On the whole, advertising may be the most carefully constructed of all human communication; it is certainly the most expensive. The press likes to comment on the cost of motion picture and television production, but common sense (as well as research) tells us that advertising costs more to produce. After all, in our culture it supports entertainment production and presentation. Second for second, the cost to produce an ad is more than that to produce a feature film or TV show. Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising when we find that more care (and consequently more cost) is devoted to the minute details in an ad than to those in either a TV episode or a feature film.
Like most people, advertisers sometimes like to discuss their work. Reading the descriptions some have given of how particular ads and campaigns were created(caveat: before using this article with your students, review it for age-appropriate language and ideas - a good idea in general, but especially for links in this section of the site), we see that every component of an ad is carefully constructed and placed, sometimes deceptively so. So before automatically rejecting a subliminal explanation for the presence of something, try to find a better one to explain its appearance.
I've titled this section Sex and Death Among the Ice Cubes because it is based in large part on my reading of the work of Wilson Bryan Key. While I do not believe that attempts at subliminal manipulation are as common as Key asserts, I find the contents of a small number of ads impossible to explain reasonably in any other way.
Key singles out ice cubes because, as something most of us rarely attend to consciously, they make perfect objects for subliminal tinkering. As a psychologist, researcher and former advertiser, Key knew that photographers take large numbers of photos in order to give ad agencies and producers the selections they need to get just what they want in a particular ad. Doing this takes time. Since ice melts over time, especially under the heat generated by the lamps used to light photographers' sets, advertisers prefer to use substitutes of one sort or another. Thus, what appears to be ice in an ad is either some sort of plastic prop, or is artistically added to the photograph (or enhanced in it) after the shutter snaps.
Sex and Death are topics of universal human interest. In western culture they are also taboo. I'm certain that many of you will think about contemporary entertainment, then question my sanity for choosing to write the last sentence. Nonetheless, I stand by it. The gratuitous sex and violence on display in print, film and television correlates to human experience almost as much as the appearance of models in ads correlates to the appearance of the average man or woman on the street; which is to say close to zero. We are usually encouraged to repress our questions and fears about both sex and death, often to the detriment of our mental health and personal relationships. Key asserts that advertisers know this, and use it to manipulate us subconsciously.
Here is how I summarize the argument Key makes in his books. Please be aware that I do not have the educational or vocational background to either refute or support it. I find it useful in understanding the ads linked below because I can explain what I see in them in no other way.
- Human minds instantaneously perceive all information transmitted through our senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste).
- The conscious mind filters out those things with which it is unable to deal (either psychologically or because of the sheer volume of sensory experience), and constructs an acceptable and meaningful mental image from those stimuli made conscious.
- The remaining sensory inputs are stored (at least for a time) in the unconscious, where they can effect conscious behavior.
- Advertisers have found that subliminal messages in advertising can motivate purchases.
- Ads are designed to transmit their information in a fraction of a second (i.e. the time it takes to turn a page). If an individual stops to read an ad, that is a plus.
- Advertisers realize that any given ad will only motivate a small percentage of people exposed to it to make a purchase, so ads are targeted at audiences most likely to be receptive to their messages. Thus we have a market research industry. If an ad can bring in $20 in sales for each dollar it costs, it is considered to have broken even.
- Beyond marketing effects, advertisers have not explored the effects of subliminal messages. Furthermore, they do not know how or why they work.
- Research along these lines may have been done in the private sector; but, if so, it is considered proprietary and has been kept secret or destroyed. Indeed, the federal government may also have commissioned such research in connection with the use of subliminal embeds on currency. If so, that has also been suppressed.
- Public (i.e. university) research in these areas is almost non-existent as funding has been nearly impossible to secure.
- Key posits that subliminal ads work by connecting repressed needs and fears with a product. When the unconscious feels the need or fear, the conscious perceives the need for the product, or becomes aware of the product. Since Americans (indeed most of those from western culture) are taught from infancy to repress questions and thoughts about sex and death, they make the best subjects for subliminal ad messages. While invisible to the vast majority of Americans (and others from western cultures), people from cultures that deal openly with sex and death have no trouble seeing such messages.
- By playing on people's repressed fears and needs, subliminal advertising may be a contributing factor to many personal and social problems -drug abuse, suicide, insanity, unmarried pregnancy, VD, the breakup of the family, violent crime, etc.
- Key reports showing an ad containing subliminal castration imagery to a group of college students. He claims that a high percentage of the men reported feeling fear after viewing it, without knowing why. Women had no such reaction.
- Subliminal techniques are used in all media.
- Print ads are the easiest to study.
- Broadcast subliminals are impossible to locate without sophisticated equipment (remember that Key wrote in the 1970s, the necessary equipment may now be cheaper and more common). Indeed, since the techniques are constantly changing, it is often difficult to know what to look for even if one has the proper equipment.
The Ads
If they are present, subliminal messages in ads are either symbolic (plainly visible, but with a meaning that producers believe from testing and research will be psychologically repressed by the target audience) or embedded (hidden from conscious perception artistically). Embeds are the most controversial, the most expensive to create (requiring expensive talent and technology), and (from my observation) the least common.
If you choose to use one or more of these ads with your students, you might want to make copies for distribution (clicking an ad image on any analysis page I've created will open that image in a separate browser window from which you can use your browser's print command to print it). If you want, begin by adapting the activity outlined in What's Wrong with this Picture?, substituting one of the ads below for the album cover image. Use it as an introduction before presenting anything about subliminal techniques or theory. You can then proceed to use additional ads where you'll ask your students to complete a blank analysis questionaire prior to a group discussion.
Click on an image to open the page containing the analysis I have prepared for it.
Before clicking, try to identify one or more messages on your own. The process that works best for me is to not focus on searching, but to let my mind go blank while looking at the image. After a few moments, something often "jumps out". I assume that by actively searching for meaning, my conscious mind is working to block whatever I've learned to repress. Looking without seeking allows otherwise subconscious thoughts to find a way into consciousness. I've used these ads in slide presentations to many groups over the years (secondary classes, teacher conferences and in-service days, etc.), and I can remember no one being able to identify a subliminal until after I'd gone through an example and explained this process. I will say that once people see them, they don't forget them, unless of course they are among the group that finds this all a bunch of hogwash.
All of these ads ran in magazines in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Where I noted the source at the time I clipped an ad, I have provided it below.
Symbolic messages
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