by

      Chris Thomas

            When a person is asked what subliminal perception is their usual response is that it is "hidden messages" in movies or advertisements. Although this is true, there is much more to be said about subliminal perception. Subliminal perception refers to the individual’s ability to perceive and respond to stimuli that are below the "limen" or level of consciousness, found to influence thoughts, feelings, or actions (Akron Business Marketing Review 1987).

            The earliest interest in subliminal perception goes back to the late 1800's and early 1900's. This subject aroused serious interest - it suggested that people could have their thoughts, feeling and actions influenced by stimuli that are perceived without any awareness of perceiving.

            There are four distinct methods of communicating subliminally. One way is through the use of visual stimuli. An example would be to super impose an image into a movie by flashing a message so briefly that a person is unaware of it. A second method uses accelerated speech. This usually happens when music is played over low audible messages, such as the Muzak system. The third method involves the print media. This involves the use of embedded (hidden) images in a print advertisement. It is the hiding of  images in larger images that influence the viewer to act or respond in a certain way. The fourth method involves a suggestiveness that wouldn’t normally be seen at first glance. It would imply much more than it appeared to, such as in a picture.

            Reactions towards Subliminal Perception.  An experiment took place in 1957 by a marketing researcher named James Vicary. He claimed that over a six-week period of flashing messages saying "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" at a rate of 3/1000 of a second every 5 seconds during the film "Picnic", raised sales on popcorn 57.7% and the sale of Coca-Cola 18.1% (Psychology Encyclopedia 1999.) Although the sales went up, there was no independent evidence to his experiment. He later stated that it was a fabrication.

            In spite of it being a fabrication, peoples reactions to it were upsetting. Magazine articles stated their views, saying that it was, "the most alarming and outrageous thing invented since Mr. Gatling invented his gun" (Journal of Marketing 1982). Globe and Mail made the implication that if this sort of thing worked, then could unscrupulous leaders use subliminal perception in disseminating their propaganda? The New Yorker published that the minds of people had been "broken and entered" (Journal of Marketing 1982).

            Even while laws were being placed to prohibit the use of subliminal perception on television, Hollywood was incorporating the idea as a marketing tool in two movies. Radio stations started to use sub-audible messages in their airplay, saying "TV is a bore" and "How about a cup of coffee?" The significance of subliminal perception in respect to consumer behavior is to alter the cognitive effect of commercials that don’t have subliminal perceptions in them. If subliminal perception holds any water, then it could be a significant marketing tool. Being able to influence people’s thoughts, feelings and actions about a specific product without them knowing about it would be a powerful way to boost sales, as they supposedly did with the movie theater experiment.

            Unconscious wishes.  Lloyd H. Silverman covered an area of subliminal perception with positive results concerning consumer behavior. Silverman reviewed the literature of the Freudian psychoanalytic theory (Freud's research had been criticized for the lack of hard data to support it.)  Some of Freud's  work dealt indirectly with subliminal perception, in a process of turning unconscious wishes against the self. After researching this, Silverman came up with some very convincing evidence that subliminal stimulation can influence behavior.

            Silverman exposed subjects to subliminal stimuli using a tachistoscope. This is when a subject is told to look at a focal point on a picture and a subliminal message is flashed on to the picture for a split second. The first experiment was drawn directly from the Freudian Theory. Silverman took severely depressed individuals and tried to say that the degree of the their depression could be increased. In the first experiment the stimulus of "DESTROY MOTHER" was given and compared to a control stimulus of "PEOPLE THINKING." The depression in the subjects increased after being subjected to the first stimuli. This may seem to be a barbaric thing to do to people, but the effects proved that subliminal perception could work when ascribed to an unconscious wish. Silverman argues, convincingly, that in all of his studies, the behavior changes in the participants were short term and did not result in serious or lasting psychological damage (Journal of Advertising Research1979). Finally, Silverman tested his hypothesis that the stimuli would only work on the influencing of unconscious wishes. For instance, if a person has a high involvement in his or her appearance and watches a Revlon commercial with subliminal stimuli in it that pertains to looking well, such as something like "CHOOSE REVLON," that person will have a greater influence to buy Revlon. This use of subliminal perception can only be effective if the influence is specifically related to the consumer unconscious wishes, what they believe to be important to them. Therefore, a person who hates Pepsi can not be influenced to go out and buy a twelve pack of Pepsi. So marketers using subliminal perception should try to work their advertisements around consumers unconscious wishes.

