Subliminal Advertising: Difference between revisions

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== [[Film]] ==

* A Lee Majors Film, ''[[~~The Agency (TV)|~~The Agency]]'' about an ad agency which was running ads for a politician that showed that his competitor for the election had some undesirable quality, like being spawn of the devil or some such equivalent, while their candidate was patriotic and 100% American. This supposedly caused people to vote against the disfavored candidate The ads were run as part of fraction of a second subliminal ads during an unrelated product, like deodorant. This movie pointed out that subliminal ads, despite opinion to the contrary, are not illegal.

* A Lee Majors Film, ''[[The Agency]]'' about an ad agency which was running ads for a politician that showed that his competitor for the election had some undesirable quality, like being spawn of the devil or some such equivalent, while their candidate was patriotic and 100% American. This supposedly caused people to vote against the disfavored candidate The ads were run as part of fraction of a second subliminal ads during an unrelated product, like deodorant. This movie pointed out that subliminal ads, despite opinion to the contrary, are not illegal.

* The ''[[Josie and ~~The~~ Pussycats (~~Film~~)|Josie and The Pussycats]]'' film revolved around the recording industry hiding subliminal advertising in pop music. The film itself even had at least one:

* The ''[[Josie and the Pussycats (film)|Josie and The Pussycats]]'' film revolved around the recording industry hiding subliminal advertising in pop music. The film itself even had at least one:

{{quote| ''Josie and the Pussycats'' is the Best Movie Ever! Join The Army.}}

* One of the ways the aliens in ''[[~~They Live (Film)|~~They Live]]'' control humanity. You can only truly see what it says by wearing special glasses or contact lenses.

* One of the ways the aliens in ''[[They Live]]'' control humanity. You can only truly see what it says by wearing special glasses or contact lenses.

== [[Literature]] ==

* In ''[[Discworld ~~(Literature)~~/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'', CMOT Dibbler, with the skewed but determined logic that characterises the [[Discworld]], reasons that if a single picture you don't even see can make people want to buy something, five solid minutes of it must be even more effective.

* In ''[[Discworld/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'', CMOT Dibbler, with the skewed but determined logic that characterises the [[Discworld]], reasons that if a single picture you don't even see can make people want to buy something, five solid minutes of it must be even more effective.

== [[Live Action Television]] ==

* The 1960s TV show ''[[Hazel]]'' did one about some guys that supposedly created irresistable subliminal ads, in which they ran a film where 'SP' would appear briefly, and the guy speaking to the crowd (who was selling some stock for a company called 'Brazilian') because, at the end of the message, would say, "And Buy Brazilian". So one guy who didn't know he was being marketed to for a stock, was buying Brazilian Nuts. The guys doing this get arrested for it. Which brings us to...

* A [[Fake Commercial]] for the Psi Corps in ''[[~~Babylon Five|~~Babylon 5]]'' famously ends with a subliminal message: "The Psi Corps is your friend. Trust the Corps."

* A [[Fake Commercial]] for the Psi Corps in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' famously ends with a subliminal message: "The Psi Corps is your friend. Trust the Corps."

* ''[[Firefly|Serenity]]''. Inverted in that the subliminal message is not an ad in itself, just imbedded within one - the "instructions" for River to go into [[Waif Fu]] mode are implanted in a Fruity Oaty Bars commercial.

** Also contains elements of [[Hypno Fool]].

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* The [[Real Life]] example that created this trope: In 1957, a market researcher named James Vicary (who later [[Trope Namer|coined the term]] "subliminal advertising") performed an experiment at a movie theater in New Jersey. The words "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry? Eat popcorn" would be flashed on the screen for 1/3000 of a second at five second intervals. Vicary alleged that sales of Coca-Cola and popcorn increased at that theater by 57.8% and 18.1%, respectively. Although the results have never been replicated, and Vicary himself later admitted to faking his results, conspiracy theories pertaining to subliminal messages persist to this day, and have inspired countless writers and filmmakers.

** So instead of subliminal advertising it is ''subliminal scaring'' in horror movies. As a scene is supposed to become more frightening, more gruesome frames are added for more ''frightening'' scenes (such as [[Cat Scare|unnerving a deadly animal]]) for the serial killer breaking in, they instead use animals being slaughtered instead.

** Some studies have indicated that while such explicit instructions are generally ineffective, images such as those mentioned above ''actually'' work. So instead of saying "Drink Coca-Cola", they would just 'splice in' some subliminal images of a 'desert mirage' or ''other'' thirst-inducing imagery into an actual Coke commercial. Suddenly their audience find themselves feeling very thirsty as they [[Meat O Vision|look at that bottle]]...

** Some studies have indicated that while such explicit instructions are generally ineffective, images such as those mentioned above ''actually'' work. So instead of saying "Drink Coca-Cola", they would just 'splice in' some subliminal images of a 'desert mirage' or ''other'' thirst-inducing imagery into an actual Coke commercial. Suddenly their audience find themselves feeling very thirsty as they [[Meat-O-Vision|look at that bottle]]...

* In 1958, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation made an experiment with subliminal advertising: during a popular show called ''Close-up'', they broadcast the message "Phone now" 352 times. Nobody called. When asked to guess the message, viewers sent close to 500 letters, but none of them had the right answer.

* In 1978, a TV station in Wichita, Kansas ran a subliminal message telling the BTK killer to turn himself in. It didn't work.