Synergy: How Does It All Come Together?

Synergy is defined on Dictionary.com as, "The interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc". Thus in advertisements, synergy is reached when an ad's text, image, and message all align and make sense to the target audience or viewer. In today's entry, we are going to review five advertisements that have attempted to accomplish synergy. We will evaluate the text, image, and message and confirm if the brand or company succeeded or failed.

1. DKNY

DKNY is a luxury brand that specializes in women's clothing, shoes, handbags, and fragance. Surprisingly, this advertisement doesn't "advertise" any of these items. However, the ad does a decent job at synergy. The ad equally uses images and text to guide the audience's eye to the primary phrase on the ad, "Be Delicious" and then the eye is lead to the model and the images of the green apples. In the first image, groups the freshly washed apples together to help the eye focus on texture and detail. With this, the first image achieves unity and could easily be a standalone ad. Even if the ad did not include "Be Delicious" and only had the the DKNY logo, it would still be an effective ad for the brand due to texture and unity. The second image has no text, which if it was standalone, would be confusing for a viewer. The image might be perceived as an ad for a television show or for makeup. Thus, if the second image was a standalone ad, I would suggest added text to help the image "make sense".



2. Clinique 


This advertisement byClinique is primarly focused on text, which is very different than the model-based ads Clinique tends to clinge to. Yet, the text in this ad captures the viewers interest and causes the viewer to read the text and see why Clinique thinks its a fact that eating antioxidants will not save one's skin. In addition, the text in this ad somewhat overshadows the image of the fruit on the fork and the bottle of product. However, it can be seen that Clinique attempted to succeed at synergy by allowing the text and image to be the same size and to use colors that are soft in their tone and pleasing to the eye. If the ad did not have an image, I believe that it would be still be successful. It would be seen more so as PSA. However, if the ad did not include the text, a viewer would be completely confused on what message Clinique was attempting to deliver.




3. Estee Lauder 

This advertisment by Estee Lauder is similar to the previous ad by DKNY where it equally represents text and images. Yet, this ad seems to fade the text to the background and focuses its lighting on the model and the three bottles of product. Therefore, similar to our previous ads, if the text was not there, the ad would be still be successful and the viewer would be able to connect with it. Having all four images in the same lighting and standing out above the text shows proximity and overall unity.





4. Bath & Body Works 


One of my favorite brands, Bath and Body Works does a pretty good job of placing text and images together. Because Bath and Body Works is such a well known brand, the items in the ad speak for themselves. Yet, if the single phrase "Happy Holidays" was the only text in the ad, the viewer would easily understand that the ad was welcoming the holiday season. If this phrase was absent from the the ad and there was no accompaning text, the ad would look incomplete and there would be no sense of unity. Thus, Bath and Body Works did a great job by creating synergy in their ad by allowing the the images and text to work together to be effective.




5. Dove                        

Dove is a brand that creates ads that are geared to display that all women are created equal and that all women, no matter the size, age, or race are beautiful. This ad by Dove uses a simple unity of text and an image to provide unity to the viewer. If the ad did not have text, it would still be effective. If the ad did not have the image, it would still be effective. Overall, Dove truly knows how to make an ad that represents synergy to the highest degree!





References

Synergy. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2018, from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/synergy