Why Subliminal Advertising is Fair to American Consumers
The United States ad industry consists of many ad agencies whose job it is to make sure that the American consumers buy their clients products. As many people get smart enough to look past the physical eye tricks the ad may play on them, the ad agencies has turned to subliminal messages to get their message across. From garbage bag advertisements to the advertisements for the hardest type of liquor you can buy, subliminal advertising will almost always affect you without you even knowing it, and its perfectly legal. If a company has the money, the time, and the sense to use the first amendment of the constitution, there is no reason why subliminal messages cannot appear in their advertisements.
To produce a subliminal advertisement, a company must pour in a great deal of money to get the consumer wanting their product. An ad agency can spend anywhere up to $50,000 to create a single, one page magazine layout or flyer, carefully getting every detail to perfection. If a company chooses to use this kind of money to advertise, it is perfectly legal to do so. Subliminal messages are just a more efficient way of advertising by appealing to the consumers subconscious mind and bypassing their decision making mind, swaying them to need something they really do not. However, while subliminal messages may make consumers buy items, they also prevent theft. That elevator music you hear in Sears is not just there because the manager likes it. The first purpose of this music is to lull you into a shopping trance. You will also notice that there are no clocks in Sears. This is to make you loose all track of time if you don't have a watch and this in itself is subliminal. However, underneath the music, in a frequency only audible to the subconscious, there are messages like, "Do not shoplift", "Stealing is bad", and "Just buy it". The messages use key words which the human mind knows are wrong, even if a person's personality thinks they are okay. So subliminal messages prevent theft also.
Making these messages also takes an incredible amount of time. The same advertisements that can take up to $50,000 to make, also take around 3 to 5 months to get every detail just right so the consumer thinks that the images just appear there by coincidence, if the images are even seen by the conscious mind at all.
Modern advertising companies rely heavily on subliminal messaging to entice their target audiences. Advertisements are often crafted for the purpose of appealing to specific characteristics in the hopes of drawing the attention and appealing to the senses of prospective buyers. Tobacco companies have become notorious for the implementation of such techniques. The images portrayed in many of “big tobacco’s” ads stimulate a variety of senses and emotions. One common tactic used by Camel cigarettes (a subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.) is to isolate and promote life’s pleasures, and American patriotism. A specific Camel ad found in Elle, a common, upscale women’s magazine is a perfect example of such advertising. “Pleasure To Burn” is the slogan centered upon the advertisement’s page. Above the slogan, “CAMEL” is written, all letters in Camel’s trademark font. A beautiful orange sunset serves as a mesmerizing background to an attractive, young women relaxing and enjoying a cigarette on the back of a pristine classic car. The image is painted in the style of the early ‘50s “pin-up doll” image. Smoke lazily wafts up through the lettering from the cigarette positioned directly beneath the word “Burn”. The woman relaxes lazily, eyes closed, facing up towards the orange sunset. There is no question that she is blissfully enjoying her cigarette, and her surroundings. She is dressed in the uniform of a diner waitress, complete with hat, apron, and “JANE” stenciled upon her left breast patch. Rather than conjure the stereotypical images of young women on roller-skates rushing around busily serving patrons, the subject of this ad is very much relaxes, and very much alone. Rather than appear to be...
For over fifty years, companies have utilized subliminal messaging in print, television, and radio advertisements to manipulate consumers into purchasing certain products and services. This form of advertising infringes upon American citizens first amendment rights which, as defined by Wooley vs. Maynard, extend to protect a person's freedom of thought and speech. Such communication influences individual's behavior without his or her knowledge, and removes his or her ability to actively make certain decisions. The practice of subliminal messaging is defined by the Federal Communication Commission as" a technique of projecting information below the viewing audience's threshold of sensation or awareness." In visual advertising, specifically, a message lasting only a few milliseconds is flashed on the TV screen. Theoretically, such a message could be absorbed by the viewer without him or her realizing it ("Subliminal Messages"). This practice was first brought to the attention of the public in the late 1950s when James Vicary, a movie theatre owner and marketing researcher, announced that he had developed special equipment which would allow the advertising industry to utilize subliminal projection ("The Legal Status of Subliminal Communication in America"). He cited a success story at one of his privately owned movie theatres where he flashed phrases like "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" at 0.0005 seconds during movies. Using this method, he claimed to have raised his Coca cola sales by 18% and popcorn sales by 58% ("The Roots of Subliminal Perception"). Although Vicary attempted to pass off his discovery as harmless advertising technique, the general public became extremely offended and fearful of this attack on their subcons...
