This set of pie charts is an attempt to evaluate the so-called "visual turn" which obsesses quite a number of scholars dealing with advertising today. Though such a "visual turn" was in a way advocated by professionals at the time, it should not be over estimated, and above all, it should not be used to support anachronistic assumptions.

To evaluate the actual importance of the "visual turn" in Shenbao advertisements from 1914 to 1949, it is first necessary to define precisely what we mean by "visual". Thus seven "visual devices" have been identified, each one associated to a given color: image of the product/package (red), illustrated situation/life scene (green), trademark/logo (yellow), border/frame (blue), typography/punctuation, line/orientation/composition (orange) and colors/contrasts (grey). The proportion of each device was then measured in the "model" advertisements extracted from our usual five samples of the Shenbao (January 7, 1914; January 3, 1924; January 5, 1934; February 1, 1941; January 1, 1949).

The fifth pie charts reveal that paradoxically, the share of figurative images (package or situation) tend to stagnate or even decline across time, at least until 1941 : from 23% in 1914 to 9% in 1941 for images of the package, from 10% in 1914 to 15% (1949) for illustrations. The costs of production of sophisticated images may have forced advertisers to turn towards cheaper visual devices, such as plays on typography (32-34% in 1914-1924, 19% in 1934 and still 10% in 1949), black/white contrasts (from 5% in 1914 to 34% in 1941, still 18% in 1949), borders/frames (from 15% in 1914 to about 30% in 1949, which also reveals an increased competition) and to a lesser extent, lines and composition (average of 5%). The use of trademarks/logos remains quite stable during the whole period (around 10%, after falling to 2% in 1934).