Body Language and its Role in Advertisements (Case Study: Iranian Celebrities in Advertisements)

Body language and non-verbal communication play a significant role in human communications. All human beings send messages through their body and receive them from others in the process of communication, whether intentionally or unintentionally. The body language which connects the transmitter of a visual message to the one receives it, is more influential than words on the audience. Body language in advertising can communicate complex meanings to consumers that go beyond the obvious, straightforward meaning of the perceived advertisement. The initial perception of a product or service is strongly related to the non-verbal elements that the consumer receives from images in advertising, and this initial perception forming before the actual experience would affect interactions and decisions of the consumer. Understanding and applying different aspects of body language is therefore an important step in producing and improving an advertisement. Since the deregulation the use of celebrities in advertising in recent years in Iran, making use of images of celebrities and prominent figures in publicity has grown sharply, seeing familiar faces on billboards and magazines and social media every day. Adherence to the principles of body language in such advertisements which attract the attention of scores of audiences figures prominently. As a large amount of money is paid for celebrity endorsement ads, not adhering to certain principles such as body language, may lead to keeping the audience away from that product or service and ultimately not producing the desired result. The purpose of this study is to clarify the importance of body language in advertisements and answer the question of what is the use of body language in advertising. Analyzing examples of contemporary Iranian advertising, the present study seeks to answer the question of whether the body language of human subjects has been successful or not. The research has been carried out on advertisements in which celebrities have been used. This is a descriptive-analytical study that has been conducted based on field experiment and desk research methods. For this purpose, first the general concepts of body language and its various elements have been discussed. In the following, the body language of human subjects has been discussed in several examples of Iranian celebrity advertisements (sports stars, actors, and artists) which have been collected from billboards in Tehran. From 182 Iranian ads reviewed in the years between 2016 and 2018, seven samples were purposefully selected and analyzed in order to explain the importance of body language in advertising. Studying facial expressions, eye contact, body position and gestures of the human subjects in these examples showed that in most of the cases, the principles of body language have not been used properly in the creation of the advertisement. In some cases, there were fake facial expressions or gestures, and in some others, there were a contradiction between the subject's body language and the message of the advertisement. Lack of contact between the human subject and the product and also subject's body language incompatibility with the advertising slogan were the other problems which have been identified. In the meantime, several successful examples of using body language in Iranian and foreign advertising have been provided and analyzed. Without a doubt, the obtained results cannot be generalized to all works in this field; however the results may be useful in evaluating the overall trend of celebrity use in advertising. Overall, it appears that in most of these ads, the main focus has been on the celebrity presence in the ad that the body language and the importance of using it in conveying the message to the audience have been ignored. Given that the use of celebrity faces in advertising and commercials is relatively new, there seems to be insufficient awareness and shallow knowledge with regard to the use of body language in advertisements or it may be overlooked. Coordinated and skillful use of movements and gestures, body posture, facial expressions and eye contact are necessities of an advertisement that encourage the viewer to buy the product or use the service, and nonconformity of body language can lead to misunderstanding and distraction. In addition, it appears quite unprofessional. Therefore, it is recommended to pay more attention to this subject in designing and executing advertising campaigns so as to increase advertising effectiveness.