Perhaps you’ve seen her, towering over I-85 southbound near Beaver Ruin Road on a billboard that’s practically a Gwinnett landmark. She’s Tamela Adkins, Divorce Attorney.

But unless you’re in the market for a divorce (just $499), you may have thought Tamela Adkins would be taking your blood pressure at the local hospital.

Why? It’s her picture. The most dominant visual element on the billboard is Ms. Adkins herself, photographed in a bucolic outdoor setting, holding forth with an empathetic gaze. But the crop, or framing of the photograph makes the white-sky backdrop appear as a nurse’s bonnet for Ms. Adkins – straight out of a 1960s TV serial.

Every time we see the billboard, we think “nurse,” and “health care.” Only when traffic is heavy do we have a few seconds to absorb the message and understand that Ms. Adkins is a professional attorney who can expedite the end of a marriage.

The moral: The best-worded message can be stopped in its tracks by a poorly presented graphic.