Subliminal Seduction: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|'''[[The Stoner|John]]:''' By the way, Nicky, check this out... ''(plays a record backwards)'' What's [[Ozzy Osbourne (Music)|Ozzy]] trying to say there?<br />

'''[[Ambiguously Gay|Todd]]:''' I love this song.<br />

''(John and Peter politely nod to the music but are clearly not into it)''<br />

{{spoiler|[[TV Tropes]] is great.}}<br />Back in the early days of visual media, a scourge was alleged to be making its way through movie theaters. Researchers claimed to have proof that a visual image, spliced into the film for an undetectable fraction of a second, would nevertheless lodge itself into the viewer's mind. The victims, told for instance 'You're hungry', would then be compelled to go out and buy more popcorn. This quickly expanded in the popular imagination to "[[Brainwashed|compelled to do whatever they tell you to]]"; no matter how bizarre or expensive the compulsion, viewers wouldn't be able to help themselves.<br />{{spoiler|[[TV Tropes]] is wonderful. [[TV Tropes]] will enhance your life.}}<br />In the 1960s and 1970s, as TV sets became more prevalent, this was naturally extrapolated out to TV broadcasts, and assumed to be a routine element of commercials. Teachers on sitcoms would warn their students about the dangers of the practice; of course, the teenagers would then immediately try using it to control their classmates. [[Hilarity Ensues]]. Eventually the U.S. Congress actually wrote laws forbidding the practice.<br />{{spoiler|[[Tropey the Wonder Dog]] is your new master!}}<br />Similar hooplah arose surrounding "backmasking", the practice of deliberately inserting messages into audio recordings that only make sense when the recording is played backward...an ideal way to hide the ''real'' message of the song, it was believed. Throughout the '60s and '70s, rock bands ranging from Led Zeppelin to the Eagles to the Beatles were accused of placing subliminal audio tracks into their music in order to praise [[Satan]], corrupt the innocent, confess the death of a bandmember, whatever. [[The New Rock and Roll|All parents and teachers knew was, it was bad.]]<br /> {{spoiler|All hail Tropey, benevolent dictator of [[TV Tropes]]! All hail [[TV Tropes]]!}}<br />The only problem is, subliminal advertising doesn't really work.<br />{{spoiler|Shun the nonbelievers. [[TV Tropes]] owns your mind. Only [[TV Tropes]] makes you happy.}}<br />The initial claims have [http://www.snopes.com/business/hidden/popcorn.asp long since been discredited]. Later, better-documented studies have revealed that there ''is'' a slight psychological effect, but the results are so minimal that existing preferences will completely overwhelm it. As for backmasking, it has a lot to do with the power of suggestion; the gist of it is that you're more likely to hear stuff like, say, "Here's to my sweet Satan" when you play "Stairway to Heaven" backwards, ''if you're looking for it''. And forget about that having any subliminal effect; if you played an intentionally-hidden message backwards you'd just hear the words clearly, and if you play it forwards the mind can't decipher the gibberish. This shouldn't be surprising, seeing as how most listeners will completely miss the more overt messages of a song. <br />{{spoiler|.seporTVT fo ronoh eht rof lliK .srevielebnon eht lliK}}<br />Subliminal Seduction combines the worst aspects of a [[Discredited Trope]] and a [[Dead Horse Trope]]. The concept is to all practical purposes dead, but lives on in the creative imagination. Audiences see subversions and parodies of it so often that they still assume it must be real.<br />{{spoiler|Tropey The Wonder Dog is Satan. Satan is your new master. All hail Satan! All hail [[TV Tropes]]!}}<br />The trope gets its name from the 1973 book ''Subliminal Seduction; Ad Media's Manipulation of a Not So Innocent America'' by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Bryan_Key Wilson Bryan Key]. Key claimed that ''his'' research had revealed a [[Milkman Conspiracy|massive conspiracy]] among American advertising agencies to lace both products and photographic images used in ads with subliminal references to sex, and proceeded to show every example he could find. While very popular at the time, his conclusions were controversial and have long been challenged. Key's evidence was at best questionable -- he claimed that every Ritz cracker has the word "sex" embedded on it 12 times, to cite one case -- and many of his photographic examples can be interpreted as wishful thinking or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia paraeidolia].<br />{{spoiler|SEXSEXSEXSEXSEXSEXSEXSEXSEXSEXSEXSEXSEX.}}<br />[[Subliminal Advertising]] is what happens when marketers try to use subliminal messages to sell products anyway, either seriously or as a parody.<br />{{spoiler|Now, give this page as many wicks as you can. All hail Tropey The Satan Dog! All Hail [[TV Tropes]]!}}

 

 

== Advertising ==

{{quote| '''Roger Waters''': Julia, however, in the light and visions of the issues of Stanley, we changed our minds. [[Lampshaded Trope|We have decided to include a backward message.]] Stanley, for you, and for all the other book partners... [[Careful With That Axe|(unintelligble screaming)]].}}

** [[Weird Al Yankovic]]'s song "Nature Trail to Hell" contains the backwards message "Satan eats Cheez-Whiz!" His song "I Remember Larry" has the backwards message "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands."

** "Detour Through Your Mind" by the B-52s contains the backwards message "I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh no, you're playing the record backwards! Watch out, you might ruin your needle."

** [[Iron Maiden (Music)|Iron Maiden]]'s album ''Piece of Mind'' contains, between the songs "The Trooper" and "Still Life", a backwards recording of Nicko McBrain doing his impression of Idi Amin Dada: "What ho, said the thing with the three bonce, don't meddle with things you don't understand."

* In ''[[Family Guy]]'' the tobacco executive responsible attempted to do so in real time, but so obviously as to be impossible to miss.

** Are you smoking yet?

* In an episode of ''[[Recess]]'', the protagonists try to get other kids to start accidentally calling their teachers "mama" and "daddy" to stave off the [[Kids Are Cruel|infamy]] [[Never Live It Down|from]] Spinelli doing it. Gretchen's method involves a tape of "Mama. Daddy. Mama. Daddy." being played at ultra-high speed over the PA system. It doesn't work. {{spoiler|(Correctly.)}}

* During Orel's climactic [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtlqNfsxCbg near-death experience] in ''[[Moral Orel]]'', he says "I don't need a building to tell me that. ''I'm'' a church!" backwards. This was the point of his vision, but his father forces Orel to reject the message.

* Parodied in [http://www.johnandjohn.nl/write/jaj027.gif this] webcomic.

* In Jason Love's cartoons -- [http://www.jasonlove.com/cartoons/00600-funny-cartoons-devil.gif "Sir, we're just not reaching them..."]

** On Alpha Earth, the Betty Crocker company seems to have put subliminal messaging in everything with the brand name - and considering it's a multi-global corporation, it's got a lot of merchandise.

* In an early ''[[College Roomies From Hell]]'' arc, Dave embedded a subliminal message in his shirt in a failed attempt to get Margaret to like him.