The Atraction of Images.

     Unless you're blind, you see images every day. From the Television, to the billboards on the side of the road, to the faces of your friends as you talk. But I noticed there is one large difference between the blue valley on your motivational poster and the run-down creek in the woods behind your house. Chances are, one is much prettier. 
     Okay, most people know that images used for advertising are much more embellished than the actual products they represent, and even if no deceptive image-tricks are used, you can bet they only capture the cream of the crop on camera. But to be fair, which would YOU buy?   
      (Pictures taken off of blog.skimkim.com and grubgrade.com respectively.)

     Pictures are always more attractive in advertising than in real life, right? Well, maybe not always. Sure we're all familiar with the scantily clad models trying to sell us cars,
  (image from Ioqu.com)
But what about this sexy migraine lady? (Image from kashmirmonitor.org)
She's not hideous, no, but she's definitely no supermodel. So if all images in ads are supper pretty, why does stuff like this appear every now and then?
     Well, the point of an ad is to make the customer want to buy your product, usually by making the product seem better than it is. Most ads do this by making the image your looking at more "sexy." This tells the viewer, "if you drive our car, you too can have gorgeous women like this," or, "buy Burger King, all our hamburgers look this delicious," when in reality your likely to get a chunk of plastic-looking meat and your fat ass is never going to attract any supermodels unless your already very rich, (in which case, you probably don't need the car.)
     In some ads, however, it's more important to identify with the customer on a personal level. The migraine ad wants you to think it can bring YOU relief, not that skinny bimbo your husband is likely ogling at. No, you HATE her, and secretly enjoy watching her suffer. So, the migraine ad uses a more average, down to earth looking person, someone you can identify with.
     So, as you can see, not ALL advertising contains images that would lead us to believe we're living out a scene from "The Uglies." Some need a down-to-earth apeal, and will use pictures that accommodate this allusion.