Facing rows and rows of different toothpastes, looking at the multicoloured lines of boxes with smiling, white flashing teeth pasted on them, one particular box immediately catches my eye and for no reason other than “it looks good”, I place it in my shopping bag. It is only until later on that evening, as I resume watching my current addictive television series that I spot something odd yet familiar- one of the characters brushing her teeth with “my” toothpaste! As I continued to watch on, I became conscious that along with watching stories unfold, I was also in the middle of a marketing campaign… a battle of logos and brands and I was the battlefield. A few clicks on my computer and the world of subliminal advertising unfolded before my eyes all showing that concealed advertising is everywhere, even in places where we never dared to expect.

Subliminal messages can be best described as sensory stimulation below a person’s level of conscious stimulation, in other words, messages we aren’t aware of receiving but are none the less being received. We have been taught to perceive things in a certain way, seeing things in the uniform fashion they are presented to us however our subconscious sees things differently.

The Subliminal Phenomena began in the late 1950’s by James Vicary who claimed that by flashing the messages “eat popcorn” and “drink Coca-Cola” in cinemas he could make people do just that without making them realise. He claimed we subconsciously take in messages that alter our mood and behaviour. People were outraged by this notion and subliminal advertising was banned in the United States, Australia and United Kingdom in 1958. However things never stopped there and subliminal messages are still clearly in use commercially and even politically.  

One of the most notable is the now infamous glitch during the 2000 United States presidential campaign for Republican George W. Bush. A screen displayed a presentation behind the Republican as he gave a speech and when the word “Bureaucrats” shone upon the screen, accidentally the screen paused and on one of the frames the last part of the word “rats” was solely seen clearly oversized. The Federal Communications Commission looked into the case but no charges were made.  

Another eye opener was a video showing Derren Brown, an English illusionist, turned the tables around on two advertising agents. The beginning of the clip shows the two advertisers during a taxi ride on the way to their destination. Once they arrive they are greeted by Brown and instructed they have half an hour to come up with a poster with a company name, a slogan and a logo for a fictitious chain of taxidermy stores. He places an envelope on the desk in front of them and tells them not to open it as it contain some of his ideas as to what he would want the poster to look like. Short on time he encourages them to go with their first instinct and lets them get to it.

The men come up with a number of ideas until they narrow it down to a bear, sitting on a cloud, playing a harp with the company name “Animal Heaven” and the slogan, “the best place for dead animals.” Brown then instructs one of them to open the closed envelope and both of the advertisers are clearly shocked at what comes out of the envelope; a bear, sitting on a cloud playing a harp. His poster read “Creature Heaven- where the best dead animals go”.

The astounding resemblance is not down to mere chance. Brown goes on the reveal that subliminally the men were exposed to certain images during their taxi ride being strategically passed by certain areas like a music shop with a harp in the window. They were also shown certain images of cartoon bears and other things on bystander’s t shirts or hanging posters on street walls all to influence their performance on the task that lay ahead of them.

Diving into the word of subliminal messages I discovered a bevy of experiments; some which left way too many unanswered questions and others which just intrigued myself and all of my family members who where being beckoned to my lap top every five minutes to see my latest discoveries.  

The “Ice tea experiment” by Johan Karremans at the University of Nijmegen in Netherlands, illustrated the strength that subliminal messages can have. In the experiment the hundred and five volunteers were made very thirsty by taking a salty lozenge. Some of the subjects were exposed to subliminal messages showing the “Lipton Ice” message and the control group were unexposed to the message. Both were given a choice to choose from Lipton ice tea and a bottle of water of another well known brand, both beverages were equally thirst quenching. Results showed that 80% of the thirsty volunteers who had been exposed to the “Lipton Ice” message opted to choose the ice tea over the water compared to the 30% in the control group who were not exposed to the subliminal message.

I am more conscious of the messages that are lying there; even now at the risk of becoming paranoiac I am aware that in my friend’s latest pc game, you actually see Mc Donald’s billboard adverts as the game protagonist strolls through the virtual crime ridden streets.

In today’s society we are showered with advertisements, so much so that the average citizen in the western world is subjected to three years of adverts on television in his/her life.

As Albert Einstein once said, “The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind”…if so, what kind of minds are we stimulating nowadays?

BY Hannah Camilleri

Bachelor of Communication with Psychology, Second Year

Basic Reporting Assignment, Mr George Cini