Subliminal Advertising

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"They can manipulate anything from your political views to your reproductive

behavior, all in the interest of making a buck" says expert Wilson Bryan Key who

wrote the most popular subliminal advertising book ever, Subliminal Subduction.

Subliminal Advertising is an important method of influencing consumers to buy company's products. Subliminal advertising, which first came to the public attention in 1957 is embedded, camouflaged, or hidden words and/or symbols in advertisements. Although most of the subliminal advertising is done in the media, subliminal messages are often played in department stores to discourage shoplifters from stealing. Some of the different messages are "stealing is dishonest", and "I am a dishonest person". Every 7.5 seconds messages were played either under songs or really low so no one can consciously hear it. Another form of advertising not in the media is by a group called Interloc design who uses computers to do their subliminal advertising. They use the newest way of subliminal advertising which is screen savers. Text or images may be inserted in the screen saver and flash at 1/50 of a second. The only way to detect it would be with either laser disc or four-head VCR's. There are many different techniques and symbols that advertisers use. There are also many ways of stopping advertisers from abusing your unconscious brain.

There isn't just one technique that advertisers use to brainwash buyers.

A technique that can normally be viewed in movies or in television. What is normally

done by advertisers is they flash images that are pleasing to the viewers eye such as

a flashy color or a sexual innuendo. A technique that is very effective is questioning

the buyer. When used, it makes the buyer ask themself the question "would I be a bad

person if I did not buy this product?" The next technique used is another way to catch

the buyers eye. "Buzz words" which are words that make us want to see what all the fuss

is about, and to read the company's advertisement. The way it's used in newspapers is

if your flipping through the pages, not really looking at what your reading. What

advertisers will do is put in big, huge word in an ad to catch the reader such as NEW!,

or IMPROVED!. The way it's used in magazine...

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... would be: Have you ever purchased a product just because the commercial says everyone has it? An example of that would be if there was a basketball sneaker commercial and it stated that "Everyone has that sneaker, and it is the best around. The last question you would ask yourself would be: Do you believe that there is no such thing as subliminal advertising? If the consumer knows it exists, there is no way to manipulate them. If yes was the reply to any of these questions then that person was clear-cut victim of subliminal advertising.

When we are aware of all of the embeds, they become ineffective. In the 1950's, executive James Vicary flashed messages across movie screens. The messages flashed were "drink Coca Cola" and "eat popcorn". Coincidentally Vicary's research on the movie screen flashes reported increases in the sales of Coke and popcorn. Surprisingly, moviegoers bought 60% more popcorn than usual and almost 20% more Coke. According to expert Michael Buchenroth, "Subliminal Advertising does not necessarily need to be highly refined or sophisticated to sell products; it just needs to be subliminal."

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