Subliminal advertising 3
Subliminal advertising 3Subliminal Advertising
The United States ad industry consists of many agencies whose job it is to make sure that the American consumers buy their clients’ products. As many people get smart enough to look past the physical eye tricks the ads may play on them, the agencies have turned to subliminal messages to get their point across. From garbage bag advertisements to those for hard liquor, subliminal advertising almost always has an effect, usually without people even knowing it. If a company has the money, the time, and an attorney well versed in constitutional law, there is no reason why subliminal messages cannot appear in their advertisements.
Subliminal advertising is a technique for bypassing the conscious mind and putting a message in the subconscious mind. Subliminal advertising first became publicized in nineteen fifty seven when Jim Vicary flashed “drink Coca-Cola” and “eat popcorn” on a movie screen so that it could not be consciously seen, but subconsciously absorbed (Lechnar 3). Vicary reported an increase in the sale of popcorn and Coca-Cola as a result of his subliminal messages. He was later questioned about his results. He had no evidence of his findings and admitted his results were false. This example brought the public’s attention to the power that advertisers held over them.
To produce an effective advertisement, a company must invest a substantial amount of money to create a demand for their product. An ad agency can spend up to $50,000 to create a single, one page magazine layout or flyer containing subliminal messages, carefully reviewing it to attain perfection in every detail. Subliminal messages are an efficient way of creating that demand by swaying consumers to buy something they really do not need.
However, while subliminal messages are useful marketing tools, they have other uses as well. One such example is as a method of loss prevention. The elevator music you hear in Sears is not just there because the manager likes it. In nineteen seventy nine, about fifty department stores in the United states played music with subliminal anti-theft messages. The messages on the tapes were “I am honest. If I do steal, I will be caught and sent to jail” (Rogers 14). These sentences were replayed nine thousand times per hour. The results of these subliminal messages were remarkable. Theft was reduced by thirty-seven percent and one of the department stores saved half a million dollars by reducing shoplifters and employee theft (Rogers 15). Consumers do not object to this type of subliminal advertising because it helps prevent theft. The messages use key words which the human mind knows are wrong, even if a person’s personality would allow it..
Creating subliminal messages takes an incredible amount of time as well as capital. The same advertisements that cost up to $50,000 to produce, also require anywhere from three...
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