Video, sound and images have seen drastic increases in their resolution, quality, and depth in the last decade. Fueled by the improvements of both software and processing power, all forms of media have embraced the digital revolution. Music albums are now exclusively produced on a computer, magazine images are retouched by computer, and every minute of television has been enhanced with computer graphics and animations. The internet by its very nature exists in this digitized form giving anyone the ability to alter and modify to their will.

There has been a dark side to these improvements; covert psychological techniques are now being on a regular basis. It should come as no surprise that even the major media networks have their works inundated with subliminal messages designed to motivate you as a consumer, influence your voting, and keep you in-line with the masses.

What Are Subliminal Messages?

Subliminal messages are images and sounds embedded within a medium that eludes normal perception. A person will not consciously realize they have been shown a subliminal message, however the hidden messages will influence the brain subconsciously and can alter behavior.

Subliminal Sound

The mainstream beliefs about subliminal sound involve backmasking and other types of voice distortion. Backmasking is when a person records a spoken phrase and then plays it in reverse as part of the music. Unfortunately, there is little to no evidence that these techniques actually work. The human brain does not have the ability to flip sound around, nor can it interpret sounds that are played at a decibel too quiet to hear.

The covert messages in sound are usually in the form of audible speech patterns. A good hypnotist can influence by using specific words and by emphasizing certain parts of their speech. A master salesman will use things like presuppositions and embedded commands to make you more likely to buy. Non-verbal sounds include background noise and music that can alter your behavior. None of these techniques, however, are considered “subliminal,” because all of them can be clearly heard and consciously pointed out.

While I’m not going to say that subliminal messages in sound are impossible, I will say that I seriously doubt the current claims to its effectiveness. There are no professional studies that I can’t cite, and I’m yet to see any substantive “double-blind” evidence.

Subliminal Print Ads

Visual subliminal messages are a different story. The most pointed out of subliminal messages can be found in pictures and images. In this form of media the original images are carefully altered to include the hidden images or words.

Here is a nice video showing off print ads with subliminal images in them.

Subliminal Video

There has been controversy surrounding the effectiveness of subliminal video images. The blog Choking On Popcorn has a nice summary of how the controversy started:

“The most famous story about subliminal manipulation is that of the infamous experiment held in 1957 at a movie theatre in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Here it was believed that ultra-fast editing of images of popcorn and Coke throughout the movie would lead to a significant increase in refreshment sales during the intermission. This experiment caused such a stir, that subliminal messages were outlawed and deemed unethical. However, it soon appeared to be a hoax and the experimenter James Vicary admitted that he had been tampering with the results.”

The original experiment was a hoax, but psychologists have been studying whether or not subliminal images flashed in video can influence behavior. It has been shown that subliminal messages can indeed have an effect on behavior, but not in the way that Vicary believed. Subliminal messages are only effective when it comes to establishing familiarity and creating associations.

Subliminal messages work because of the phenomenon of priming. “Priming (from Wikipedia) in psychology refers to activating parts of particular representations or associations in memory just before carrying out an action or task.” Once you have been primed with an image, your memory will tend to recall other things your brain has associated with it when you are shown that image again.

I hope I haven’t gotten too technical, but to put simply:

Subliminal messages are not effective at getting you to purchase soda, but if you already intend to buy soda they are good at helping you choose Pepsi over Coke.

A paper from the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology explains this in much more detail: Beyond Vicary’s fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice (HTML version).

Darren Brown does a good job of explaining this and then uses the technique to influence some advertisers… Pretty cool stuff.

Subliminal Advertising and Politics

Earlier this month I posted about subliminal messages on Fox News. In a video clip, a viewer caught the news channel inserting images of John McCain during the broadcast. Here is the video again:

While many readers quickly dismissed this as “paranoia” and “conspiracy theory,” I’m going to look at this in the context of subliminal advertising and priming… I would argue that this image may not get people to go out and vote for this candidate, but if someone already intends to vote it will influence which candidate that they vote for…

Other Subliminal Messages

The movie Fight Club was filled with subliminal messages, here is a video clip that shows when they were used.

Here is a McDonalds Ad in the Middle of the Show Iron Chef.

Fast food Carl’s Jr. does the same thing on the show Beauty and the Geek.

Make This Information Mainstream

Subliminal messages are a very real thing. The general public needs to be aware and corporations/individuals need to be held accountable for these deceptive practices. Hopefully this has opened up your eyes.