Subliminal Influence PPT

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SUBLIMINAL PERSUASION
Fact or Fantasy?
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Public belief in the power of subliminals

• 75 of Americans believe that subliminal messages
  are omnipresent in advertising, and that they
  work (Rogers Seiler, 1994)
• Why?
• James Vicarys purported movie theater experiment
  in 1957
• Wilson Brian Keys claims of planted images in
  advertising
• Claims of subliminals in Disney movies and other
  media
• Media spoofs In a Simpson's episode, Homer
  receives a subliminal self-help tape which
  increases vocabulary instead of weight loss. He
  begins talking like Shakespeare.

James Vicary
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The early years An urban myth is born

• James Vicary claimed to have flashed the words
  eat popcorn and Drink Coca-Cola on a movie
  screen for 1/200th of a second, every 5 seconds
  during the movie Picnic
• He claimed popcorn sales increased 58 and Coke
  sales increased 18
• Vicarys experiment was never successfully
  replicated
• He later acknowledged the study was a fraud
  (Advertising Age ,1962)

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Claims of embedded text and images in advertising

• Wilson Brian Keys claimed to have found phallic
  symbols in Tanqueray, Chivas Regal, Ritz cracker,
  and Betty Crocker ads.
• Can you find the embedded text in this Gilbeys
  Gin ad?

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Why the fascination?

• The prospect of mind control is frightening
• Its fun to entertain conspiracy theories
• The popular press sensationalizes the issue, but
  fails to critically analyze the evidence
• There are just enough isolated cases to keep the
  myth alive

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Methodological shortcomings

• lack of control groups
• lack of double-blind procedures
• possibility of bias or cueing
• lack of replication
• lack of rigorous blind review

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Definitions and conceptualizations

• Subliminal message
• Below (sub) the threshold (limen) of human
  perception
• Example a message flashed so quickly that it
  cant be recognized
• Example a sound played so faintly that it cant
  be heard
• Embedding is a form of subliminal persuasion

• Supraliminal message
• A message that is consciously recognized and
  processed
• Example an image so faint that it is difficult
  to see
• Example a sound that is played quietly, yet is
  still audible
• Product placement is a form of supraliminal
  persuasion

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The middle years Embedded images and text

• Embedded images and text are subliminal messages
• This ad for Tanqueray allegedly contains a
  phallic symbol.

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Product placement (a.k.a. product planting)

• Product placement is a form of supraliminal
  persuasion

• Subtle, perhaps, but not subliminal

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More phallic imagery, but by no means subliminal

• Subtle, but not subliminal

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More about product placement

• Product placement will exceed 4.25 billion in
  2005 (Advertising Age, Apr 4, 2005)
• Reality TV shows, like Apprentice and American
  Idol depend on product placements
• product placement in TV shows has moved from mere
  props to becoming part of the story lines.
• Modern cinema relies on product placement to
  offset production costs.
• The practice is now so widespread that movies
  parody product placement
• Austin Powers
• Josie and the Pussycats
• Truman Show

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A key distinction

• Commercial applications of subliminal priming
  have not been demonstrated.
• Flashing Starbuckswill not make a consumer buy
  that brand of coffee

• Subliminal priming has been well documented in
  controlled laboratory settings
• Stimuli can be perceived or processed without
  conscious awareness
• Priming can produce changes in beliefs,
  attitudes, and behavior

Paparazzi help sell Starbucks through buzz
marketing or word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing
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Types of subliminals

• Embedded images pictures or words that are
  hidden or flashed quickly (in 100ths of a second)
• Sub-audible messages sounds or words that are
  too faint to be heard, or are played at extremely
  high frequencies
• Electronically altered signals backward masking
  and other voice alterations

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Embedded images Now you see em, now you dont

• Champion Turner (1958) inserted Wonder Rice
  in a food ad
• Vokay Read (1985) embedded the word sex in
  ads
• Smith and Rogers (1994) found supraliminal
  messages that said choose this were far more
  effective than subliminal messages

In the last presidential election, Republicans
ran a campaign ad that included the highlighted
the word RATS in the larger word DEMOCRATS.
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Embedded images in Disney movies?

• Jessica (sans underwear?) in Who Framed Roger
  Rabbit
• It is much more likely that this was a prank by a
  cell painter than a corporate conspiracy

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Embedded images in Disney movies

• The Little Mermaid
• Is that a sandcastle in the background, or are
  you just glad to see me?
• The artist who painted this scene claimed the
  resemblance to a phallic symbol was unintentional

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More Disney embedding

• The Rescuers Down Under (whos in the window?)
• Little Mermaid boney knee?
• The Lion King

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More embedding

• Pall Mall cigarettes and embedding?
• Some claim that the banner on the bottom of the
  Kent cigarette package shows two KKK Klansmen
• Pepsi and embedding
• The graphics on the cans line up to form the word
  SEX

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Embedding as a conspiracy theory

• Examples of embedded images appear to be isolated
  cases
• The incidents appear to be pranks rather than
  organized marketing strategies.
• The mere existence of subliminals does not prove
  their effectiveness.

