http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_344.html
Surely some of these famous ads are on websites somewhere? I have no idea how to search for them, though.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_344.html
Surely some of these famous ads are on websites somewhere? I have no idea how to search for them, though.
I read Key’s book way back when. The photos in the book were pretty hard to make out even when it told me exactly what to look for. If there are any photos on the web, I think the resolution would be too low for you to find anything at all in them.
To me, the biggest thing that makes Key a nutter is that he finds subliminal sex in a Playboy Centerfold.
Snopes.com confirms at least one statement put forward in this column: artists have been known to put interesting little images in ice cubes. View the offending poster and the News report of its withdrawal:
yep, that’s one of the few known instances of subliminal images… that particular poster occasionally shows up on ebay and sells very quickly
but notice that the whole image is airbrushed… we’re not talking manipulated photographs… I’ve been a graphic artist for 15 years, with hundreds of ads under my belt (no pun intended)… I can safely say that in the advertising world, there is never enough time to design an ad WITHOUT trying to incorporate some hidden image… the client changes things right up to the last minute, and often after… so any widespread marketing conspiracy is just something people with too much time on their hands like to think is happening all around them
besides, have any of you seen a Calvin Klein or Abercrombie & Fitch ad lately? why would any marketing company bother with subliminal advertising when everyone else is putting it out there blatantly?
We have three approaches: subliminal, liminal, and superliminal. Hey, You! Join the Navy!
As someone who has worked in a graphic design/ad agency for smaller clients (ie: less resources), we have no idea if subliminal ads work or not but for fun, the illustrators will try and work something in if appropriate - mostly as a lark - and as long as they did not get carried way and make it too phallus looking (like the Little Mermaid cover art), we figured - why not. At worst, it does nothing but if it somehow works, we increase sales, our clients like us and so forth.
Soo, in a strange way - by reading and seeing “so-called” examples, we decided to run with it and join in this secret club of designers/ad agencies who are all in it … except we have no idea if it works and if anyone/everyone is doing it … because honestly, if you think any straight shape is phallic and any circle object is sexually objectifying women, there’s not a lot of other ways to go …