Subliminal Analysis

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, almost 29 people in the United States die every day due to drunk driving, that’s almost 10,600 lives per year. 10,600 lives that can be saved by making the responsible decision to find another way home or stay where you are. Budweiser, like many other companies, decided to try and help these statistics go down while simultaneously promoting their business. Although one would think that Budweiser is just trying to sell their product, I argue that Budweiser is effectively portraying their message to not drink and drive through their use of ethos and pathos.

Although there are many commercials, ads, documentaries, seminars, etc. on the reasons why people should never drink and drive, you would be surprised how many people still get behind the wheel after having had more than just a drink or two. We might not realize it but every day, about 28 people in the United States die in car crashes that involve a drunk driver. This equals to one death every 51 minutes! It’s so sad because these statistics could be way better if people had a well thought out plan prior to going out drinking. There has been research found relating to Drinking and Driving Behaviors since this topic is now becoming more of an issue in this generation than it was in the past. For instance, Schell, Chan, and Morral (2006), found that some people who have a DUI record tend to have pretty high expectations of themselves even after having some drinks in their system (e.g., “I feel more relaxed when drinking"), so with that being said those people with higher confidence were the ones more likely to be engaged in drinking and driving activity. While intoxicated, we often don’t consider any negative consequences that can happen to us but as you’ll see on the news, on social media, in the newspapers, etc. driving while under the influence can be very dangerous and even fatal.

This experimental study is being done to better understand the effectiveness of anti-drinking and driving advertisements on university-aged students. “Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 16 to 25 year olds, and alcohol and/or drugs are a factor in 55% of those crashes” (Madd, 2013). Increasing the effectiveness of anti-drinking and driving advertisements could be a solution to this critically high mortality rate in young people. The main purpose of this study is to better understand the effect of positive and negative anti-drinking and driving advertisements within different settings and different amounts of times.

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.

Television is an electronic telecommunication device that transmits pictures and sounds. Since its inception and release into society, the Television has grown to become extremely popular. The undying devotion to this medium has helped shape many aspects of human life. It has become a tool for education and entertainment. Businesses have found an efficient means to access the wider public through advertising. Advertising is a paid form of publicity aimed at a large audience by businesses with a view to increasing sales. Advertisements, unlike propaganda, have clearly stated sponsors. Through advertising, businesses can communicate with the user of their goods and services. The television allowed for the exponential expansion of advertisement. While older media is still used for advertising, Television’s ability to transmit moving picture and sound put it well above print media and radio (Messaris 2)

“Alcohol is a drug that has been passed down from generation to generation.” The alcohol industry makes people believe that with out the drinks there would be no holidays, no parties, no family gatherings. They tell you that you are cool if you drink. They have ads with amazing places, beautiful woman, and fun parties to promote drinking. What they don't tell you are all the casualties that are caused from the alcohol. 88,000 people in the United States alone pass away from alcohol related causes every year and 31% of car crashes are due to being impaired from alcohol. The War on Alcohol by Anna Quindalen was written to provide information about the negative effects of alcohol for not only the person drinking but the people around them. She

Our textbook uses the example of Allstate Insurance’s Mayhem commercials which are hilarious to watch, but make you want to get Allstate’s insurance for fear that all that happens in the commercials will happen to you (Alfano and O’Brien 57). In this case, the fear of death or at the very least a damaged car and trip to the hospital is used to make people stray from drinking and driving. The idea of crashing your car into a tree and potentially lose your life if you drink and drive is enough to make some people think twice before they turn the key in the ignition and take off with a tainted and slurred view of the world around

Alcohol can cause a major accident on the road that also affects other. Just by opening a can of beer can lead us or someone else to death. “Every 2-hours, three people are killed in alcohol-related highway crashes”(Chambers, 2010). It may be easy, but the consequences don’t come to mind before. The consequences of driving and drinking “are arrests, property damage, injuries, and thousands of deaths each year “ (Chambers, 2010). One of my friends lost her mom about two years ago because a guy was driving under the influence of alcohol and was speeding where he lost control of the car and crashed into the car. Yes, the guy is still alive and the only one affected was my friend’s mom, she passed away on her way to Colorado to visit her family but sadly she never made

Alcohol is something that has been part of human nature for thousands of years. It has been used by means of medical, social, religious, and cultural settings (Information about Alcohol, n.d.). Alcohol is going to be a product that will be a part of our lives for many years to come, definitely past our lifetime. A problem that we see today is the use of drinking and driving. This is one of life’s more dangerous and stupid activities, but people still decide to do it. People like to push their abilities to the edge, which could end up causing death to themselves and others. When we watch the news, there always seems to be at least one crash that involved a drunk driver. You have to remember that one incident happened in our city,

Exposure to alcohol advertising is an everyday occurrence. Alcohol advertising is persuasive not only to adults but to those who are too young to buy alcohol legally. Although parents and peers have a large impact on youth decisions to drink, marketing also has a significant impact by influencing the attitudes of parents and peers and helping to create an environment that promotes underage drinking. Alcohol companies focus billions of dollars on advertising their products and still claim that the effect is minimal. I pose a few questions that are; who are the targets of alcohol advertising? How does alcohol advertising affect the people targeted by alcohol companies? Finally what actions are being taken to

The Author states the thesis clearly in the first couple of sentences. This is the thesis stated in my own words: We as a people are constantly being brainwashed by the use of advertising and propaganda, even though we say we are able to resist the subliminal messages we are subconsciously accepting to these

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).

Alcohol in large doses can be very detrimental to not only the user but to people around him/her. For example, if a man was to go to a club and drink a lot of alcohol, in which his body cannot withhold; his heavy intakes will lead to dizziness, vomiting, and impaired breathing and in extreme cases, unconsciousness and coma that can lead to death. According to Caron, underage drinking is a leading public health problem in the United States. Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of drinking: 1,900 from motor vehicle accidents, 1,600 from homicides, 300 from suicides, and hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drowning. This shows that anyone on the road near an intoxicated driver is in grave danger as they can be killed or badly injured in an instant as the drunk driver has slight control over anything they are doing. Many reckless kills have been made by drunken drivers/people over the years resulting in many families to pay the price of losing a family member for no relevant reason at all but making alcohol increase death rates that could be provoked by intruding prohibition.

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.