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NONE: Re: Subliminal advertising.
Re: Subliminal advertising.
Jeff Diehl (jeff_at_webpower.com)
Thu, 29 Aug 1996 11:52:52 -0800
>First off, what about that (perhaps apocryphal) story about the movie
>theatre where they blended undetectable images of popcorn, candy, and soda
>in with the movie that was playing? Apparently, sales at the concession
>stand shot up by around 50%.
That scam occurred in the 50s and was exposed in the 60s (by the guy who
perpitrated it) as being a hoax. Of course, he admitted the sinister nature
of his marketing methods only after many scientists tried to repeat the
results of his experiment, all of whom failed.
Furthermore, the advertising community at that time had wanted so badly to
believe it was true, and bolstered by stories from WWII about brainwashing
techniques, they instantly tried all imaginable variants of "subliminal"
influence on the masses.
Parapsychologists and mystics also perpetuated the myth as truth long after
it had been debunked. Since the masses tend to be bombarded by messages
from whackos and media sensationalism before, and with far more tenacity,
than scientists, the myth still survives today.
>And second, even if that particular story is not true, what about the
>theoretical idea that, because human beings are thought to be processing
>one billion separate pieces of information every second, it might be
>possible to send someone a message that sneaks in under their conscious
>radar but that nonetheless makes an impact at some level.
There have been OODLES of tests to try to prove that this dynamic actually
leads to causing people to *act* in certain ways, i.e., buying certain
products whether or not they truly want or need them (or giving up
smoking). None have yielded any results to support the theory.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jeff Diehl (jeff_at_webpower.com) WebPower Inc
Media Director San Francisco, CA
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