I just finished reading “Subliminal no more”, by Asher Roth. The book focuses on Subliminal Advertising in 1970s print ads and analyzes dozens of large print ads, showing how common the practice is, especially ads created by the big-league New York agencies.
I learned four vital things in this book:
* Subliminal Images are effective when you’re not consciously aware of them while briefly glossing over an image but become obvious when they are pointed out. The subconscious can see them in the periphery, but the mind ignores/censors them as “coincidence”. If it can’t be heard or seen when pointed out, it’s not a subliminal. And if it’s too obvious, it’s not a subliminal.
An example (image from the book) is below. Examine the ad briefly and you probably won’t find anything strange. I’ll reveal its subliminal further below.
* The most frequent subliminals relate to sex and death, because these elicit the greatest emotional charge.
* A common technique is to intentionally create cognitive dissonance (by putting things into an add that don’t match) to get the mind stuck on the ad or keep replaying it long after one has moved on.
* The use of subliminals in ads was banned by law in the 1970s, which did nothing to stop companies from using them. With modern digital technology, they are even more common and harder to detect.
My view is that hidden influence without consent, is unethical, an assault on our clear perception of reality. Ad-subliminals have no place in the next higher version of society.
There are half a dozen subliminal things happening in the image below.
I’ll point out one:
The man sitting on the right is pointing at his exposed penis. The woman beside him is bent down. It’s subliminal because a superficial glance won’t reveal it but it becomes obvious when pointed out.
