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ANATOMY OF DESIGN
All advertising genres spill over with annoying clichés. It’s a Pavlovian thing—the
more familiar the visual cue, the quicker the consumer responds. As long as
cognition and behavior are interlocked and repetitive stimuli produces
predictable responses, advertisers will continue to slavishly follow formulas.
When a particular cue no longer sparks recognition, another cliché will replace
it. Such is the circle of advertising life.
Movie posters may be the most beholden to tried-and-true graphic
forms. Unlike movie trailers—which can be exciting yet operate under their own
rules and conventions—standard operating procedure for movie ...