In the introduction of “The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion” written by Anthony R. Pratkanis, summarizes the infamous subliminal persuasion experiment conducted by James Vicary in 1957. Vicary, a market researcher, administered an investigation involving popcorn, Coca Cola products and the big silver screen. During showings of the 1955 film Picnic, Vicary rigged the film projector to flash the phrases “Eat Popcorn” and “Drink Coke” repeatedly throughout the movie so quickly that it went unnoticed for quite a while. After running this experiment for six weeks, Vicary claimed that the sales of Coke products increased by 18.1% and those of popcorn by 57.8%. The media of the day spread the story like wildfire and scientists scrambled to replicate the procedure.
According to Robert Scholes, author of On Reading a Video Text, commercials aired on television hold a dynamic power over human beings on a subconscious level. He believes that through the use of specific tools, commercials can hold the minds of an audience captive, and can control their abilities to think rationally. Visual fascination, one of the tools Scholes believes captures the minds of viewers, can take a simple video, and through the use of editing and special effects, turn it into a powerful scene which one simply cannot take his or her eyes from. Narrativity is yet another way Scholes feels commercials can take control of the thoughts of a person sitting in front of the television. Through the use of specific words, sounds, accompanying statements and or music, a television commercial can hold a viewer’s mind within its grasp, just long enough to confuse someone into buying a product for the wrong reason. The most significant power over the population held by television commercials is that of cultural reinforcement, as Scholes calls it. By offering a human relation throughout itself, a commercial can link with the masses as though it’s speaking to the individual viewer on an equal level. A commercial In his essay, Scholes analyzes a Budweiser commercial in an effort to prove his statements about the aforementioned tools.
There are a vast amount of groups targeted: adults, children, men, and women. For example, a very common way of subliminal advertising is when fast food restaurants such as McDonalds, Burger King, or Wendy’s offer toys with their meals. This causes children to bring up the company’s name to their parent therefore causing the parents to be more familiar with the company’s name. So if they were to be out and see their sign, they would be more willing to stop because 1) they know the name, 2) their child benefits from their purchase. I can place myself into groups concerning beauty products. They always advertising using females that have the same skin tone, acne problems, and even same past issues as me. This allows me to believe that there is finally a product that will work for me...NOT. Some unfair targeting is when advertisers use it to gain money from people who cannot financially contribute. Parents will give all the money in the world for their children just to find out it was a scam and gain nothing in return. Parents put all their hope into one advertisement and then lose it all in the blink of an eye. Some current examples are listed above: college savings commercials, baby food, fast food in video games, and yet still so many
The power of subliminal advertising in effecting consumers is still unproven. The concept of subliminal advertising is based on a "threshold". "This [is] thought to be a fixed point below which awareness does not extend." (Sutherland: p.30) If a word is flashed on a television screen for 50 milliseconds a person would not be conscious of it. If the time of the exposure is increased the word crosses the threshold and a person becomes consciously aware of the word. This process varies within the same person from day to day. For example, if a person is hungry while watching television, advertisements of food will be noticed more than if that same person just ate. Sometimes we are more alert than at other times. The effects of being tired, using drugs or alcohol can also vary when a stimulus is registered.
