Subliminal Seduction: Difference between revisions

|''[[Little Nicky]]''}}

 

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 ==

* A recurring ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' character performed by Kevin Nealon in the 1980s featured a parody of this trope. "[[wikipedia:Mr. Subliminal#Mr. Subliminal|Mr. Subliminal]]", as the character came to be known, initially appeared as an advertising executive named Phil Maloney who would use subliminal cues and messages in his own speech to influence the people around him. Later Nealon would apply the device in his role as anchor on the "Weekend Update" segment, where he would lace his "official" editorials with ironic and often biting commentaries.

* Happened in one episode of ''[[Saved by the Bell]]'', when Zack put subliminal messages on audio tapes to cause Kelly to fall in love with him, and to end Mr. Belding's interfering with his scams. Of course, people heard the tapes who weren't supposed to, Zack's scheme is exposed, and [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* An episode of ''[[Eerie, Indiana]]'' plays with this; a young boy who is frequently put-down by his verbally abusive and overbearing father starts getting into a alt-rock band who are accused of putting subliminal messages into their music. When the kid's personality starts changing to be closer to that of his heroes - including standing up to his father - his father begins to become obsessed with the subliminal messages that are seemingly corrupting his son, leading to him storming into a music shop and playing one of their records backwards to prove it to the main characters. Much to his mortification and horror, however, what is heard when the album is played backwards is a repeating litany of his bullying and verbal cruelty to his son.

* The initial research model was the basis for a ''[[Columbo]]'' episode, in which a murderous film-maker lures his victim out into the lobby for a drink of water via strategic inserts. It's actually a really clever, well-done ep, considered among the best...once you overlook the teeny little hitch that its 'cutting-edge' science turned out to be totally made up.

* 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 ==

'''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.

 

* [[Bill Hicks]] - in ''Relentless (1992)'', [https://youtu.be/EOfFRDryVQM?t=3015 Bill acts out] the unlikely and illogical scenario in which [[Judas Priest]] want to kill their fans through subliminal-messaging.

 

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