A Citroen Can Save the World

The pictorial analogy template in advertising is rather a creative one. With a pictorial analogy the advertiser is able to make an allusion to the effectiveness of the product by making a substitution between the product and another item that has a symbolic significance. This creates a dramatic situation where an unexpected explanation of the product is given through a visual metaphor.

This extends beyond pictures as seen in the ad for Citroen. In this ad the advertiser alludes to the effectiveness of the car by comparing it to a robot – incidentally, this ad came out around the time when the movie ‘Transformers’ was popular. The substitution is made between the Transformer car and the advertised product, implying that a Citroen is worthy of being inhabited by space robots, and is capable of saving the human species, other than being a good dancer and an innovative car ‘alive with new technology’.