Product placement is a new tactic in advertising and marketing that allows companies to subtly integrate their products throughout new release movies and hit television shows. Compared to boring, old commercials, product placement is a new, more hidden version of advertising. Many people have the mindset of ‘Well if they’re using it, it must be great! I should use it too!’ This is where we see sales skyrocket after products are placed in popular movies and TV shows. On the other hand, some researchers are beginning to question whether product placement may have a subliminal effect on certain people, also. For example, perhaps you don’t really notice that most of everyone’s clothes in that new TV show is stamped with the Under Armour logo, or maybe you didn’t really pick out that mostly everyone in your favorite movie is drinking Pepsi, but newer studies could possibly be proving that you might actually be more inclined to buy one of those brands when it came down to a decision vs. the competing brand. This is why a lot of companies are starting to really push and are willing to pay top dollar to place their products in popular movies and TV shows.
A group of researchers were asked by a radio station to conduct research about subliminal messages. Some people believe that rock music has subliminal messages and that those messages had and evil content that lead listener to lose morality and misbehaviour conducts. The way how this messages work in the music industry is using the technique backmasking. During they work they found a distinction between willing acceptance of backmasking and the media mishandling of the issue. The connection with subliminal messages in media is informative. Even though subliminal messages were found. They were not able to demonstrates the effect of them on the individuals behaviour. Brian Wilson Key, claims that advertising uses subliminal messages to influence
Subliminal perception is different from pre-attentive processing. With pre attentive processing attention is directed at something other than the stimulus, e.g., at a magazine article instead of an ad in person’s peripheral vision. With subliminal perception attention is directed squarely at the stimulus. Also, with pre-attentive processing the stimulus is fully present-if a person shift attention and look directly at the ad or billboard, the person can easily see it. In contrast, subliminal stimuli presented so quickly or are so degraded that the very act of perceiving them is difficult.
The word subliminal means below the threshold of sensation or consciousness; perceived by or affecting someone's mind without their being aware of it. anything that can be slipped by without awareness is just sneaky and sneaky usually perceived to mean bad. Subliminal messaging and positive would never be used in unison with each other they don't go together they are polar opposites. Absolutely, no subliminal messages should be used in a good way they account to much of the world's problems
Many people have heard of "subliminal" messages that are not consciously perceived by a subject but nonetheless influence his or her behavior. The concept first became publicized in the 1950s, when the advertiser James Vicary claimed that flashing the words "Drink Popcorn" and "Drink Coke" between frames in a movie theater increased Coke sales by 18.1% and popcorn sales by 57.7%. This caused a storm of controversy, although Vicary later admitted that this "study" was a hoax.(1)Many studies carried out in laboratory conditions do show that "subliminal" inputs can be perceived by the nervous system without the awareness of the conscious "I-function". Inputs perceived "subliminally" have also been shown to influence behavior to some extent, in some instances more than supraliminal inputs. These effects, however, are for the most part limited in magnitude and duration.
Reasons for most shock advertisements are meant to protect people. Shock advertisements inform people of what could happen to them if they do things like not wear their seatbelt, drink and drive or smoke. “Shock advertising is a type of advertising generally regarded as one that deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals” (Studymode). There are shock advertisements in anti-tobacco advertisements showing people the effects tobacco has on the body. These advertisements for example present photos of human lungs of...
James Vicary claimed to find dramatic increases in the sales of Coca-Cola and popcorn when he flashed the phrases "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Eat popcorn" for 1/2000 of a second during a movie. After completing his research, Vicary said, “The statistics showed an increase in popcorn sales by 58 percent, with an increase in Coca-Cola sales by 18 percent” (Dane, 2014). Although this could be a coincidence, it also could show that subliminal messaging works.
Subliminal advertisement has been around long before the 21st century. Subliminal messages are said to be “below the threshold of conscious perception” (Credo Reference, 2011). It was first pioneered by Dr. James Vicary, in the 19th century, when he conducted an experiment that subliminally engaged the viewers to “eat popcorn” and “drink Coca-Cola” while in the movie theatre (Broyles, 2006). The experiment attempted to prove that subliminal messages are a technique that is effective. In his studies, Vicary reported that the experiment was successful. His data showed that the experiment “increased soda sales at the theater by 18 percent and popcorn by 58 percent.” These results are truly an impressive increase but they were fab...
magazine ads, child are hit by one subliminal message after another. They are shown how this