I was surfing on ebay just a few minutes ago when I noticed something every time I used my back button. For just a second a yellow box appeared. I didn’t give it much though until it happened again and again. After some back and forth button pushing and some quick reading, I found out that the message said “a computer is sold on ebay every 7 seconds”. My question is, is this legal? And if it is, does ebay really think subliminal messages are going to work or inspire trust? Or am I just seeing things?
Here’s Cecils take on subliminal advertising
And if that wasn’t enough, here is some more Subliminal Straight Dope for ya
I’m very dissatisfied with Cecil’s take on Brian Wilson Key. Key specifically addressed the issues Cecil raised in a later book entitled “The Clam-Plate Orgy” and admitted that his earliest and widest known work, “Subliminal Seduction” was full of evidence that was too easy to dismiss as the projections of a dirty mind.
Key’s newest evidence comes from the world of art. I’ve been studying this issue since Subliminal Seduction came out when I was first in art school, and I basically got kicked out of art school for using subliminal embeds in some of my drawings as a prank. I later worked in the print industry as a photo retoucher, and I assure you that subliminals are widely used, whether or not the advertiser has any belief that they actually work. But anyway, getting back to Key and art, check out that book, and you’ll be surprised to see incontrovertible evidence, the most astonishing is the blow-job right in the middle of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Artists have always known about this stuff, it is one of their basic techniques, to stimulate the subconscious with visual images.
Just out of curiosity, Chas, what images/words did you put in these ads/art? Why? Was it for fun or for something else?
Any other books out there that address subliminal advertising in a reasonalby sane manner?
Oh, and ace? What part of E-Bay were you in? I’m trying it and nothing noticable pops up. Could you 'splain where and what you were doing when that came up?
I went to ebay and did a search for ‘computer’, selected one and then hit back. I couldn’t replicate the problem, either.
I’d be very interested in seeing this. While subliminal advertising might not do anything, it still carries a very negative connotation.
I don’t think this is subliminal advertising, just the fault of browsing software. I’ve noticed this at dailyradar.com when I push the back button–sometimes a graphic, sometimes an ad, pops up for a brief second when i use the back or forward button. I don’t think this is intentional, I think it’s just the result of new graphics and content loading and unloading in your browser.
I had the same experience - same ad - last night while browsing eBay. I was in the collectibles section, if that means anything. I wasn’t aware it was subliminal, I thought it was from using the back button and getting a glimpse at the banner ad that’s on every page.
Well, actually, we got involved more often in removing subliminals that were a little too obvious. For example, our shop removed a penis-shaped minaret in the background of the video box for The Little Mermaid. Disney tried to pass it off as the work of a disgruntled staff artist, but I know better, especially after seeing the same imagery in other artwork drawn by other artists.
More typically we’d mask in faint “subliminal embeds” where you lightly mask in “fuck” or “sex” into areas you want to draw attention to. We didn’t do anything without people paying for it and at their specific direction, so we didn’t just do this for amusement.
I used subliminal embeds myself with mixed results. I’ll tell ya a story.
Back when I was first in art school, I read Subliminal Seduction, and there is a story about how one of Key’s students used subliminal embeds in his paintings in order to get better critiques and better grades. I decided I’d try it and see if it worked. I had one drawing class where the TA always hated my work and gave me bad reviews. So I took some of my pencil drawings and as I made them, I put in subliminal embeds, like the words sex or fuck, and wrote them in red pencil and drew over them in black pencil. They were clearly visible if I pointed them out, but otherwise I cleverly worked them around the contours of other objects. When I did this for the first time, I was astonished at the reaction. The TA said she didn’t know why, but she really liked these drawings, a first time I ever got a favorable review. Key says that when using subliminals, a typical reaction is that the viewer finds the image compelling but cannot say why. So I pressed further and asked the TA to point to any features of the drawing she liked. She pointed right to the embeds. Ha! Well anyway, I didn’t explain it to the teachers, but I boasted about it to some other students. It must have gotten back to the TA because I noticed her scrutinizing my drawings closely at subsequent critiques. And I knew she knew, because she called my parents and asked if I was mentally unbalanced. I got an F in that drawing class, and I eventually got drummed out of art school. Ah, who gives a fuck, I came back and finished my degree after everyone who knew me had left. And in the meantime, I made more money doing computer graphics than any of those stupid TAs ever made doing art.
Anyway, I haven’t read it in years but if you want another book on this subject, try “The Hidden Persuaders” by Vance Packard. It’s pretty old, I don’t know any recent studies of the subject, except Key’s recent books which are much better than his first books. The Clam-Plate Orgy is a must-read for any art student.
Interesting. Thanks for the info chas.
This is one of the few areas where I’m willing believe in the fringe element and ignore the nay-saying crowd.
There’s just something about it that’s interesting to me. I completely believe that it’s being done.
Hmmm… I’m oddly captivated by this topic? What did Key say about that? Maybe I’m subliminaly being told to believe in subliminal messages? Maybe, just maybe, this is all one… Dear God man, where does this end!?!
Thanks again,
Cn[sup]f[/sup]ot[sub]u[/sub]e C[sup]c[/sup]hr[sub]k[/sub]is
Hey Cnote, there’s is something oddly compelling about you today. I can’t quite place it, I’ve never felt this way about another SDoper before but, I don’t know, are you wearing a new cologne? 