Feb. 21, 2025, 5:09 a.m.
Under the Radar: The Truth About Subliminal Advertising
The Conspiracy Report
In today’s world we are bombarded more than ever before by visual messages.
Television, the internet, the various social media platforms are laden with images. All designed to get us to do something, buy something, or subscribe to a belief in something.
These images are far from subtle, (more often than not). And they either get noticed or intentionally ignored. In any event, they are noticed in a conscious process, and they may be ignored by a conscious process.
It is our decision to buy that online course that will make us a millionaire. It is our decision to ignore the fool that is pushing it harder than he’s pushing the view of his rented Lambo.
Where advertising tried to get sneaky — which arguably started more than 60 years ago — was when it tried to influence us unconsciously, or to use the term of art — subliminally.
The year was 1957, and the place was Mad Men central — Manhattan, New York.
A marketer, James Vicary, addressed reporters at a press conference, and told them a tale about popcorn and Coca Cola.
Vicary wasn’t at the meeting to sell either the snack, or the drink. He was there to discuss his supposedly groundbreaking method to get movie viewers to buy popcorn and Coca Cola, by flashing messages during a movie. The messages that were on screen for so short a time, the movie patrons wouldn’t consciously notice it.
But, claimed Vicary, those messages of “eat popcorn” and “drink Coke” would get the movie goers to shell out their shekels for — wait for it — popcorn and Coca Cola, without knowing why.
Thus was born subliminal advertising, and thus was born a widespread concern over the dangers of being able to influence the public without their knowing it — something the world of advertising and marketing had been doing in other ways since their conception.
Vicary, the father of subliminal advertising, claimed that his newfound manipulation tool for the masses, increased by popcorn sales by more than eighteen percent. It increased the sales of Coke, by more than fifty seven percent.[1]
Now, while that seems as testimony in support of the effectiveness of subliminal advertising, the testimony was false. The manager of the cinema in question told industry publications that there was no difference in sales, and in 1962, Vicary admitted that he fibbed the results.[2]
But subliminal advertising is not just limited to a quick flash during a film. Product placement in a film is also a form of this method of marketing. We see a James Bond film, and he’s drinking a particular beer or bottle of booze. He’s wearing a particular watch; he’s dressed in a particular suit.
That certainly can influence sales of those items, as the movie viewer wants to have his life shaken and not stirred by emulating his on-screen hero.
Marketers are aware of this, and pay beaucoup bucks to movie producers to get their products some screen time:
‘Product placement in movies and TV shows is considered a good marketing strategy for several reasons. It is a form of advertising that integrates seamlessly within a show, allowing bands to reach a large audience and generate positive feelings towards their products without overtly noticing the placement.’
The foregoing quote is from a marketing agency, C&I Studios, and they have clients like NBC, Sony, and Universal.[3]
As to the effectiveness of the not ‘overtly noticing the placement’, according to C&I, this method of subliminal advertising can increase brand awareness up to 43% when the product is made a part of the story. [4]
Think of the scene in Casino Royale, when Bond is on the train with Vesper, and she makes a comment about his watch, and asks if it’s a Rolex. He says, “Omega.”
That certainly had the jewelry shaken and stirred, because according to the publication, The Jewelry Editor, ‘Omega reported a 20-fold sales increase after the first James Bond watch went public.’[5]
Now, the reader could make the argument and observation that this was a specific and easily perceived push on Omega — Bond mentioned the brand. But, think about how many times in the various movies the brand name was not mentioned, and there was merely a quick ‘watch flex,’ in a scene.
So, subliminal messaging isn’t just a flash in the pan — or on the screen, but does that flash on the screen work anywhere near as well as a movie product placement can?
Apparently, no.
In a study conducted in 1975, researchers:
‘Took two sample groups and presented them with a movie on a slide projector. One of the sample groups, the movie was presented with Hershey’s Chocolate being subliminally embedded in the movie, while the other group had no subliminal messaging. The goal of the experiment was to see if the subjects who were involved in the subliminal message would purchase Hershey’s Chocolate after watching the movie. The results of the study were that neither the sample with the subliminal message nor the one without purchased the chocolate within 10 days of the study.’[6]
Research conducted in 2006 at the University of Utrecht, ‘suggested that subliminal advertising was only effective with products that people knew of and somewhat liked. The flashes made the brand name more "cognitively accessible", their theory went, so it wouldn't work with very high-profile brands – you couldn't make a brand like Coca-Cola much more familiar to people than it already is.’[7]
But we just don’t experience the world through our eyes, our ears play a part too, and those ears can be played with by a form of subliminal advertising.
While quick flashes on a film may not get us to drink Coke, it appears that ethnic music played in a liquor store can get the patrons to buy more wine from the country which has its music playing.
In fact, ‘research showed that liquor store patrons bought more German wine when German music was playing in the store and more Italian wine when Italian music was playing in the store. When asked what led them to choose the wine they chose very few patrons mentioned the music, implying that despite the fact they could hear the music most of them were unaware it was influencing their behavior.’ [8]
Why You Should Care
It’s no secret that mass media and mass marketing are seeking to influence our lives more and more every day. To be able to make a conscious choice — to say yea or nay with full awareness, is one thing.
To be subtly and subconsciously influenced to make a choice, without your intentional decision being made, is the road to the real world of 1984.
While subliminal advertising in its original form of flashes on a movie screen was ineffective, other methods of persuasion on the subconscious level may have an effect, causing us to make choices of products and/or politicians that we otherwise might not have made.
[1] BBC DOES SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING ACTUALLY WORK 1/20/15 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30878843
[2] IBID
[3] C&I STUDIOS, website https://c-istudios.com/is-product-placement-in-a-movie-tv-show-a-good-marketing-strategy/#:~:text=Product%20placements%20can%20significantly%20influence,brand%20awareness%20and%20potential%20sales.
[4] IBID
[6] How Embedded Subliminal Messaging Affects Consumer Behavior in Advertising, Boise state university department of marketing 4/26/24 https://www.boisestate.edu/cobe-marketing/2024/04/26/how-embedded-subliminal-messaging-affects-consumer-behavior-in-advertising/
[7] DOES SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING REALLY WORK, BBC 1/20/15 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30878843
[8] ZIMMERMAN, Subliminal Ads, Unconscious Influence, and Consumption 6/9/14 PSYCHOLOGY TODAY https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sold/201406/subliminal-ads-unconscious-influence-and-consumption