Subliminal Ads
A collective term for public announcements
designed to promote the sale of
specific commodities or services while being
integrated below the threshold of
perception or awareness. To sell products,
merchants consciously use subliminal
advertising as a basis for general
consumerism. This seems like an unnecessary
task, but when taken into
consideration all the people, who have expressed their
disbelief in its
effectiveness, it is obvious to see how vital and necessary
such a task
commands. Through this, corporations must take on new strategies and
methods
of persuasion and justification. The importance is that advertisers rely
on a
trust relationship with consumers in order to successfully subliminally
sell
products. In other words, those who don't believe in subliminal
advertising,
are its likely victims. The effect of subliminal advertising on
the
individual and the culture has been influenced and promoted by many
different
elements. Let it be magazines, newspapers or radio; but the most
prominent in
this field is television. Television advertising influences the
choices we make,
perhaps more so than anyone cares to believe. It may not be
so obvious, but even
teachers face competition with advertising. Television
stations, for example,
have some four billion dollars a year from industry to
spend on programming for
the same students that teacher`s face. Nicholas
Johnson, a former Federal
Communications Commission Commissioner from
1966 to 1973 writes that television
is diametrically opposed to almost
everything a teacher tries to do: TV tells
them that the only thing necessary
to give them all the joys in life and the
values that are important is the
acquisition of yet another product. TV is
telling them to sit still and don't
think. TV is telling them that they are to
be treated as a mass. He writes
that it is extremely important to understand
this force in our society if a
teacher is to deal with it. He writes the most
important thing to know is
that advertising is a business. Johnson continues: It
is the business of
selling. But what it is in the business of selling is you and
your students.
You are the product being sold. Who are you being sold to? You're
being sold
to an advertiser. It is the advertiser who is the consumer in this
equation.
The advertiser is buying you. The advertiser is buying you from
the
broadcaster. And why the advertiser is buying you is because he wants you
to
look at his message; his billboard, his magazine ad, and in this instance,
his
TV commercial. But in any study of advertising and advertising
effects it is
difficult to agree on what are clearly examples of advertising
and what are
clearly not. This is more difficult to do than it seems.
Television is an
excellent example of why this is so difficult in their
attempt to influence
purchasing decisions. He writes that the sole purpose of
the television programs
between the commercials is to act as an attention
getting device. The scripts
are written to build tension before the
commercial to hold the viewer's
attention during the commercial. He writes
that once they have that attention,
... what is the advertiser trying to sell
you? Products? No. He's trying to sell
you a religion. What is it? It's the
philosophy known as materialism. If you
watch television closely, you'll see
that there's no real difference between the
programs and the commercials.
Indeed, if you turn on a television set you often
can't tell what it is that
you've just turned on. Is it a commercial or a
program? Suppose you tune into
a Hawaiian beach scene. All right, there's a big
hotel in the background and
palm trees and there's this brand new car on the
beach and this couple
strolling across the beach. Now you don't know whether
that's going to turn
out to be a scene of one of these cops-and-robbers programs
or whether it's a
commercial. It is even more important to note, however, that
you don't know
what it's going to be a commercial for. That's because every
commercial is a
commercial for all products. Most of us are aware of the huge
amount of
sophisticated research generated by the advertising industry to refine
its
persuasion techniques. We even feel comfortable admidst
our
advertisement-plagued society. Although subliminal advertising may be
effective,
the most difficult factor is relaying the message to possible
consumers. Such
advertising techniques include flash messaging, buzz words,
celebrity
endorsements, emotion targeting, fear and the oh-so common
bandwagon method.
Flash messaging is a common technique where a viewer is
influenced by quick
images and messages for a very short period of time. The
subconscious registers
this almost like it never occurred. All of this is
pleasing to the eye; flashy
colour, or a picture with a sexual innuendo.
Another factor would be KISS (Keep
It Sweet & Simple). All of these
affect the success of the ad and the final
result for the product at hand. A
more cunning way to influence the buyer is to
target your emotions. To
question yourself is most successful for an advertiser.
