Visual Rhetoric in Generative AI-Driven Financial Literacy Campaigns on Social Media
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30998/jd.v13i4.3987Keywords:
Visual Rhetoric, Generative AI, Financial Literacy, Digital Campaign, Social MediaAbstract
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI)-based visuals are increasingly employed in digital brand campaigns, including those promoting financial literacy on social media. This study examines how GAI visual rhetoric is utilized in OCBC Indonesia’s FUNancially Fit financial literacy campaign on Instagram. The research adopts a qualitative approach using text-interpretive analysis grounded in the visual rhetoric framework developed by Phillips & McQuarrie (2004).The dataset consists of six campaign visuals analyzed through the identification of rhetorical figures, visual rhetoric typology, and the semiotic relationship between visual and verbal elements. The findings reveal that the campaign is predominantly characterized by juxtaposition and fusion structures with relatively low to moderate rhetorical complexity, enabling high emotional readability within the fast-paced environment of social media. GAI-generated visuals employ absurdity, hyperbole, and meme-like aesthetics as rhetorical strategies to capture users’ attention (initial engagement) and translate abstract financial concepts into relatable everyday experiences for young audiences. The analysis also identifies a recurring pattern of gender representation, in which female characters are predominantly associated with narratives of financial anxiety, while male characters are more frequently portrayed through narratives of resilience in confronting economic challenges.
Downloads
References
Abidin, C. (2016). Visibility labour: Engaging with Influencers’ fashion brands and #OOTD advertorial campaigns on Instagram. Media International Australia, 161(1), 86–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X16665177
Agrawal, A., Sharma, D., Mishra, M. K., Shah, M. A., Alam, M., & Khandelwal, V. (2024). How to cook a meme: exploring content strategies in brand and user-generated memes on Instagram. Cogent Business & Management, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2366001
Aljarah, A., Ibrahim, B., & López, M. (2025). In AI, we do not trust! The nexus between awareness of falsity in AI-generated CSR ads and online brand engagement. Internet Research, 35(3), 1406–1426. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-12-2023-1156
Barthes, R. (1977). Elements of semiology. (S. Heath, Ed. & Trans.). Hill and Wang.
Belanche, D., Ibáñez-Sánchez, S., Jordán, P., & Matas, S. (2025). Customer reactions to generative AI vs. real images in high-involvement and hedonic services. International Journal of Information Management, 85, 102954. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2025.102954
Foster, A., & Ellis, N. (2024). TikTok-inspired self-diagnosis and its implications for educational psychology practice. Educational Psychology in Practice, 40(4), 491–508. https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2024.2409451
Freixa, P., Redondo-Arolas, M., Codina, L., & Lopezosa, C. (2025). AI and image banks: A research methodology. In Digital communication. Trends and good practices (pp. 148–160). Ediciones Profesionales de la Información. https://doi.org/10.3145/cuvicom.11.eng
Ge, J., & Gretzel, U. (2018). Emoji rhetoric: a social media influencer perspective. Journal of Marketing Management, 34(15–16), 1272–1295. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2018.1483960
Hakoköngäs, E., Halmesvaara, O., & Sakki, I. (2020). Persuasion Through Bitter Humor: Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Rhetoric in Internet Memes of Two Far-Right Groups in Finland. Social Media + Society, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120921575
Hartmann, J., Exner, Y., & Domdey, S. (2023). The power of generative marketing: Can generative AI reach human-level visual marketing content? SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4597899
Haryani, E., Darmastuti, R., & Edi, S. W. M. (2025). Model of financial communication to reinforce financial literacy for Indonesian society. Ultimacomm: Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi, 16(1), 186–207. https://doi.org/10.31937/ultimacomm.v16i1.3891
Hayes, A. S., & Ben-Shmuel, A. T. (2024). Under the finfluence: Financial influencers, economic meaning-making and the financialization of digital life. Economy and Society, 53(3), 478–503. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2024.2381980
Hidayah, V. F., & Nihaya, I. U. (2025). Pengaruh financial literacy, future orientation, financial attitude, dan financial awareness terhadap perencanaan pensiun generasi sandwich di Jawa Timur. Jurnal Ilmu Manajemen, 13(4), 879–890. https://doi.org/10.26740/jim.v13n4.p879-890
Highfield, T., & Leaver, T. (2016). Instagrammatics and digital methods: studying visual social media, from selfies and GIFs to memes and emoji. Communication Research and Practice, 2(1), 47–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2016.1155332
Jung, T., Koghut, M., Lee, E., & Kwon, O. (2025). Artificial creativity in luxury advertising: How trust and perceived humanness drive consumer response to AI-generated content. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 87, 104403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104403
Kamali, N., Nakamura, K., Kumar, A., Chatzimparmpas, A., Hullman, J., & Groh, M. (2025). Characterizing photorealism and artifacts in diffusion model-generated images. Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713962
Lestari, W. (2018). Irony analysis of memes on Instagram social media. Pioneer: Journal of Language and Literature, 10(2), 114–123.
McQuarrie, E. F., & Mick, D. G. (1999). Visual rhetoric in advertising: Text-interpretive, experimental, and reader-response analyses. Journal of Consumer Research, 26(1), 37–54. https://doi.org/10.1086/209549
Phillips, B. J., & McQuarrie, E. F. (2004). Beyond visual metaphor: A new typology of visual rhetoric in advertising. Marketing Theory, 4(1–2), 113–136. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593104044089
Rahayu, R. (2022). Analisis Faktor-faktor yang memengaruhi tingkat literasi keuangan digital: Studi pada Generasi Z di Indonesia. Reviu Akuntansi dan Bisnis Indonesia, 6(1), 74–87. https://doi.org/10.18196/rabin.v6i1.14268
Rawal, M., & Torres, J. L. S. (2017). Empathy for emotional advertisements on social networking sites: the role of social identity. Marketing Management Journal, 27(2). https://doi.org/10.63963/001c.151116
Saleh, M. I. (2025). Advantaging tourism through influencers: applying transaction cost theory to recognize top hero, hub, and hygiene content tactics for tourism marketing. Journal of Travel Research, 64(2), 408–426. https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231214727
Unda, L., & Niessen-Ruenzi, A. (2024). Gender stereotypes in financial advertisements. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4752630
Windels, K. (2016). Stereotypical or just typical: how do US practitioners view the role and function of gender stereotypes in advertisements? International Journal of Advertising, 35(5), 864–887. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2016.1160855
Wiradarmo, A. A., & Azhar, H. A. (2025). Machine kitsch theory: Contrasting shifts in public perceptions towards AI-generated art. Jurnal Desain, 12(3), 608. https://doi.org/10.30998/jd.v12i3.26970
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Annisa Shabrina, Agung Eko Budiwaspada (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This license allows users to:
- Share: Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
- Adapt: Remix, transform, and build upon the material to create derivative works.
These freedoms are granted under the following mandatory conditions:
- Attribution (BY)
You must give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and Jurnal Desain, provide a link to the license, and indicate if any changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor (the author or the journal) endorses you or your use. When citing the work, reusers must include the article’s Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for permanent citation. - NonCommercial (NC)
You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Commercial purposes are defined as uses primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. For any commercial use, republication, or incorporation into commercial products, you must seek and obtain specific permission from the copyright holder(s). - No Additional Restrictions
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Official Legal Code: For the complete and legally binding terms of this license, please refer to the official legal code: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
