Subliminal Seduction: Difference between revisions

''(Nicky plays the record in reverse)''

'''Demonic Voice:''' '''''{{smallcaps|I command you in the name of Lucifer to spread the blood of the innocent!}}'''''

 

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/>

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/>

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/>

The only problem is, subliminal advertising doesn't really work.<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/>

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/>

The trope gets its name from the 1973 book ''Subliminal Seduction; Ad Media's Manipulation of a Not So Innocent America'' by [[wikipedia: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 {{w|Pareidolia}}.<br/>

[[Subliminal Advertising]] is what happens when marketers try to use subliminal messages to sell products anyway, either seriously or as a parody.<br/>

 

{{examples}}

** Justified, though, since she is triggered by a code which she has already been programmed to respond to. She didn't just see 'kill kill kill' flash up on the screen for a second, and decide, hey, I really don't like the people in this bar . . .

* In ''[[Memento]]'', {{spoiler|after his wife's death, Sammy is shown sitting in a mental institution. Briefly, just after someone walks in front of him and before the scene cuts back to Leonard on phone, Sammy's character is actually replaced by Leonard sitting in the same chair.}}

 

== Literature ==

* In Aldous Huxley's ''[[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]]'', children are fed subliminal messages during sleep that are meant to reconcile them to their social class. Beta children, for instance, are fed messages like "I'm so glad I'm a Beta. Being an Alpha would be ever so hard, and I'm not stupid like a Gamma or a Delta."

* [[Dean Koontz]]'s horror novel ''Night Chills'' has the villains testing their subliminal-message technology on a small isolated town.

* In the ''[[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy]]'', Wobbler claims that if you play [[Cliff Richard]] records backwards there are messages like "Stay in school!" and "It's cool to go to church!"

* The "Fnords" from ''[[The Illuminatus Trilogy]]''.

* In ''[[Artemis Fowl]]: The Lost Colony'', Artemis persuades his opponent to choose [[wikipedia:Taipei 101|Taipei 101]] as a meeting place by dropping words into the conversation. That it actually works seems like a far-fetched [[Xanatos Roulette]], except that the man is already intimately familiar with the location and calls it "his second home".

{{quote|'''Artemis''': I'm going to be wearing a burgundy ''tie''. ''Pay'' attention to that. There are ''a hundred and one'' ways this could go wrong.}}

 

== Live Action TV ==

* In an episode of ''[[Hustle]]'', the gang have a lorry of empty crates, which they're selling as crates of smuggled cigarettes. One of the crates really contains cigarettes, and has a distinctive logo on it. Apparently, arranging things so that [[The Mark]] continually sees this logo out of the corner of his eye while driving to the meeting subliminally conditions him to choose that crate to check.

** In another episode they use a variation on this. Across a period of time, the crew basically stalk the mark while using items (such as coffee cups, newspapers and so on) plastered with a logo for a fake venture they want him to take interest in. When combined with some overheard conversations it works remarkably well.

 

== Music ==

* The end of the title track of the first [[Overkill (band)|Overkill]] album, on original pressings, has the message "There's no message here, you're going to ruin your needle, asshole!"

* Semi-similarly, the end of Vicious Rumors' album "Digital Dictator" contains a very obvious backwards message which reverses to play "Be nice to your mom and dad. Don't abuse. Don't blow your brains out on drugs. Rock your brains out. By the way, you're ruining your needle."

* [[Five Iron Frenzy]]:

** They mentioned backmasking in "So Far, So Bad". The song describes the band's fictional [[Magnum Opus]] (which we'll never hear because [[The Man]] is suppressing it), and among its other features, "If you ever tried to play it backwards, it told the kids to stay in school."

* "What Can't Be Seen" by [[Everything Else]] features the first verse played backwards during the solo.

* Missy Elliot's 'Work It' did this, too, obviously only for artistic effect. In the chorus, it goes "I put my thing down, flip it, and reverse it", and then the next line is that line reversed.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

'''Smashie''': "Maybe you should play it at the right speed, mate." }}

* Parodied in a ''[[Bob and Ray|Bob & Ray]]'' skit as far back as 1960: An enterprising ad man ''thinks'' hard into the microphone while the B&R show is on the air and asks listeners to call in if they received any messages. One guy does call in to say that he's getting a message to come for dinner... which turns out to be from his very impatient wife.

 

== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==

== Video Games ==

* The theme songs to ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' and its sequel are both supposed to have backwards messages, but only the second song, "Sanctuary", does it intentionally. The lyrics say "I need more affection than you know, I need true emotions, I need more affection than you know, so many ups and downs." The reference, at least, to "true emotions" probably refers to [[Pinocchio Syndrome|the antagonists of the game.]]

* Play the demonic gurgles made by the final boss of ''[[Doom]] II'' backwards and you'll hear "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero." The part of the boss that must be hit to kill it is John's head on a stake as can be seen with the no clipping cheat.

