Subliminal Advertising
Does Subliminal Advertising Occur?
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According to the snopes2.com website, subliminal advertising does not work. All the ruckus surrounding subliminal advertising began when James Vicary allegedly conducted an experiment involving popcorn and Coca-Cola. It is said that an early experiment on subliminal advertising conducted in a movie theatre helped increase sales of popcorn and Coca-Cola by flashing undetectable flashes of messages during a movie. Supposedly, every five seconds, messages such as "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry? Eat Popcorn" were flashed for 1/3000th of a second at a time. Thus, nobody could detect the messages within the movie. There were increases in sales of both popcorn and Coca-Cola after this supposed experiment (www.snopes2.com).
However, when Vicary was made to repeat the experiment by the president of the Psychological Corporation, no significant increases in sales of popcorn and Coca-Cola occurred. Later, Vicary came clean by saying he lied about the data on his first experiment. Some critics have even doubted he ever conducted his famous experiment at all. Since then, many studies have demonstrated that subliminal advertising does not work (www.snopes2.com).
In 1974, the Federal Communications Commission spoke against subliminal advertising. It said that subliminal techniques are against the interest of the public, whether they are effective or not (www.snopes2.com).
However, there are websites that sell subliminal advertising products. Johannessen Advertising sells its subliminal advertising products on the Internet.
Johannessen Advertising says its subliminal advertising system looks like a regular television set showing a video. But, for a fraction of a second, a message is displayed so quickly that nobody is able to tell (www.lightbolt.com).
Johannessen Advertising claims that subliminal advertising can help a company by getting customers into the store by having a television set by the window. The television flashes a subliminal message saying "COME IN AND SEE WHAT'S NEW" (www.lightbolt.com).
It also claims that subliminally advertising saying "BUY NOW AND SAVE" on a television set in the store can help the store get its customers to make purchases (www.lightbolt.com).
In addition, Johannessen Advertising claims it can help a store increase its add-on sales by having television sets flashing the subliminal message "BUY EXTENDED WARRANTIES" while customers are waiting in line to pay (www.lightbolt.com).
Johannessen Advertising also claims its subliminal advertising can help a company reduce theft. It claims that K-Mart used subliminal messages saying "PLEASE DON'T STEAL" to help reduce theft by 33% (www.lighbolt.com).
Subliminal advertising remains a debatable issue. Mere exposure and its power, especially when the subject is unaware, plays a vital role in the issue of subliminal advertising. However, ethics also need to play a part when one deals with the issue of subliminal advertising.
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