• Archives of design research
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• v.18 no.2 s.60
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• pp.37-46
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• 2005

Today's advertisement is dominated by visual images, which deliver messages in the most efficient and engaging way. Vivid and live images, through multimedia, attract the viewer to consume the products being advertised. In this course, the effect of 'Verfremdung' or alienation is often detected. This terminology was at first used in a epic play of Bertolt Brecht to signify a specific effect to block the empathy of the audience by reminding them of their position as the audience separate from the play. 'Verfremdung' helps them to have a sense of objectivity and critical attitude toward the performance. Multimedia commercials nowadays exhibit such a quality together with 'viewer participation:' criticism on reality: and 'speed.' In an advertisement for Shinsegi Communications' mobile system titled <017-I-Touch series, the hand transformed into a web>, the copy, 'my blood type is 'i', ' is accompanied by six unrelated fictitious scenes in which the same ocean appears as a common denominator. Because there is no connection between the scenes, free imagination of the viewer has to be involved and thus plays a significant role in making them into a context. This fact dearly exhibit some characteristics of post- modern advertisement. Momentary 'Gap' and 'Difference' between scenes contribute to 'Verfremdung' or alienation' that makes it hard for the consumers to comprehend the content on the spot. Such an uneasy situation, however, keeps the viewers thinking about the advertisement itself. While repeatedly exposed to the alienated images, the viewers come to get involved in the advertisement, trying to make the fragmented images into a coherent context. In addition, the leaps between the scenes produce a sense of 'speed' in a context, which adds more impact to the way of delivering messages using multimedia. With the help of multimedia, 'Verfremdung: which was originally intended to bring about objective and critical altitude of the audience in a play, plays a crucial role in attracting the viewer's attention and conveying a specific message in a moment in contemporary advertisement.