Sublimibal messages (no spam)

[Aegis]

After having brought it up in the Game addiction thread, I feel this is a topic that hasn't been touched on, and should be. Whats everyone's call on this? Do some of us notice it, but ignore it? Do you think it really works? Is it obvious?

[Gruntboy]

Depends on the person receiving it, doesn't it. No matter how good the advertising etc. if someone is strong willed, or maybe just dull, they won't go for it. Some people are just highly suggestible on the other hand.

Just look at Homer - "Oh Lisa, that's a pile of rich creamery-butter" (example - not a spammy remark).

[leedogg]

I don't think that subliminal(sp) messages would work on me...I am too thick headed. I am not sure how it work, but they used to sell soundtracks over here that were supposed to boost confidence and relieve stress and so on ans so on.... they would have sounds like the beach or classical tunes with subliminal massage underneath the sound(supposedely). My mom used to listen to them and I never took to it...Too thick headed! She swore that it helped her headaches. So I don't know....I think she liked to torment me.

[CM]

Wasn't there an incident where Coke had these messages in its tv adverts?

[Gruntboy]

Supposedly, Coca-Cola paid to have a single cell showing a Coke flash up at some point in cinema showings - people left feeling thirsty and in need of a coke. I don't recall if this is urban myth or not.

[leedogg]

Quote:

Originally posted by Gruntboy Supposedly, Coca-Cola paid to have a single cell showing a Coke flash up at some point in cinema showings - people left feeling thirsty and in need of a coke. I don't recall if this is urban myth or not.

WOW...I didn't know that. But it doesn't suprise me at all.

[CM]

Thats what i was referring too.
But i wouldn't be surprised if Coke actually did it.

[Kameleon]

And then there's always that bit in Fight Club...

So as not to violate any rules, there was this study a few years back on Tomorrow's World (a science program) that I watched, and they did this thing where they broadcasted a diferent video to each part of the country, one with subliminals and one without, without telling us, and there was a telephone poll to see whether it affected people. I can't remember the exact scenario, we had to decide whether someone committed a crime or not, and one of the videos had subliminals which suggested that he had. The phone vote was about 30% higher to convict him where the subliminals were used.

[leedogg]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kameleon <snip> I can't remember the exact scenario, we had to decide whether someone committed a crime or not, and one of the videos had subliminals which suggested that he had. The phone vote was about 30% higher to convict him where the subliminals were used.

That is interesting, but it shows that it doesn't work on everyone...Thick headed!

[Kameleon]

Quote:

Originally posted by leedogg That is interesting, but it shows that it doesn't work on everyone...Thick headed!

It's never meant to work on everyone, but if Coca-Cola starts selling 30% more, that's a lot of money for them

[leedogg]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kameleon It's never meant to work on everyone, but if Coca-Cola starts selling 30% more, that's a lot of money for them

I don't disagree But if coke is doing it, don't think that Pepsi isn't(hell look at the Britney commercials) All these subliminal commercials may be why people are going nuts lately!

[Gruntboy]

This with Coke was like 10 years ago.

The Fight Club style splicing of images is more sublimal than repeated drumming-in of Pepsi adverts - that's brain washing.

Get your methods of mass-population control correct people!

[C Elegans]

Quote:

Originally posted by Gruntboy Supposedly, Coca-Cola paid to have a single cell showing a Coke flash up at some point in cinema showings - people left feeling thirsty and in need of a coke. I don't recall if this is urban myth or not.

It is an urban myth, I think Coca-Cola put in a subliminal message in a movie sometime back in the 1960's or 70's, but it didn't work. Subliminal messaging has been thouroughly researched both in experimental psychology and by the military, and it is not at all working as well as one might think. AFAIR you can only manipulate people in a very basic way, not a precise way, like by showing subliminal commercials for a product like Coke, you can make people who are already thirsty more thirsty, but you can't make them buy Coke specifically - they are as likely to buy something else or just have some water.

If somebody is specifically interested in this topic, I'll dig up my old psychology books in the sediments

There are some recent version of this with subliminal messages, but it's called priming, and there is a method used in consciousness research that is called masking. For instance, you can prime a corticall blind person with a stimuli they are not consciously aware of having seen, but they will still remember it afterwords although they don't even recall every having "seen" it. Or you can show a brief flash of a picture of a spider to a patient with spider phobia, then mask the spider with a longer exposure for a picture of a nice flower. The patient is not aware of having seen the spider, he is only aware of havin seen the flower, but his nervous system still reacts with physical signs of fear.

I suppose this kind of stuff could be used for manipulation of people's mind.

[fable]

Quote:

Originally posted by C Elegans It is an urban myth, I think Coca-Cola put in a subliminal message in a movie sometime back in the 1960's or 70's, but it didn't work. Subliminal messaging has been thouroughly researched both in experimental psychology and by the military, and it is not at all working as well as one might think. AFAIR you can only manipulate people in a very basic way, not a precise way, like by showing subliminal commercials for a product like Coke, you can make people who are already thirsty more thirsty, but you can't make them buy Coke specifically - they are as likely to buy something else or just have some water.

It was a hoax. Back in 1957, an advertising promotions specialist, James Vicary, claimed to increase popcorn sales by 58% and Coke sales by 18% through flashing subliminally perceived messages of "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry - Eat Popcorn" in a New Jersey theater. Although he was quickly disproved, his remarks slipped into Vance Packard's classic The Hidden Persuaders, and that was required reading even when I was in college.

However, we do have an enormous industry dedicated to satisfying people's need for quick fixes via subliminal messaging: no smoking tapes, eat less tapes, etc. Whether it truly works or not has never been proved conclusively one way or the other.

[Aegis]

Now, could any of these sublimibal messages be tied into Pavlov's theories of behaviour?