지금까지의 광고 연구가 지나치게 언어 중심으로 이루어져 왔다는 반성에서, 그리고 광고가 현대 수사학의 보고라는 점에서 광고에 담겨있는 수사 장치 중에서 '비유의 비유'라 할 수 있는 은유의 문제를 시각적 차원에서 고찰하였다. 본 연구는 인쇄 광고의 시각적 은유를 새로운 분류 및 분석틀을 통해 분석하는 것을 목적으로 한다.
먼저 인쇄 광고에서 시각적 은유의 두 주제간의 관계를 밝히기 위해 은유 3가지 조건을 기반으로 해서 Durand의 형식적, 내용적 유사성 개념을 중심으로 은유의 2가지 주제, 즉 1차적 주제와 2차적 주제 사이의 은유적 관계를 확인할 수 있는 한 축을 구성하였다. Panofsky의 도상학적 분석 방법이나 Clifton의 이야기 내외적 결합 개념 등을 보조적으로 활용하였다. 다음으로는 인쇄 광고에서 시각적 은유의 두 주제의 표현 방법을 밝히기 위해 시각적 은유에서 2차적 주제의 명시성을 기준으로한 Forceville의 시각적 은유 분류 기준을 보완하여 시각적 은유의 표현 방법을 확인할 수 있는 또 한 축을 구성하였다. 이렇게 만들어진 두 개의 축을 교차시켜 각각의 은유적 특성별로 8개 상한으로 구성된 새로운 분류틀을 제안하였다.
은유의 두 주제간의 관계성은 광고에 나타난 시각적 은유의 두 주제간 관계의 정도, 즉 은유적 거리가 가까우냐 머냐의 판단에 의해 이루어졌다. Durand의 형식적 유사성과 내용적 유사성 개념에 기초하여 시각적 은유의 두 주제가 표층구조적인 형태의 유사성에 기초하고 있으면 형식적 유사성으로 심층구조적 의미의 유사성에 기초하고 있으면 내용적 유사성으로 판단하였다. 형식적 유사성과 내용적 유사성을 판단하는데는 Panofsky의 도상학적 분석 방법도 보조적으로 활용하였는데 시각적 이미지의 물리적 차원을 분석하는 Panofsky의 의미의 1단계는 광고 시각물의 형식적 차원을, 주제나 개념 그리고 이야기 차원을 분석하는 2, 3단계는 내용적 차원을 나타내는 것으로 보았다.
또 은유의 2차적 주제의 명시성을 기준으로 한 Forceville과 Felton 그리고 김명숙의 분류를 종합하고 보완하여 본 연구는 시각적 은유의 표현 방법을 시각적 표현을 기준으로 은유의 1) 두 가지 주제중 하나만 제시되는 경우와 2) 두 가지 주제 모두 제시되는 경우로 대별하고, 전자, 즉 하나만 제시되는 경우는 다시 ① 1차적 주제만 제시되는 경우와 ② 2차적 주제만 제시되는 경우로, 그리고 후자, 두 가지 주제 모두가 시각적으로 제시되는 경우는 ③ 두 주제가 나란히 병렬로 제시되는 경우와 ④ 두 주제가 하나의 게슈탈트로 융합되어서 제시되는 경우로 다시 세분화해 은유의 4가지 표현 방식으로 분류하였다.
이 두 축을 결합시켜 인쇄 광고의 시각적 은유를 다음과 같이 8가지로 유형화했다. 1) 시각적 대체 은유(PSMs), 2) 시각-언어적 은유(PVMs), 3) 언어-시각적 은유(VPMs), 4) 시각적 순수 은유(PPMs), 5) 시각적 직유(형식)(PSs-F), 6) 시각적 직유(내용)(PSs-C), 7) 시각적 혼합은유(형식)(PFMs-F), 8) 시각적 혼합은유(내용(PFMs-C) 이러한 광고의 시각적 은유들은 각각 다른 특성을 가지고 있으며 광고 목표에 따라 전략적 활용을 시사해준다.
끝으로 본 연구가 제안한 새로운 분석틀을 적용, 실제 광고물에 나타난 시각적 은유의 유형별 사례를 분석하였다. 이러한 실제 분석 작업을 통해 제안한 분석틀이 광고에 나타난 시각적 은유 현상을 체계적으로 분석해낼 수 있는 유용한 틀이 될 수 있음을 확인하였다.

This study is based upon the reflection that, up until now, studies on advertisements have excessively focused on the effect of verbal messages, because of the notion that language is the central channel of delivering advertising messages while visual images are peripheral. With the concept that advertisements are the treasury of modern rhetoric, this study examines, among other various rhetorical devices, the matter of metaphor, often called the allegory of allegory, by way of rhetorical approach centering on the figurative aspects of print advertisements.
What comes first in studying pictorial metaphor in advertising is how to identify metaphors in visual presentations where a variety of images are juxtaposed or fused. As Lakoff and Johnson pointed out, the gist of metaphor is to understand and perceive a thing from the standpoint of another. In that sense, metaphor is composed of two things: one is the literal primary subject, while the other is figurative secondary subject. Metaphor takes place first on the cognitive domain, and then is expanded to linguistic and visual domain. Expansion in other ways is also possible. Both primary and secondary subject of metaphor can be understood as the scope of signifying factors, which express not only verifiable facts but also hidden meanings while encompassing attitudes and beliefs on the subject.
According to Max Black's 'interaction theory', one or more characteristics of secondary subject can be projected to the primary subject. This mapping process includes foregrounding, selecting, or modifying some figures of the primary subject. Thus, certain kind of interaction takes place between the primary subject and the elements stemming from the secondary subject. Similarity between the two domains of metaphor is not a precondition, but is often created by the metaphor itself. When some statements or images are to be regarded as metaphor, there must be answers to the following three questions: (1) What are the two terms of the metaphor, and how do we know? (2) Which of the two terms is the metaphor's primary subject and which is its secondary subject, and how do we know? (3) Which features are projected from the domain of the secondary subject upon the domain of the primary subject. and how do we decide on these features?