        Television Instructions.  In a study that was even more related to advertising, Fleur and Petranof came up with a study that involved promotional messages that were broadcast during regular programming of local television shows. The products advertised were food item called "TV specials" that changed every week. Data from the wholesalers of these products were given to the professors to see if any changes had occurred after their experiment. During the first week, all of the commercials were subliminal and during the second week they were all supraliminal or regular. After the second week, the commercials were a mixture of both. The subliminal commercials alone raised the sales percentages only by one percent, which could be viewed as coincidence since it was such a low number. The week that the commercials were mixed, sales percentages increased by 2.83 percent. When only supraliminal commercials were played, the percentages went from a low of 1.802 percent to 3.383 percent (Akron Business and Economic Review, 1987). So it seems that in this case, the subliminal messages didn’t work so well.

            Better Recall.  Evangelic Chakalis and Geoffrey Lowe did an experiment with 60 students to find out if their learning/memory could be enhanced through subliminal suggestions embedded in relaxing music. They called it the "face-name-occupation" memory task because they wanted to find out why it was hard to put names to faces. The group of sixty was broken up into three groups of twenty, each with an even amount of women and men. One group was a control group, the other two groups were experimental groups. All three groups were shown eight pictures of men in full face pose and told to remember their names and their occupations. The control subjects (Group 1) were just shown the pictures and asked to wait while the two experimental groups listened to assigned music. The first experimental group was asked to listen to music called the "Garden of Eden" which had no subliminal messages. The second experimental group listened to a "memory improvement" cassette, which had subliminal messages in it. After listening to the music, all three groups were asked to recall the names and occupations of the eight photos they had been shown. This whole process was done three times. For the second experimental group, analysis indicated significant improvement in the recollection of names only. The improvement on the recollection of occupations was less marked (Perceptual and Motor Skills 1992.) With this experiment it was proven that putting subliminal messages in the music in advertisements helps consumers recall particular brands, giving marketers a marketing tool. This experiment also shows that self-help cassettes actually work in enhancing a persons memory.

            Using Sex to Get What You Want.  Wilson Bryan Key, of the University of Western Ontario believes that there are billions of dollars being spent on subliminal perception, mainly by using sexual images embedded in their advertising. Ever since Key first discovered a phallus in a magazine advertisement, he has devoted his life to exposing the use of subliminal perception in advertisements. For example, Key points out that each Ritz cracker has the word "sex" spelled out on it.  Ritz Crackers?  "When you sexualize food, you’ve just made it irresistibly appealing," says Key. "It makes the Ritz cracker taste even better because all of these senses are interconnected in the brain (Forbes 1991). Key believes to this to be the reason for consumers behavior towards certain products.

            Differences In Opinions.  Professor Robert Fudin of Long Island University, Brooklyn campus, had methodological problems and questions in regard to Silverman’s experiments. According to Fudin, Silverman’s experiments were impossible to replicate. Fudin believes that Silverman did not properly use the tachistoscopal method to expose subliminal stimuli. Fudin suggests that Silverman had an improper amount of luminance in the room of which he was experimenting in that severely interfered with the results of his tests. Finally, none of his experiments contain evidence that all stimuli were presented completely within the fovea (the area in the eye where the retina picks up information to send to the brain) (Perceptual and Motor Skills 1999).

            In the regard to Wilson Bryan Key, Don E. Schultz, a professor of advertising at Northwestern University’s Medill School, states that there is no evidence that the brain works the way Key says. "I mean, if the brain can’t find the phallus after staring at it, how’s the brain going to process the information?" (Forbes 1991) The American Association of Advertising Agencies mailed an advertisement to a number of newspapers and magazines with a headline that said "People have been trying to find the breasts in these ice cubes since 1957." (Forbes 1991) The ad went on to say that if you can find breasts in this picture then you can probably find a pork chop, a dodge, or the Fillmore. When Key spotted the advertisement, he admitted that he couldn’t find any of those things. However, he did find some grotesque faces, a shark and an erect phallus. Although no leading advertising professors or advertisers take Key seriously, he has made a considerable amount of money from a public eager to believe him. He was noted as getting paid $3,000 for each lecture at colleges across America at 30 lectures a year.

Examples of subliminal perceptions can be seen today from movies to video games as well has advertisements. Walt Disney denies any sexual imagery in any of their movies such as, The Lion King, where a lion blows out dust and within the dust the word "SEX" is spelled out. Another accusation about a Walt Disney film was Aladdin, in the balcony scene a sub-audible voice was heard saying " Good teenagers take off your clothes"

While Walt Disney denies any accusations of subliminal content in any of their movies, another film director, William Friedkin, tried to hype his movie by admitting that he had put subliminal images in his movie, Jade.

