ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a number of problems and heuristics with regard to identifying and analyzing classes of visual rhetoric in commercial ads. The chapter argues that clear-cut structural and conceptual classes of visual rhetoric do not sufficiently take into account the interpretation subtleties and ambiguities present in visual rhetoric. We propose a series of heuristic steps needed to define the rhetorical nature of ads and to exploit the structural and conceptual load of visual rhetoric in ads. These heuristics, we contend, will not always result in an unequivocal interpretation of visual rhetoric, but will at least explain on what point and why interpretations differ.