In order to answer these three questions, various contextual facts should be considered. Furthermore, it is imperative to identify who the sender and receiver of a metaphor are. Relevance theory by Sperber and Wilson plays a pivotal role in the identification of metaphoric contexts as well as the sender and receiver.
It has been found that Sperber and Wilson's 'relevance theory', when combined with Black's interaction theory, provides a more affluent explanation on the metaphoric significance. In particular, Sperber and Wilson's emphasis on the identities of sender and receiver as well as their effort to differentiate weak implicature and strong implicature give clues to more detailed and efficient explanation on Blacks viewpoints. In addition, the two factors result in one core statement, that is, relevance always refers to the relevance to a person. In that respect, Sperber and Wilson's theory can be applied to advertising. Sperber and Wilson's theory focuses on verbal communication between individuals in a face-to-face situation. On the other hand, advertising includes communication among a number of senders and receivers. The situation in which advertising stands can be characterized by the facts that communicators do not exist in the same time frame, messages are delivered not only in language but also in pictures , and intentional ambiguity is involved. However, based upon the results of contextual influence that advertising is a genre of pictorial image text, it is possible to say that (1) it is an advertisement for the brand X, (2) this advertisement delivers positive messages for the brand X. Though some modifications are needed to transfer Black's interaction theory and Sperber and Wilson's relevance theory to the context of discourse on advertising, it is largely possible to apply their theories to the study of advertising.
On the basis of such preceding achievements, this study set subjects to look into as follows, with an aim to sort out pictorial metaphor in print advertisements:
Subject 1. How pictorial metaphor in advertising can theoretically be analyzed?
1-1. How pictorial metaphor in advertising can be categorized?
1-2. In print advertisements, what are the features of relationship between primary subject and secondary subject of a pictorial metaphor?
1-3. In print advertisements, how the primary and secondary subjects of a pictorial metaphor are expressed?
Subject 2. How the theoretical analytic framework of this study can be applied to the advertisements in practice?
In order to find out the relationship between two subjects of a pictorial metaphor in print ads, this study firstly centered on Durand's concept of similarity in form and content, based on the three preconditions of pictorial metaphor in print ads described above. It also adopted Panofsky's 'iconographic analysis' and Clifton's notion of 'diegetic and extradiegetic connection' of a story as supplementary methodology. By combining similarities in both form and content, which focus on shape and meaning respectively, this study constructed an axis to identify the metaphoric relationship between the two subjects of metaphor, primary and secondary.
In the next step, in order to find out how the two subjects are expressed in pictorial metaphor of print ads, this study employed supplementary and referential explanations such as: (1) the standards of categorizing pictorial metaphors established by Forceville, who emphasized the clarity of secondary subject in a pictorial metaphor, (2) the concept of pure metaphors and fused metaphors by George Felton, and (3) Myung-sook Kim's Metaphore in praesentia, Metaphore in absentia and Metaphore implicite. With the results of adopting above approaches, this study has constructed another axis to identify the methods of expressing pictorial metaphor by way of categorization like presenting primary subject only, presenting secondary subject only, presenting in juxtaposition, and presenting in fusion. Expression of a pictorial metaphor can generally be divided into two ways: one of the two subjects is visually presented or both of them do so. In case the two subjects of a metaphor are presented in the same frame, the two are juxtaposed side by side or fused as a gestalt.
By crossing the two axes described above, this study categorized pictorial metaphors into eight groups according to their characteristics.
(1) Pictorial Substitution Metaphors/(PSMs), (2) Picto-Verbal Metaphors/(PVMs), (3) Verbo-Pictorial Metaphors/(VPMs), (4) Pictorial Pure Metaphors/(PPMs), (5) Pictorial Similes-Form/(PSs-F), (6) Pictorial Similes-Content/(PSs-C), (7) Pictorial Fused Metaphors-Form/(PFMs-F), (8) Pictorial Fuse Metaphors-Content/(PFMs-C)
Centering on the eight categories of pictorial metaphor, a new classification and analysis framework has been provided as follows.
(Classification and analysis framework)
These eight categories cannot be arranged in order based upon a certain element. As each category differs in characteristics from one another, they can be adopted according to the situation of each advertisement, and thus can be strategically customized to the objective of each advertisement. The four categories above and the other four categories below are intrinsically opposite in their elements on the axis of X.
Analysis framework of pictorial metaphor in advertising
Applying the proposed new classification and analysis framework of pictorial metaphor in advertising, this study analyzed various cases of pictorial metaphor in practical advertisements. According to the eight categories on the proposed framework, analysis was made with regard to (1) the conditions for constituting a metaphor, (2) metaphorical distance concerning the relationship between the two subjects of a metaphor and (3) ways of expressing the two subjects of a metaphor. In the course of such practical analysis, this study found that the proposed analysis framework can be of use for the systematic analysis of pictorial metaphor in advertising.
Each pictorial metaphor of each category has its own characteristics and can be strategically utilized according to the objective of each advertisement. For instance, a Verbo-Pictorial Metaphor can be effective for a new brand launching which requires much emphasis on the product itself, on the other hand, a Pictorial Fused Metaphor is useful when consumers' attention and interest are essential by way of unexpected combination of elements. In case of stressing the consumers' understanding of the exact advertising message, Pictorial Similes can be of great use, while Pictorial Substitution Metaphors will serve as a strategic approach for an advertisement which puts stress on consumers' involvement.