Paper 4: Literature Review (including drafts and feedback) Final Draft The Effectiveness of Subliminal Advertising Introduction One distinct tactic seen is advertising is the use of subliminal messages. This can be seen in every form of advertising such as commercials, print ads, previews, as well as in movies, television shows, and music. Subliminal messages targets the unconscious mind, which accepts messages unknowingly and unfiltered. Distinct advertisements or “ads that pose a change or contrast due to their color, size, intensity, position, movement, or isolation” (Andrews, Akhter, Durvasula, Muehling) are the ones more commonly filled with subliminal messages. The result may be changes in attitude toward the product or idea being unconsciously received. The effects of this method can either have a positive or negative impact on society, depending on how the ad is used. The fact that much of society is unaware or do not believe in this method of manipulation allows companies to continue with this unethical form of advertising. In order to stop this unethical form of control advertising society must be aware of this stratagem and the effects they possess on the unconscious mind. Origin The use of subliminal marketing makes products more attractive to consumers. (Vokey; Key) James Vicary, a marketing researcher, made a great impact in beginning the modern practice of subliminal messaging. He composed a widely known study in 1957, analyzing the effect of subliminal advertising. Vicary studied how the flashing of “Hungry? Eat Popcorn, Thirst? Drink Coca-Cola” during the film Picnic led to a 57% increase in popcorn consumption and an 18.1% rise in sales of Coca-Cola. In his books Subliminal Seduction and Media Sexploitation, Wilson Key claimed that the word sex was printed in Ritz crackers and was embedded in the ice cubes of the drink shown in a well-known ad for Gilbey’s Gin. Subliminal sexual symbols or objects are used to entice consumers to buy various products. While Key’s points were conclusive, an interview with Advertising Age in 1962 supported that Vicary’s study was a fabrication. Even though Vokey and Key conclusions were not the same, they both supported that subliminal messages provides stimulus which makes consumers more inclined to purchase the product. Do Subliminal Messages affect us? Invisible subliminal messages cause stimulation in the brain. (UCL, 2007) Dr. Bahador Bahrami, of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and the UCL Department of Psychology, studied whether the unconscious mind responded to images unseen by the conscious mind. Subjects wore red-blue filter glasses that projected faint pictures of everyday objects to one eye and a strong flashing image known as 'continuous flash suppression' to the other. Using an fMRI, Bahrami concluded that the subjects' brains did respond to the object even when they were not conscious of having seen it. While many people, such as Dr. Timothy Moore, believe that if subliminal messages can’t be easily detected, the message won’t have its intended influence (Brody), the data from Dr. Bahrami study was compelling. Although this does not show a direct correlation between subliminal advertising and sales, it does show that subliminal advertising has an effect on brain activity. What Subliminal Messages Tells Us Subliminal marketing tells us what we already wanted to do. (NWO) Dutch researcher Martijn Veltkamp has demonstrated that you can motivate people with subliminal messaging like quickly flashing words onto a screen without their noticing. A prime example of this is when the McDonalds franchise flashed an advertisements for one thirtieth of a second during an episode of Iron Chief. (Subliminal McDonalds as Busted) Veltkamp studied this interaction in a series of experiments. He flashed the words 'drinking' and 'thirsty' onto a computer screen very quickly so that his test subjects couldn’t consciously perceived them. The results of the experiments showed that motivation for carrying out certain actions occurs when the action matches an existing deprivation or has a positive association. This is only successful, however, if the subliminal message matches a biological need and if the behavior is associated with a positive effect. Positive and Negative Effects Claims about the effectiveness of subliminal self-help tapes and about subliminal perception have very little evidence. (Moore) A team of UCL researchers say that subliminal messaging is most effective when the message being conveyed is negative. (UCL). While Selfhelp tapes are subliminal messages designed to promote a desired effect including, weight loss, improve sexual function, relief from constipation, etc., there is little research to prove that this can have any positive effect on a person’s subconscious. In the Wellcome Trust-funded study, Professor Lavie and colleagues studied the theory that negative subliminal messages are more impressionable then positive ones by showed fifty participants a series of words on a computer screen. Each word appeared on screen for only a fraction of second at times only a fiftieth of a second, much too fast for the participants to consciously read the word. The words were either positive (cheerful, happiness and joy), negative (agony, despair and sorrow) or neutral (box, shoe or iron). After each word, participants were asked to choose whether the word was neutral or positive/negative, and how confident they were of their decision. The researchers found that the participants answered most accurately when responding to negative words – even when they believed they were merely guessing the answer. In response to the self-help tapes, positive auditory reinforcements have not yet been proven to have an effect on patients unlike the negative visual study of Professor Lavie. Conclusion There is research on the beginning traces of subliminal advertising. We have information on how subliminal messages have a great effect, either positive or negative, on us without our knowledge. With an increase in studies on this topic are being conducted, people are becoming more aware of subliminal advertising from reports and the media. While experiments have been engineered to study the effectiveness of subliminal advertising, there is still a major gap. While we know that subliminal messages to cause stimulation to the brain, we don’t know what kind of response is created from the stimulant. This lack of information comes from research that is minimal, unable to be replicated, or inconclusive. Studies can be conducted on how subliminal advertisements have a direct connection to the desired message. More information on this research can be seen in my project proposal. Work Cited Literature Review: 1. Andrews, J. Craig, Akhter, Syed H., Durvasula, Srinivas, & Muehling, Darrel D. (1992). The Effects of Advertising Distinctiveness and Message Content Involvement on Cognitive and Affective Responses to Advertising. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 14(1), 45-58. 2. Subliminal Messages. John R. Vokey. Psychological Sketches. Page 240 3. Key, Wilson Bryan. Subliminal Seduction. [S.l.]: Penguin Putnam, 1974. Print. 4. Key, Wilson Bryan. Media Sexploitation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976. Print. 5. University College London (2007). Subliminal Advertising Leaves Its Mark on the Brain. From http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070308121938.htm. 6. Brody, Jane E. (1982, August 17). Is Subliminal Persuasion a Menace? Evidently Not.The New York Times, pp. 1C. 7. NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research). “Subliminal Messages Motivate People to Atually Do Things They Already Wanted To Do.” ScieneDaily, 1 Jul. 2009. Web. 8. Subliminal McDonalds as Busted [Television broadcast]. (2007, January 29). New York: Inside Edition. From YouTube Web site: ht 9. Moore, T.E. 1992. Subliminal Advertising: What you see is what you get. Journal of Marketing, 46: 38-47. 10. "UCL News." UCL Study: Subliminal Messaging 'More Effective When Negative' University College London, 28 Sept. 2009. Web. Project Proposal: 11. Pratkanis, A. R. (1992). The cargo-cult science of subliminal persuasion. The Skeptical Inquirer, 16(3), 260-272.