# Subliminal Advertising/Messaging **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 1, 2004, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008 "2004-02-01T05:34:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Civil\_Defense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Civil\_Defense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Defense)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/1 "2004-02-01T05:34:38Z")
Does anyone know where to find some good information on how subliminal advertising / subliminal messaging works in audio? Or how it is created? I had hoped HowStuffWorks had an article on it, but alas, they don’t. Anyone with any experience with it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/2 "2004-02-01T07:38:47Z")
From the master: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_344.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_344.html) ---
**Author:** ![Scarf-Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Scarf-Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarf-Ace)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/3 "2004-02-01T12:32:50Z")
I think Cecil’s article [forget about it] just about says it all. People who go around snooping [you are relaxed and at ease] into subliminal advertising are clearly crackpots. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Defense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Civil\_Defense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Defense)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/4 "2004-02-01T16:53:20Z")
> [@Meta-Gumble](#): > > I think Cecil’s article [forget about it] just about says it all. People who go around snooping [you are relaxed and at ease] into subliminal advertising are clearly crackpots. Ah, yeah, Cecil’s article deals primarily with subliminally placed images, about which I know nothing. I was primarily interested in subliminal audio messages, which I know 1) can exist, 2) have been used, and 3) aren’t that hard to make – those 3 points are all I remember from a class I took on audio editing and mixing. Does anyone know more about subliminal messages in AUDIO? ---
**Author:** ![Scarf-Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Scarf-Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarf-Ace)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/5 "2004-02-01T17:28:34Z")
Can’t all experience be classed as subliminal since it all eventually passes into unconciousness? So what difference does it make to our conscious minds the speed at which it enters our unconcious minds, or whether it is noticed? “Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)” Subliminal Sub_lim"i_nal, a. Pref. sub- + L. limen threshold. (Philos.) Existing in the mind, but below the surface or threshold of consciousness; that is, existing as feeling rather than as clear ideas. … ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/6 "2004-02-01T23:21:21Z")
> [@Meta-Gumble](#): > > Can’t all experience be classed as subliminal since it all eventually passes into unconciousness? Isn’t it the opposite? All input (sensory, tactile) is filtered from our unconscious onto our consciousness. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/7 "2004-02-02T01:02:39Z")
“I met a subliminal man today…but, only for a moment” S. Wright ---
**Author:** ![Ice97531](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@Ice97531](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice97531)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/8 "2004-02-02T04:26:19Z")
I think that it was either coke or pepsi that was placing advertising in the middle of movies The ads would be only 1 or 2 frames long so your eyes couldn’t detect it but your brain could…so at intermission you would say, “hey I’m kinda thirsty” and you would go buy something to drink. Court made it illegal though ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/9 "2004-02-02T08:05:25Z")
The full story that Ice is alluding to is detailed in Snopes, the web-site devoted to urban legends: > **[Popcorn Subliminal Advertising](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/subliminal-advertising/)** > > Did an early experiment in subliminal advertising at a movie theater increase sales of popcorn and soda? One James Vicery reportedly carried out an experiment in a movie theater with subliminal advertising in 1957. Media uproar ensued and in 1974 (!) the FCC banned subliminal advertising from radio and TV. One problem. Vicery lied. "When he was challenged to repeat the test by the president of the Psychological Corporation, Dr. Henry Link, Vicary’s duplication of his original experiment produced no significant increase in popcorn or Coca-Cola sales. Eventually Vicary confessed that he had falsified the data from his first experiments, and some critics have since expressed doubts that he actually conducted his infamous Ft. Lee experiment at all. " There is no evidence for the efficacy of subliminal advertising. Consume. Reproduce. Do not adjust your set. Support patriotic causes. Buy. Consume. Obedience is strength. Look the other way when told to. It’s difficult to concentrate when watching the news. Buy. Consume. [Marry and Reproduce](http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/themovies/tl/tl.html). Obey. ---
**Author:** ![Scarf-Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Scarf-Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarf-Ace)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/10 "2004-02-02T16:39:35Z")
Gyan9: > [@](#): > > Isn’t it the opposite? All input (sensory, tactile) is filtered from our unconscious onto our consciousness. Maybe so, but that doesn’t preclude sensory input from returning to unconsciousness. I presume you would class “mechanical” parts of the brain like the visual cortex as containing unconscious data? ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subliminal-advertising-messaging/227008/11 "2004-02-03T05:33:47Z")
> [@Meta-Gumble](#): > > Gyan9: > > Maybe so, but that doesn’t preclude sensory input from returning to unconsciousness. I presume you would class “mechanical” parts of the brain like the visual cortex as containing unconscious data? I’m not sure your first part even makes sense. What does ‘return to unconsciousness’ mean?