Has Subliminal Messaging Ever Been Proven to Work?

I’ve heard that way back when movie theaters used subliminal advertising to sell concessions and that their sales went up exponentially. I’ve also heard that long ago the U.S. government did experiments on people to see if they could be controlled. I’ve also heard that like hypnosis, the susceptibility and effectiveness of an individual to subliminal messaging varies from individual to individual. So my question is this: Has subliminal messaging ever been proven to work or is it all a bunch of b.s.?

torben

Search the archives of General Questions and Cecil’s columns - this has been discussed many times.

Examples:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=147205
(and see links therein)

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85178

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_187.html

…etc etc…

Only as a very effective comedy device for SNL alumus Kevin Nealon.