Subliminal Advertising: The Biggest Myth of All (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3 focused on subliminal advertising and all of its mystery.  Subliminal advertising was first brought to light in the 1950’s when James Vicary, a movie theatre owner, flashed on the screen “drink cola” and “eat popcorn.”  James claimed that doing this gave him a boost in sales of popcorn and soda.  He later admitted this was false.  Subliminal advertising also started to crop up in a few ads on television and in print. 

There was so much mystery around subliminal advertising that the US and other countries put a ban on all subliminal advertising.  The quick response from government added to the claim that subliminal advertising worked.  As more studies were done and as more advertisers came out and reversed their claims that subliminal advertising increased their sales, it turns out that it is more a hoax or creative product placement. 

Below are a few images of “subliminal advertising” or somebody on the design team being creative.

Disney's supposed subliminal message

Notice the word “sex” spelled out in the in the plume of dust from the movie Lion King and in the ice cubes.

Supposedly "sex" is spelled out in the ice cubes

In the cigarette ad you can see the silhouette of a women in the smoke, creating the “subliminal” message that smoking is “sexy” and  makes you “attractive”.

So with all the controversy that surrounded subliminal advertising in the 1950s we can see now that it was merely someone trying to be creative with their product.