Although seeing
sick hungry children living in a run down village in some 3rd
world country
may lead to your donating money, there are some ethics involved in
purposely
tampering with one`s emotions. Through all of this, this method of
persuasion
is most effective. A technique usually described as using buzz words
is found
more in prints than on television or radio. If we are scrolling through
a
newspaper and we see an exciting flashy word, our eyes tend to draw
towards
it. Companies are entirely aware of this, so that is why they flash
words on
their ads like, "FREE," "NEW," "HURRY." Something
about these
words makes the reader want to see what the fuss is all about, and
to read
the company's ad. Not always will there be "buzz words"
embedded into the ad
that look flashy. They may not have any significant
meaning, but they are
added in and seem successful in relaying the message.
Words like,
homemade, improved, 100%, tasty, and the list goes on Endorsements
by
celebrities have through the years lost their edge and have mostly
looked
down upon the endorser. Michael Jordan is selling you Gatorade, Jerry
Seinfeld
is backing up American Express, and Paul Reiser wants you to use
AT&T. The
purpose is to subliminally give the product traits that it
never even deserves,
like wealth, fame, and success. When Michael Jordan is
seen drinking Gatorade
and then going for a 360-slam dunk, the company wants
you to think that you as
well are capable of the same feats. Besides the less
obvious, there is simply
the fact that a company wants a famous celebrity to
present a product, rather
than some common person. "Everybody else is doing
it, so why aren't
you?" Using the bandwagon technique for many already
established
corporations has been quite successful. Companies that have
already achieved
marvelous success will start using advertisements,
suggesting it is second
nature to buy the product. As if it had such a high
demand rate that without it,
life would be dysfunctional. For instance, the
new saying from McDonald's is,
"Did somebody say McDonald's?¦ There is so
much behind that quote
than what it actually says. It gives you the idea that
they are the best, the
tastiest, and the most popular, without really even
telling you without being up
front about it. McDonald's knows that they are
successful, so they do not need
some cheap gimmick to sell their food, all
they have to do is be there, and the
people will flock. The Fear technique,
where they inform the consumer that not
purchasing a certain product will be
disastrous on your own self. This technique
targets the most primitive
emotion; fear. Mostly used on people that are
uncomfortable with their self,
insecure and believe that they need some personal
improving. The most known
method would be the BEFORE/AFTER scene, where there is
a comparison between
an obviously terrible picture and a beautified picture. As
Nicholas
Johnson indicated, TV sells the great religion known as materialism
(p.157).
In the media, product acquisition and consumption equate to good
health,
success, exultation, enchantment, moral righteousness, ethical
certainty,
trust, faith, superiority, coolness, freedom, liberty,
self-esteem,
confidence, democracy, etc; quite simply, the most any human
could ever hope to
attain and more. And ownership is only part of the
equation˜consumption of
the product counts more; and, the acquisition of the
product counts even more
manifestly. In fact, to attain an even greater sense
of good health, success,
high standards, moral righteousness, ethical
certainty, coolness, self-esteem,
confidence, fulfillment, meaning, and
absolute purposefulness in life. A person
needs only to borrow the money or
charge the purchase+ The subliminal
advertising effect is probably the most
difficult aspect of any study of
advertising. The extent of this influence
probably cannot be measured. Many
components can be analyzed to discover
possible effects on human attitudes and
behavior, but none can be for
certain. We need to divide the concept advertising
into small parts or
components in order to analyze that effect. Possible narrow
components
include: non-verbal communication by models in television
commercials, speech
tones and its effect in radio commercials, or subliminal
words and/or symbols
in magazine advertisements Our way of life involves a lot
more than anyone
wants to believe. The need for developing individual awareness
of the power
of advertising is increasing, but it seems that what we consciously
perceive
of our world is constantly decreasing. The brain has to sort through
the
overwhelming amount of sensory input data and consciously acknowledge
only
what it deems important or necessary for our immediate survival.
Oftentimes our
defense mechanisms even keep us from consciously acknowledging
data that is
necessary for our survival such as piercing through to the
message conveyed in
subliminal advertising. Even as we are aware of the
nature of perceiving,
subliminal symbols and/or words in magazine
advertisements are difficult to
recognize when first attempted. Wilson Key
has written, "As a culture,
North America might well be described as one
enormous, complex, magnificent,
self-service, subliminal massage parlor." In
short, the effect that
advertising (whatever this concept might include) has
on human buying attitudes
and behavior is of almost incomprehensible
complexity.