Movie directors have not been the only people to recently and blatantly use subliminal perceptions in the hopes of boosting sales. Video game producers have tried as well. Time Warner Interactive marketed a computer software game called "Endorfun," which the company openly boasted of as having 93 subliminal uplifting messages hidden the game’s spiritual jazz soundtrack such as "You create joyous thought," "It’s ok for me to have everything I want," and "In my own way, I’m a genius" (Skeptical Enquirer 1996.)  

The picture to your right is just an example of what Wilson Key refers to concerning  subliminal images in advertisements. If you look closely to the right of the neck of the bottle, in the background you can see the word "SEX". Also so in the background, if you look close enough you can see the image of a person.

This bottle of Regal Chivas, when looked at a couple of times, a person can see the word "BOX" written from the left side of the neck of the bottle to the right side of the neck the bottle. Is this suppose to be a Freudian Theory, where the meaning is suppose to refer to a certain female anatomy?

A Virginia-based Christian group called American Life League as protested against, what it sees as naughty messages, in the Walt Disney film like "The Little Mermaid." Is this castle spire rising from Disney’s "Little Mermaid" video slip cover actually a penis? (www.parascope.com)

Relevant Websites

http://parascope.com

This website contains information on hidden persuasion, Washington’s reactions, Vicary, the article about Wilson Bryan Key’s article "Embeds Everywhere," subliminal suicide, stories about subliminal stimuli in music and how subliminal survives.

http://www.innergear.com

This website gives you information on how you can get tapes that can improve your memory, such as the tape that was used in the experiment to see if subliminal messages helps memory.

http://www.WatchtowerObserver.com

This Site features subliminal embeds allegedly used in Jehovah’s Witness publications. The site features a heavily illustrated analysis that makes an interesting case, what ever its accuracy.

This website goes over the way subliminal messages work in all of aspects and goes over the four basic types of subliminal methods.

This website shows a large amount of subtle non-verbal messages in body languages inn advertisement

References 

(Note to student readers - while this is a good tutorial, this is not an appropriate reference section.  Please be sure to follow a more conventional procedure.)

"Subliminal Advertising: What is the controversy about?" (1987) Akron Business & Economic Review, v.18, 2, Summer.

"Subliminal Perception," Encyclopedia of Psychology, (1999).

"Subliminal advertising: What you see is what you get?" Journal of Marketing, (1982), v. 46, 2, Spring.

"Another Look at Subliminal Perception," Journal of Advertising Research (1979), Feb.

"Positive effects of subliminal stimulation on memory," Perceptual and Motor Skills, (1992) v. , June74

"Search and Find" Forbes, (1991) v148 p.134

"Subliminal psychodynamic activation: methodological problems and questions in Silverman's experiments" (1999) August v89 p.235

"When the media miss messages in subliminal stories" Skeptical Enquirer(1996) v20n2 p.16(3)

1.    According to the findings of Evangelic and Chakalis’ experiment, the use of subliminal stimuli 

a. showed no improvement to memory.
b. increased memory for names.
c. proved that subliminal stimuli in cassettes could increase memory in placing faces.
d. both b. and c.

2.    How does "unconscious wishes" work in Silverman's experiment with subliminal perception?

a. Subliminal stimuli that has been ascribed to a high involvement subject can increase behavior in that subject.
b. Using subliminal messages doesn’t work if it pertains to "unconscious wishes"
c. Making wishes while your asleep.
d. Only works with severely depressed people

3) Wilson Bryan Key thought that there are sexual images in many visual stimuli.  How did he suggest that these stimuli affected the brain?

a. They dulled the senses.
b. All of our senses are connected in the brain and subliminal sexual images stimulate this.
c. They force people believe in things they other wise wouldn't.
d. Made people more sexually active

4) Subsequent analysis of Vicary’s theater experiment using subliminal messages proved

a. Subliminal perception is a highly effective technique for increasing popcorn sales
b. The general public is unconcerned about subliminal messages as influences.
c. Vicary's experiment didn’t prove that subliminal messages worked.
d. It triggered an increase in ticket sales for other movies.

5) What was one of the major concerns about the use of subliminal stimuli?

a. It will make the prices of products go up.
b. Due to new means of processing, it may hurt the fovea of the eye.
c. Sub-audible message could slowly harm the ear over time.
d. Fear of unscrupulous organizations using it in their propaganda.

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1. B
2. A
3. B
4. C
5. D