight respondents employed a holistic process, as evidenced by the gaze maps. The recognition pattern of both images was analogous, encompassing internal facial features first and then external features. The most effective metrics for analyzing the oculomotor strategies of viewing portrayals of people and face recognition are total viewing time, number of fixations, gaze duration and saccade count recorded during face perception. The originality of the article lies in the comparison of recognition patterns of a realistic portrait and its stylized version. Images that have undergone a process of transformation, digitization or stylization, can contribute to the creation of more appealing, effective, enjoyable and memorable advertising designs.