Is Subliminal Advertising Effective? Essay

A surprising fact presented in this video is that audiences in America are exposed to an average of 3,000 ads per day. Overall, Americans will spend an average of 3 years of their lifetime watching commercials. It is no surprise that the images presented on those commercials mold the minds and ideas of viewers, even at a subconscious level.

America is being ran by advertisements and commercials. Each advertisement or commercial has a subliminal message and are trying to peek at the consumer’s subconscious to

Subliminal messages are prearranged thoughts or ideas placed into the subconscious mind. Subliminal messages involve reacting to stimuli that are above your physiological threshold but below your perceptual thresholds. So basically your brain processes the messages without you knowing. The two main types of subliminal messaging are auditory and visual. In these two categories there are also subcategories. According to Anthony Pratkanis and Anthony Greenwald, who are Psychology professors, have defined these four different subcategories as:

Those who believe in the value of subliminal audiotapes would be wrong to claim that:

Subliminal messages are messages that are perceived in the unconscious mind that most of the time we are not aware of. These messages are mainly designed to influence that way we think and feel. They are used to get people to buy products from their company. Subliminal messages can be perceived auditory or visually. Subliminal messages should not be legal and should be banned from being used in advertisement for it can lead to negative results. There should be another way to advertise that. Doesn’t involve manipulating our minds into buying the products.

Society uses manipulation to divert people’s attention every day and oftentimes people do not realize that they are being manipulated. An advertisement through television is one of the many ways that people are manipulated. TV uses advertisements daily by incorporating subliminal messages to get people to do things that they would not otherwise be thinking about doing. The following articles “Can TV improve us?” by Jane Rosenzweig, On Sale at Old Navy: Cool Clothes for Identical Zombies!” by Damien Cave and TV’s War of Words” by Deborah Tannen exemplify instances where manipulation is being showcased at its best.

     When we think about subliminal perception we usually think of a big publicity stunt for a company. What many people don’t know is that subliminal perception can really be effective. Any person might say, “Naw, I can’t fall for that I’m not stupid enough to fall into their trap.” For most other cases subliminal perception will attack a person in their sub-conscious state of mind. In one form or anther, subliminal perception takes many forms. It could be presented in an audio, visual, and in the most likely places we don’t tend to find subliminal perception.

In a world where we can find most information at a click of a button, many of us come across some form of propaganda on a daily basis. Having it routinely within our presences, we have learned how to identify if something is an advertisement. To convey a message or product, companies need to broadcast their item with visuals, audio, or both. For example, fast food companies need to demonstrate an image of their food, such as the visual of a burger in the Carl’s Jr ad, or else nobody will be convinced to purchase their item because they will not be able to know if it is satisfying enough to consume.

The viewer sits on the couch, nestled inside a cozy, warm blanket with a large bowl of buttery and salty popcorn on his lap. His heart starts racing as the movie reaches its climax. Just as his lungs stop breathing and his eyes grow wide with fascination, the channel changes to an old advertisement that he’s seen a thousand times. Ads like that one appeal to the three main techniques that have subliminal messages to viewers. These different techniques have proven to be effective with television watchers. Advertisers use these three techniques to target a certain audience.

Advertisers and marketing companies are mostly interested in subliminal manipulation because by targeting consumers’ subconscious mind, they can control their involuntary actions, emotions and beliefs. The subconscious part of our mind is able to process around 20,000 pieces of information per second, where as our conscious part can only cope with about forty. This function explains why any subliminal message that our subconscious receives, can be received and responded to by consumers without them ever being aware of it. This form of mind control can be very powerful if used correctly, it could influence consumers to want and buy a product without their control (Winder).

Dave Ramsey, America’s most trusted financial adviser and a radio show host, once said, “We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.” (Ramsey). Ramsey’s quote reflects the state of consumerism that our society is going through. Most of us can easily relate to this quote, let’s be honest most of us have been there done that and then later question our genuine need for whatever we have bought. Regardless, if we feel guilty or not we ought to ask ourselves why and what made this purchase seems so important and necessary at the time. Although this might not come as a surprise to most of us, the answer would be the advertisement industry. In 2016, The United States has spent more than 198 billion U.S dollars on advertising, making America the leader in advertisement in the world (Statista). These ads are designed to force consumers to keep buying things that are unnecessary by sending subliminal messages and applying psychology to trick the consumer into a spending spree. In his short story, “Subliminal Man”, J.G. Ballard uses science fiction approach to illustrate to his readers the preposterous techniques that the advertising industry has been using to boost consumerism. Ballard believes that the consumer’s brain has been tricked into buying against their well, by using technology and applying subliminal technics. Ballard short story questions the effect of consumerism on our moral values, lifestyle, and behavior. Ballard claims that

There was a time when advertisement were made only to market and sell the products but now dramatic changes have taken place in this field (Shead and Dobson 01). Today companies not only want to sell their products but also aim to create emotional attachment with the customers for which they do emotional or subliminal advertising.

Chapter four is titled "I Can't See Cleary Now." Chapter four is about subliminal advertising, and the exploration of further subliminal advertising. In 1957 James Vicary who was a market researcher surprised people about his claim that a Coca-Cola ad flashing on a screen could influence their decision to buy. In chapter three on page twenty-eight Lindstrom explains about subliminal advertising and some examples of what it may be. He explains that “Generally speaking, subliminal messages are defined as visual, auditory, or any other sensory messages that register just below our level of conscious perception and can be detected only by the subconscious mind." Lindstrom then explains that when people are exposed to articles or news stories about subliminal messaging or advertising they feel as if they are not being fooled, he states that's how most people react "whether it's a report of a McDonald's logo flashing for one-thirtieth of a second during the Food Channel's Iron Chef America Program (a spokesperson for the Food Channel claimed it was a technical error), or an unfounded rumor that a cloud of dust in Disney's The Lion King spells out s-e-x."

This was greatly adapted in the 1950’s and has moved onwards, becoming more common in the present. Subliminal advertising largely started in movie theaters, where in cinemas they would strew messages saying “drink Coca-Cola (Sheehan, K. B. 2013).” The “drink Coca-Cola” was a phrase that would appear on the screen during the start of the movies and during the intermission and it would subconsciously impulse the viewer to buy Coca-Cola from the food court. Coming into the future this method is used in videogames where while playing you are met with company logos upon starting the game and thereafter shown products from other companies that are placed within the game. Some of the oldest advertisements that appear are from canned beverage companies and now newcomers such as car companies are coming into play, all the while polluting our screens with more subliminal advertising. The introduction of subliminal advertisements into video games has become the next step for many companies taking advantage of a person getting engulfed in the game screen in front of them. In relative concept, companies are taking advantage of the real estate that is your television or your computer and even your mobile phone to get you to buy their products.

In fact, there is a strong possibility that advertising industries and marketing specialist secretly expect consumers to remain ignorant and oblivious to the subliminal messages that are contained in advertisements. Again, Advertisers filter their audience down into categories when it regards their goods and services. In other words, their audience could be selected by what social class or background they derive from. Rhetorical appeals can target various socioeconomic levels. Advertisement industries can sometimes be dependent on stereotypical qualities which will help sell products. For example, an advertisement for rich