Picture Perfect An unusual illustration or photograph stops scanning readers in their tracks.

As a copywriter who has always chauvinistically maintained thatwords are the most important part of advertising, I neverthelesshave to concede the following: Before there was the written word,there were pictures for communication (as in drawings on cavewalls). Pictures are a faster "read" than words have everbeen. And finally, as the oft quoted saying goes, a picture isworth a thousand words.

So, while I usually harp on the kind of verbiage advertisingshould have, this month I want to give the visual element itsdue.

It's no great revelation that an unusual illustration orphoto has the power to draw scanning prospects to an ad. But it maycome as a surprise that a "nice" or "pretty"visual doesn't qualify.