* Similary, the ghosts of ''[[Thief]]'' speak like this. The backmasked words are bits of Victoria's speech in {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|a cinematic where one of the hero's eyes is forcibly removed.]]}}

* ''[[Wario Ware]] Touched!'' is famous for containing a (supposed) subliminal message. Selecting gothic character Ashley's theme in the jukebox and running the record faster than normal distorts the words, which supposedly forms phrases like "I have granted kids to hell" and "I work in a kitchen". Both are probably coincidence.

** A [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ0mYWpnPFw backwards message video] for Ashley's theme he saw that interpreted one part as "Ear! Shut up!"

* The Nightmares in the [[Milkman Conspiracy]] level in ''[[Psychonauts]]'' sometimes shout things that sound like gibberish while you're battling them. In reality, they're actually saying things like "Death, I'll get you" backwards, possibly to play with the whole conspiracy theme of the level. (The Nightmares that appear in other minds {{spoiler|Like Milla's}} speak normally)

** This is also how they got the Elite language in the first game (which is pretty much the only appearance of said language before the humans developed [[Translator Microbes]]). The Elites' phrases are Johnson's phrases played backwards. For example, the famous "Wort wort wort" said by the Elites is "Go go go" played backwards and a couple octaves lower in pitch.

* ''[[Half Life]] 2'': [[Nightmare Fuel|If you play the noises that the headcrab zombies make backwards, you can hear muffled voices screaming "Oh God" and "Help me".]]

* The irritating squawk made by the Doozers from ''[[Creatures]] 2'' turns into a crowd shouting "HELL NO WE WON'T GO!" when played backwards and slowed down. The voices are employees from Creatures Labs.

* Fiddle around on the menu screen of ''[[Manhunt]]'' after beating it on the hardest difficulty and a voice says something backwards. Turned around, the voice says, "Daddy didn't see what would happen if she left me. Mommy would've cared, but she was never there." Then the voice recites a series of buttons. Input that sequence in reverse and you get [[God Mode]].

** And of course, ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' had you playing certain songs backwards to do different things (the Song of Time Reversed slows down the progression of time by half).

* Not-so-subliminal: In ''[[Deus Ex]]'', in the VersaLife offices on the Hong Kong level, over the programmers heads are screens that repeatedly flash single words in black and white, such as, "OBEY", "TRUST", and "LOYALTY."

* In ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]] 5'', the [[Meaningful Name|Des Rever]] Records corporation places literally seductive backmasked messages in their recordings, which you can actually hear in-game if you play the golden record in their headquarters backwards.

* In the 1996 Point-and Click "[[The Neverhood]]" soundtrack, there is a song called "Sound Effects Record #33", in which the first sound effect is "Man Facing Backwards in the Shower Whilst Singing". The sound is merely backmasked gibberish.

 

== Western Animation ==

* When ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]'' and his family form a rock group, Chuckles uses this to turn their listeners into a zombie army.

* ''[[Clone High]]'' has JFK fall through the roof of the school and begin gurgling on the ground. The bump before the commercial is played backwards. When the whole scene is played backwards, the gurgling Kennedy urges the audience to nominate ''Clone High'' for an Emmy.

** Also, the original ending credits sequence for the show had a backwards message near the end, which turns out to be creator Maxwell Atoms saying "No, no, this is the ''end'' of the show. You're watching it backwards!"

* In the middle of the [[Non Sequitur Scene|BLAM-ish]] hallucination sequence in ''[[Beavis and Butthead]] Do America'', Beavis briefly starts talking backwards. When reversed, it turns out he's actually saying "I recommend that everyone go to college and study hard".

* An episode of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' revolves around an instrumental written by [[Evil Diva|Ember McLain]] that, when played backwards, contains the message "Leave your kids. Come to the cruise" and is used in a mind control plot.

* Apparently, Amon in ''The Legend of Korra'' is hiding [http://you-are-bolin.tumblr.com/post/23200693911/amons-revelation-speech-has-a-hidden-message-a a rather interesting phrase] in his Revelation speech. Subliminal messages tie in perfectly with his character.

 

== Web Comics ==

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

* [[Sluggy Freelance|Hamster NOM]], an online game forces players who play it to become addicted to it. Then the programmer who made it hacks the game and starts a zombie apocalypse to get back at the company that stole the code from him. Fortunately, only animals are zombie-fied. Unfortunately, the main cast has a whole host of animals in their house, and they're ALL playing Hamster NOM.

 

== Web Original ==

* Little Kuriboh throws in a message in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yugioh: The Abridged Movie]]''. During Yugi's "thinly veiled foreshadowing" dream, where Yami and Kaiba duel, Yami loses, and Kaiba is attacked by a gibberish-spouting Anubis, the gibberish, played backwards..."Watch [[Naruto the Abridged Series]]!"

** In the [[Clip Show]] episode, Rebecca's teddy bear also spouts a backwards message. It says {{spoiler|"You have too much time on your hands"}}

** Yahtzee does this a lot though, half his episodes have 'blink-and-you-miss-it' frames saying something or other.

** The specific image in the [[50 Cent]] game review is of Yahtzee with his arm around a black guy, with the message "not racist." pointing at Yahtzee with an arrow.

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{{reflist}}