In the operation of comparison aimed at opposition, the visual figure suggests
that two images are different in some way (‘A is not like B because . . .’) and invites the reader to compare the two images to generate one or more inferences regarding
their differences. Figures of opposition often rely on basic similarities between
two images to highlight areas of difference (Durand, 1987), perhaps because differences
between similar images tend to be more salient than differences between
dissimilar images (Holyoak and Thagard, 1995: 132). Opposition comparisons
thus instruct the consumer to make inferences about both similarity and difference.