Subliminal Messages :: essays research papers

Subliminal Messages in Advertising The Case Forand Against Lisa Caswell Syracuse UniversityRunning brainiac Subliminal Messages Subliminalmessaging and subliminal perception becontroversial topics in the field of psychology.Many studies have been conducted to determine ifsubliminal messaging does in fact work. Manypeople think that subliminal messages in the field ofadvertising are much more successful thansubliminal messages for self-improvement, such astapes sold to help the consumer lose weight, gainintelligence, or do something else to improvethemselves simply by listening to a tape. Subliminaladvertising can be defined as "embedding materialin print, audio, or video messages so faintly thatthey are not consciously perceived." Rogers andSmith (1993) surveyed 400 households. Whenasked if they believed advertisers deliberatelyinclude subliminal messages, 61.5% respondedyes. A 72.2% yes answer was obtained whenasked if subliminal advertisements were effective.Based on the se results, it can be concluded thatconsumers are aware of subliminal advertising, andbelieve it is effectively employ by advertisers toinfluence their decisions. The term "sub-thresholdeffects," first popularized by Packard in 1957,preceded the popular popular opinion of "subliminaladvertising," whose originator is James Vicary.Subliminal advertising first came to the publics assistance in 1957 when Jim Vicary conducted asubliminal advertising strategy of interspersing"drink Coca-Cola" and "eat popcorn" messageson a movie screen so quickly that they could notbe seen consciously by the audience. His researchinitially reported increases in the sales of bothCoca-Cola and popcorn as a result of thesubliminal messages. Later, however, when hewas challenged and could not replicate or flushproduce the results, Vicary admitted that theresults of the initial study had been fabricated(Weir, 1984). Key (1989) has more recentlyclaimed that hidden or embedded messages arewidespread and effective. Keys theories havebeen widely discredited by scholars who haveexamined marketing applications scientifically(Moore, 1982). Although a few scholarly studieshave reported certain moderate effects of exposureto subliminal stimuli in laboratory settings(Greenwald, Klinger, and Liu, 1989), mostacademic researchers on the subject havereported findings which indicate no practical orpredictable effect in an advertising setting (Dixon,1971). The 1957 Vicary study has been largelydisregarded in the scholarly community due to lackof scientific reinforcement of methodology andfailure to replicate. However, scholarly findingsand industry assertions may have had little or noeffect on the average American, who has beenexposed to popular articles and books promotingthe notion that subliminal advertising is used and iseffective. In addition, Americans have beenexposed to advertisements claiming that self-helpaudio-tapes and videotapes containing subliminalmate rials can help the purchaser with weight loss,better relationships, an improved golf game,quitting smoking, and even birth control.Awareness of Subliminal Messaging by the Public