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The importance of viewing ads critically
Ligia Hernandez / Andrea Larson
Teaching Media Literacy

Subliminal advertising is a technique of
exposing consumers to product pictures, brand
names, or other marketing stimuli without the
consumers having conscious awareness. Once
exposed to a subliminal marketing stimulus, the
consumer is believed to decode the information
and act upon it without being able to
acknowledge a communication stimulus.

Public Advertising" began with the 1957 publication of Vance Packard's
book, The Hidden Persuaders. Although Packard did not use the term
"subliminal advertising," he did describe many of the new "motivational
research" marketing techniques being employed to sell products in the
burgeoning post-war American market. Advertisements that focused on
consumers' hopes, fears, guilt, and sexuality were designed to persuade
them to buy products they'd never realized they needed. Marketers who
could reach into the hearts and minds of American consumers soon found
consumers' wallets to be within easy grasp as well.

In the 1970s, Wilson Bryan Key wrote such books
as Subliminal Seduction and Media Sexploitation
in which he claimed subliminal sexual symbols or
objects are often used to entice consumers to buy
and use various products and services. One of
Key’s most famous claims is that the word sex
was often embedded in products and
advertisements.

For example, he claimed that the word sex was
printed on Ritz crackers and was embedded in the
ice cubes of the drink shown in a well-known ad
for Gilbey’s Gin. According to Key, despite the fact
the embedded words are not consciously
perceived, they are unconsciously perceived and
can elicit sexual arousal which in turn makes the
products more attractive to consumers.

Ritz Cracker

Gin

In 1990, Pepsi actually withdrew one of its Cool Can
designs after someone protested that Pepsi was
subliminally manipulating people by designing the
cans such that when six-packs were stacked at
grocery stores, the word SEX would emerge from the
seemingly random design. Critics alleged that the red
and blue lines on the Cool Can design were far from
random

The Camel Tobacco companies have also been the
target of accusations of visual embeds. One common
alleged embed of sexually suggestive imagery is on
the standard pack of Camel cigarettes. Apparently, if
you look closely enough at the rear leg of the camel
on the cigarette pack, you can see an image of a
naked mean standing tall facing the rear of the
camel.

The steam on the mirror
means that someone is
showering?If so, then
the darker parts
reflected in the mirror
are the people in the
shower?

Note how flushed their
faces are. Faces flush
when people are
sexually aroused.

The rocket, a phallic
symbol, is blasting off.
His middle finger
creates the blast off..
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http://www.ciadvertising.org/student_account/spring_01/adv391k/
hjy/adv382j/1st/application.html
http://people.uleth.ca/~vokey/pdf/Submess.pdf
http://www.poleshift.org/sublim/
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://130.18.140.19/mmsoc/subli
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