The earliest recorded subliminal test was conducted by James Vicary in 1957. He suggested that a study in which moviegoers watching a film called Picnic were repeatedly shown 0.03-second subliminal cuts for Coca-Cola and Popcorn, expanded their foyer sales by 58% and 18%. Since the publication of his investigation the effectiveness of subliminal messages in advertising has been hotly debated. A CIA review of subliminal messages titled ‘The Operational Potential of Subliminal Perception’, suggested that ‘Certain individuals can at certain times and under certain circumstances be influenced to act abnormally without awareness of the influence’. Because of this, hypnotic messages were effectively banned in the US when the FCC ruled that the use of subliminal cuts could result in the loss of a broadcast license. In the UK and Australia subliminal advertising was also outlawed, so it has never been possible to verify Vicary’s early claim for certain. That is until recently.
To commemorate its 50th anniversary, the Vicary study was replicated at the International Branding Conference, MARKA2007 as part of the Hypnosis, Subconscious Triggers and Branding presentation. The 1,400 delegates watched the opening credits of the movie used in the original study, PICNIC into which subliminal messages had been located at six second intervals. Then, the delegates were asked to choose between two fictitious brands. One brand ‘Delta’ had been implied using the subliminal messages and the other ‘Theta’ had not.
The effects were startling as, 81% of the audience chose ‘Delta’ in preference to ‘Theta’. This suggests a convincing substantiation of Vicary’s results. ‘Even though this technique was meant to have been banned, there are more sophisticated techniques being used in advertising right now, this demonstrates the powerful influence of hypnotic messages’ the demonstration told us. ‘The subliminal cut was the mother of all hypnotic techniques and today her children walk all around you. They are everywhere, in posters, press advertising, on the radio and the T.V. They are the legal siblings of an outlawed parent.’
Actual, current examples were then shown of the three most common subliminal techniques present in marketing today. Each example was chosen because of its spontaneous recall amongst the public and its ability to prompt increased purchase of the product advertised. The first was the most watched advert on youtube in 2007, the Cadbury ‘Gorilla’. This Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate advert features a gorilla playing drums to a Phil Collins soundtrack. The cult advert has been observed around 10 million times on the internet claimed a chart, published by the TellyAds.com website. It also changed the shopping habits of a generation being responsible for enlarging Cadbury’s market share by 30%.
Another example shown was the U.K’s greatest ad ever as voted by Channel 4 viewers, the Guinness ‘Surfer’. A classic ad from over a decade ago this ad has left its mark because it still has instant awareness and very high levels spontaneous recall amongst its target audience.
Both ads use a number of well known and legal hypnotic and subliminal techniques to promote their products. This is by no means unusual. An analysis of the 20 most popular ads ever reveals that all of them use some form of hypnosis or subliminal techniques to sell their message.
It seems that despite early attempts to ban it, the use of hypnosis and subliminals to increase market share are widespread in advertising.
A regular speaker at industry events, Jim Brackin is Director of Insight at EspConsultancy.co.uk the research and marketing specialists. After a successful career in advertising and marketing Jim qualified as a Hypnotherapist, and is a Master Practitioner of Neuro-linguistics.
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