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What advertisers really do

• marketers keep finding new ways to deactivate our
  advertising early warning systems (Safer 2003)
• product placement
• branded entertainment (The Apprentice, American
  Idol, Extreme Makeover Home Edition)
• product integration relying on a multi-pronged
  approach based on word-of-mouth, blogs, youtube,
  and traditional media.
• The goal for these newer strategies is to appear
  as seamless, natural, and integrated into the
  context as possible

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Why product placement is so popular

• Viewers can flip past commercials or zap them
  using TIVO
• product planting cant be eliminated
• A commercial, advertisement, or billboard is
  temporary
• a planted product remains on a film forever
• Product placement is cheaper than buying
  commercial time
• a 30 second spot can cost 475,000, whereas a
  seasons worth of placements costs 200,000 (Law
  Braun, 2000)

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Commentary on product placement

• We never want to hit the movie goers over the
  head with product exposure, the best placements
  are natural and seamless
• Steve Ross 20th Century Fox
• When a Star uses a recognizable product, people
  in the audience will pat themselves on the back
  and say look how smart I am, Im using the same
  thing as the hero in the movie. Its the most
  inexpensive way to get visibility and sales
  power.
• Gisela Dawson The Catalyst Group

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Unintentional product placement
Nikes swoosh logo on suicide victims from the
Heavens Gate cult
Clinton drinking Coke during his videotaped
deposition
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Recent subliminal research Eureka! They found it.

• Priming occurs when a subliminal stimulus
  precedes, or is paired with, a supraliminal
  message (Strahan, Spencer, Zanna, 2000).
• The prime is flashed at about 16 milliseconds,
  below the threshold of conscious perception.
• The results reveal that such priming improves
  subjects performance (Debner Jacoby, 1994
  Klinger Greenwald, 1995).

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A sample subliminal priming study

• Patton (1992) exposed normal females and
  bulimia prone females to one of three
  subliminal messages
• Mama is leaving me
• Mona is loaning it
• Mama is loaning it.
• Afterward, the females were taken to another room
  where they were invited to participate in a
  taste-test involving crackers.
• The bulimia prone females who were exposed to
  the maternal separation message (Mama is leaving
  me) ate twice as many crackers as the females in
  the other two groups.

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Subliminal priming can affect attitudes

• Graham Lowery (2004) Subliminal priming can
  activate negative racial stereotypes
• police officers were exposed subliminal primes
  embodying negative stereotypes of African
  Americans
• Next, all the officers were presented with a
  hypothetical scenario involving a criminal
  defendant.
• The primed group attributed more negative traits
  to the defendant, found him more culpable, and
  favored a stiffer sentence compared to the
  control group.

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Subliminal priming can alter behavior

• Winkielman, Berridge, Wilbarger (2005)
  Subliminal priming can alter behavior
• Exposed participants to subliminal images of
  happy or angry faces
• Participants then tasted a new, lemon-lime
  flavored drink. After reporting how thirsty they
  were, they were told to drink as much as they
  wanted.
• Participants exposed to happy faces consumed more
  than twice as muchbut only if they were already
  thirsty
• Priming may act as a trigger, but only if there
  is a prior need, goal or drive.

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Cautions regarding subliminal priming effects

• Effects of priming are short-lived
• The subliminal prime must still be perceived,
  even if perception is without awareness
• No proof of commercial viability

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Electronically altered signals The Devil Made Me
Do It

• The strange case of Raymond Belknap and James
  Vance
• Did backward masked lyrics persuade them to
  commit suicide?
• But millions of other teens listened to the album
  who didnt commit suicide
• Alternative causal explanations
• Drugs?
• Depression?
• Lack of parental supervision?

Judas Priests album Stained Class allegedly
contains backward masked lyrics
forward
backward
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Other backward masking controversies

• Queen Another One Bites the Dust
• The Beatles Revolution 9
• Disney Aladdin

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You must be hearing things

• Perceived meanings may be pure coincidence
• Vokay (2002) noted the phrase Jesus loves you
  played backwards sounds like we smell sausage.
• Vokay and Read (1995) found that
• Subjects cant make out words or content of
  messages played in reverse
• Subjects can discern gender
• Backward masked messages had no effect on task
  performance

played backwards, the words "small step for man"
become a supposedly clear "man will spacewalk".
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Final thoughts

• If you stare at clouds long enough, you will see
  a rubber ducky
• Beware of the fallacy that presence implies
  effectiveness
• Even in controlled laboratory settings,
  subliminal effects tend to be weak and transitory
• Difficulty of proving a negative (e.g. that there
  arent subliminals everywhere)