Charmless subliminal
Noted: The 1960s are long gone, but the specter of manipulation through subliminal advertising continues to haunt many people’s minds. An attempt at clarification.
Column The 1960s are a thing of the past, but the spectre of manipulation through subliminal advertising continues to haunt many minds. During my studies, I was deeply impressed by American advertiser Vance Packard's bestseller "Hidden Persuaders". Among other things, he told the story of James Vicary's "research". In 1956, in a movie theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey, he infiltrated the Kim Novak film "Picnic" with messages every five seconds that flashed so briefly that they could not be consciously perceived. The quasi-commands were "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Eat popcorn". Allegedly, sales of Coke rose by 18 percent and those of popcorn by 58 percent.politicians responded to this challenge. The German Interstate Broadcasting Treaty states: "No subliminal techniques may be used in advertising". In the United States, subliminal advertising has been banned since 1974. There was the famous rat case. During the 2000 election campaign, the word "rats" appeared for a fraction of a second in a Republican commercial. Naturally, the Democratic candidate Al Gore sued. It eventually turned out that a snippet of the word "bureaucrats" had accidentally been left over during editing. The case was dropped.
But steps have also been taken against subliminal TV advertising in the new Russia. There is a broadcasting ministry there that has specially developed a complicated apparatus to detect such advertising. One broadcaster in Yekaterinburg has already been convicted as a result. The consequence: license revocation.
As you can see: Political leaders are taking action - on both sides. Occasionally, however, because of real problems rather than mere myths. The embarrassing thing is that the aforementioned James Vicary admitted in an interview with Advertising Age in 1962 that the original experiment described by Packard never actually took place. However, the well-invented story is still being perpetuated.
This does not mean that feelings cannot be subliminally influenced at all. A Swedish researcher alternately preceded portraits of beautiful women with images of spiders, snakes or another beautiful woman. The result: the test subjects found those women in front of whom reptiles and insects were shown for a few milliseconds to be more attractive.
less beautiful.
However, this controversial method cannot be used for commercial communication. The German magazine Psychologie heute recently published all the empirical research findings on this subject. "Unconscious stimuli are only processed if they match our intentions", Bielefeld psychologists have discovered. Subliminal advertising messages - whether for popcorn or alcopops - should be effective precisely when the moviegoer or television viewer has no
has a specific plan of action. The usability of subliminal stimuli for advertising purposes is therefore simply a myth.
However, he fitted into an era in which people claimed and believed that they did not live, but were lived. From Sigmund Freud and his sorcerer's apprentices, more and more otherwise intelligent contemporaries believe they have to learn that man is not master in his own house, but that he is controlled by unconscious and unconsciously controlled people.
is controlled by instincts. Cultural scientists can develop the most fantastic theories based on this thesis. Advertisers, on the other hand, who are supposed to provide verifiable services for the economy, should also remain sober and rational in this matter.
> Peter Glotz is a publicist and Professor Emeritus of Media Management at the University of St. Gallen.
But steps have also been taken against subliminal TV advertising in the new Russia. There is a broadcasting ministry there that has specially developed a complicated apparatus to detect such advertising. One broadcaster in Yekaterinburg has already been convicted as a result. The consequence: license revocation.
As you can see: Political leaders are taking action - on both sides. Occasionally, however, because of real problems rather than mere myths. The embarrassing thing is that the aforementioned James Vicary admitted in an interview with Advertising Age in 1962 that the original experiment described by Packard never actually took place. However, the well-invented story is still being perpetuated.
This does not mean that feelings cannot be subliminally influenced at all. A Swedish researcher alternately preceded portraits of beautiful women with images of spiders, snakes or another beautiful woman. The result: the test subjects found those women in front of whom reptiles and insects were shown for a few milliseconds to be more attractive.
less beautiful.
However, this controversial method cannot be used for commercial communication. The German magazine Psychologie heute recently published all the empirical research findings on this subject. "Unconscious stimuli are only processed if they match our intentions", Bielefeld psychologists have discovered. Subliminal advertising messages - whether for popcorn or alcopops - should be effective precisely when the moviegoer or television viewer has no
has a specific plan of action. The usability of subliminal stimuli for advertising purposes is therefore simply a myth.
However, he fitted into an era in which people claimed and believed that they did not live, but were lived. From Sigmund Freud and his sorcerer's apprentices, more and more otherwise intelligent contemporaries believe they have to learn that man is not master in his own house, but that he is controlled by unconscious and unconsciously controlled people.
is controlled by instincts. Cultural scientists can develop the most fantastic theories based on this thesis. Advertisers, on the other hand, who are supposed to provide verifiable services for the economy, should also remain sober and rational in this matter.
> Peter Glotz is a publicist and Professor Emeritus of Media Management at the University of St. Gallen.
