The Truth Behind Subliminal Advertising

An image of the McDonald's logo captured during an episode of Iron Chef on the Food Network.

Today in class we discussed how people can interpret advertising slogans in different ways. I earlier made a post about companies use certain colors in their advertisements to attract customers. But now I started to wonder about subliminal advertising. Subliminal advertising is when hidden messages are embedded within ads.

Back in the 70s, people became fearful that the subliminal messages in ads could be used to brainwash themselves. So the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned the use of subliminal messages in advertisements, regarding it as a deceptive business practice.

However, forms of subliminal advertising still exist today. Like for example, when you're watching a movie and the characters are in the city, where in the background, coincidentally of course, are billboards with large ads. Another example, could also be product placing in movies. Like in this ad for the movie the Italian Job,
Notice the Mini Cooper. How necessary is that in this ad? True, there are car chases in the movie with the Mini Coop, but that's not essentially what the movie's about. The ad could easily make do without the addition of the Mini Cooper, yet, does it choose to incorporate it for a specific reason?

In an article by the New York Times (click here to read) , they state,

"Lest you doubt these brand placements influence young eating habits, the appearance of Reese’s Pieces in the movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” resulted in a sharp increase in sales in the three months after the movie’s release in 1982.'Movie product placement is on a par with subliminal advertising.'"

Furthermore, they write,

"The authors, led by Lisa A. Sutherland of Dartmouth Medical Center, found an average of 8.6 brand placements per movie, and concluded that most were 'for energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods or product lines.'"

Not only are products being snuck into movies, but they're promoting unhealthy eating habits, especially for children.
Another example of a form of subliminal advertising is a new Chipotle ad that came out this summer.

Obviously, Chipotle tastes delicious is in bold, bringing the consumer's eye to that. Never once do they mention if their meat is actually raised without hormones. But by the end of the ad, you don't even care. All you know is CHIPOTLE TASTES DELICIOUS.

As consumers, we have to be aware of what we are buying for the sake of our health and safety. It's interesting how many different advertisements are being thrown at us every day, that we aren't even aware of. The public bus, the internet, the tv commerical. We are constantly being told what to buy. I think companies use sneaky tactics in order to raise products, and in order for us to be intelligent consumers, we have to know how big of an impact it has on us.