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| This is a different kind of meaning for eye candy.. Source: Michellis13, 2015 |
Eunson (2012, p. 44) describes eye candy to be 'visual material designed to reinforce the meaning of spoken or written messages'. Eye candy can come in many different forms such as pictures, videos, graphs or diagrams. Although eye candy can be very effective in trying to explain complex information, it is important not to over use it as it is easy to get carried away and create Chartjunk which is unnecessary and distracting graphics (Eunson 2012). Costigan (2014) states that graphics should never be included in a document without explanation and should be placed as close as is practical to reference text.
In saying that, The Oxford Learner's Dictionary (2010) claims that eye candy is attractive but not intelligent or useful.
However, there is a lot of evidence available that supports the effectiveness of eye candy and in particular, pictures. A recent study by Fong, Hammond & Hitchman (2009) compared the impact of the introduction of pictorial warnings on tobacco packets in Australia in 2005 to that of the introduction of text- only warnings in the United Kingdom in 2003. Behavioural indicators that are predictive of quit attempts increased to a greater extent among smokers after the Australian pictorial warnings were introduced than they did in the United Kingdom after enhanced text-only warnings were introduced.
However, there is a lot of evidence available that supports the effectiveness of eye candy and in particular, pictures. A recent study by Fong, Hammond & Hitchman (2009) compared the impact of the introduction of pictorial warnings on tobacco packets in Australia in 2005 to that of the introduction of text- only warnings in the United Kingdom in 2003. Behavioural indicators that are predictive of quit attempts increased to a greater extent among smokers after the Australian pictorial warnings were introduced than they did in the United Kingdom after enhanced text-only warnings were introduced.
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| Pictorial warnings on cigarette packets Source: Financial Times, 2015 |
If eye candy is strategically used for all the right reasons, it can then be effective and engage an audience to be more interactive and understand material better.
References:
Costigan, L 2014, Lesson 6: Writing for understanding, course notes, COMM11003 Communication in Professional Contexts,
CQUniversity e-courses,
Eunson, B 2012, Communicating in the 21st century, John Wiley & Sons, Milton.
Financial Times 2015, Australia unveils no-brand tobacco packets, digital image, viewed 21 April 2015, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/96ece836-60ed-11e0-8899-00144feab49a.html#axzz3XwQnY0Y4
Fong, GT, Hammond, D & Hitchman, SC 2009, 'The impact of pictures on the effectiveness of tobacco warnings', Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 87, issue 8, pp. 640-643.
Oxford Learners Dictionary 2015, Eye candy definition, viewed 21 April 2015, http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/eye-candy?q=eye+candy
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