‘The law of prägnanz!’ (Perception: Gestalt)

The fundamental principle of gestalt perception is the law of prägnanz (German for conciseness) which says that we tend to order our experience in a manner that is regular, orderly, symmetric, and simple. Gestalt theory states that many stimuli acquire a pattern quality which is more than the sum of its parks and that the ‘figure’ is the central element which captures our attention. It also states that background is largely undifferentiated which explains why contrast is widely used in advertising.

There are three key principles of Gestalt:

1. Grouping (proximity and similarity)
We tend to group objects together that share similar physical characteristics, for example health and beauty brands tend to stick to certain colours and bottle shapes.

2. Closure
We tend to see an incomplete picture as complete, i.e. If we need to fill in the gaps we do it automatically. When individual elements are arranged in groups that define an object, we tend to see the object and not the element.
Take a look below... Do you see eighteen individual circles? Or do you see the word ‘HI’?





3. Stimulus Ambiguity
A stimulus is said to be ambiguous when it does not correspond to an immediately recognisable shape or form, i.e. we need to find a context in order to interpret it. This is used widely in 21st century advertising. For advertisers ambiguity can serve multiple purposes. For one, the viewer of the ad may be more inclined to buy a product because of the "postmodern" coolness associated by the ad.

The controversies over Bennetton's advertising campaigns illustrate that this strategy can sometimes backfire. It is a common practice of advertiser's to appeal to the emotions of consumers in order to sell a product. Over decades, advertisements have evolved to a greater focus on social institutions rather than the product itself. Nonetheless, the Benetton retailer distinguishes itself by its utilization of attention grabbing and often times shocking imagery. When flipping through the Benetton catalogue, I was hard pressed to find the prices of sweaters or khaki pants. Instead, I found images of a priest and nun kissing, a black woman feeding a white baby, and shockingly, death row inmates.

Here are a few of the Benetton advertisements, take a look and see what you interpret from them.