The movie was Picnic, and the year was 1957. Vicary used an instrument he invented, called a “tachistocope” to flash the suggestions “Drink Coca-cola” and “Eat Popcorn” on the screen every five seconds at 1/3000th of a second. He claimed to have boosted Coke sales almost 20% and caused the audience to gorge themselves with nearly 60% more popcorn than usual.

While Vicary couldn't repeat that stunt and later admitted he had falsified the evidence, the stage had been set.

Life is Just a Bowl of Clams

The height of subliminal ridiculousness was reached in 1980 with the publication of The Clam-Plate Orgy and Other Subliminals the Media Use to Manipulate Your Behavior by a man named Wilson Bryan Key.

The book was widely read, particularly at universities, where Key was often a guest lecturer. He was a Canadian native who earned a doctorate in communications from the University of Denver and taught journalism for a while at the University of Western Ontario. Key was a colleague of Marshall McLuhan.

It seems Key was lunching in a Howard Johnson's restaurant when he noticed something eye-catching on the menu. He claimed that when you looked closely, a picture of the plate of Ho-Jo clams was really the portrayal of a sexual orgy featuring various human beings and a donkey.

I wonder if that's where the term “happy as a clam” came from.

The Sexy Side of Products

In another example, Key found S-E-X spelled out by three ice cubes stacked in a glass of Gilbey's Gin. He also saw the word sex printed on Ritz crackers. (Would you like some cheese to go with that, sir?)

Key saw sex in more places than Hugh Hefner. In just one whiskey ad, he found scorpions, the head of a rat, a white bird, a volcano, a mouse, a skull, three wolf faces, a lizard, a cat, a shark, a swan and dozens of “sexes”.

His contention was that, while the embedded words are not consciously apparent, they are unconsciously perceived and can elicit sexual arousal that heightens the attractiveness of products to consumers.

Key unlocked a myriad of unfounded notions, including one that said the unconscious mind processes subliminal messages at the speed of light. According to scientists, however, the fastest brain process is a mere 40 mph or so. Some days I think mine chugs along at around 10 mph at best.

While you might find Key's sex sightings suspect, no one can argue that his imagination is lively.

What I've noticed about a number of the commercials are perhaps, subliminal spiritual messages that I find surprising, and for me, particularly appealing. Subliminal of course, referring to something that targets the unconscious, rather than the conscious mind and as a result is considered insidious.

I might believe this spiritualism is unintentional, except I understand how cleverly psychological inducements are used in today's market place. So, I must concede that in all probability it is totally premeditated. I also submit that although the word "subliminal" in most quarters is considered a negative, I think in this case, U.S. Cellular has taken a negative and made it a positive.

The thing of it is, regardless how the messages in these commercials are labeled, I like them.

The Love Message

The first time I noticed this barely disguised spiritualism was in the commercial that came out around Valentine's Day. It was all about love. Two lovers cooing at each other like idiots about whether to buy a telephone, and the salesperson in the end joining them in the cooing. At first I found the commercial annoying, but by the end, I was smiling. The message wasn't lost on me, and I found it worthy.

Whether viewers considered the love birds in the commercial to be silly or obnoxious, the subliminal point was ... love is always inspirational.

And maybe the bottom line of the commercial ... You'll love this telephone too!

The Faith Message

Now, we have the commercial where the buyer is confused about which telephone to choose, and says ... "I wish I had a sign." At that point one of the telephones literally jumps off the rack into his hands.

The salesperson witnesses this and is amazed. As the man places the telephone back on the rack, the salesperson is about to comment on the sign he'd just received when he cuts her off to repeat ... "If I just had a sign."

Could the subliminal message here be how often we receive and ignore signs from God? How often do we ask our Father for help, for guidance, for whatever are our needs, then either not recognize, or ignore the answers, and blessings we receive.

And maybe the bottom line of the commercial ... This telephone is so wonderful it will be a blessing!

I believe this message of faith is particularly powerful. It had the effect of making me think how tuned out many of us are to the Lord's interaction with us on a daily basis. We're simply tuned out to the continuous dialogue He has with us through signs, messages, blessings and yes, miracles.

For instance, I'm often amazed at how upset some people become when their flights are delayed or cancelled because of bad weather. If you believe all things work for the good, then perhaps the cancellation is a sign that if the plane flies something worse than arriving late at a destination could be the result. I think our level of frustration is directly related to our level of belief that we're in charge ... rather than the Father.

The Trust Message

This is one of the most recent of the U.S. Cellular commercials. I got the feeling that this commercial is trying to capitalize on the type of positivism of the above messages, but used a heavier hand. Could the decision to pull back on subliminal messages have been made? In any event, there's nothing below the level of consciousness about the trust message. But, then again .... ?

In the commercial a man is talking with a sales representative about which telephone to purchase. All of a sudden, he turns his back, and starts falling straight back to the floor. The sales person catches him. The customer does this once more, and once more the sales person catches him. Finally, the man explains, saying something to the effect of ... "I just wanted to see if I could trust you guys."

A positive, upfront message about the issue of trust. But, could there be a subliminal implication here? After all, we trust in God without sight; we're asked, and do walk by faith and not sight ... I could go on. So, although not as clear in intention, the argument could be made for the presence of a subliminally spiritual message.

And the obvious bottom line of the commercial ... You can trust us to tell you the truth, deliver a good product, etc.

The Bottom Line

Whether or not spirituality is being used to sell telephones isn't the issue, at least not for me. To me, what's important is the substance of those particular messages: they celebrate what's really important: life, love, trust, and faith.

And, that's why I like some of the U.S. Cellular commercials so much. I don't know how successful they are at generating revenue, but I appreciate that they have a spiritual resonance that may ultimately be subliminally consciousness raising. And that's a good thing.

 

To commemorate its 50th anniversary, the Vicary experiment was replicated at the International Branding Conference, MARKA2007 as part of the Hypnosis, Subconscious Triggers and Branding presentation by Hypnotherapist and IDM Fellow Jim Brackin. The 1,400 delegates watched the opening credits of the movie used in the original experiment, PICNIC into which subliminal messages had been placed at six second intervals. Then, the delegates were asked to choose between two fictitious brands. One brand "Delta" had been suggested using the subliminal messages and the other "Theta" had not.

When choosing between the two brands, 81% of the audience chose "Delta" in preference to "Theta". This suggests a convincing substantiation of Vicary's results. “Even though this technique is 50 years old, and there are more sophisticated techniques being used in advertising today, this demonstrates the powerful influence of subliminal messages” said Brackin. “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 a banned parent.”

Real life examples were then shown of the three most common hypnotic techniques used in advertising today. Each example was chosen because of its spontaneous recall amongst the public and its ability to dramatically increase sales. 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 viewed around 10 million times on the internet claimed a chart, published by the TellyAds.com website. Commercially the ad was responsible for increasing Cadbury's market share by 30%.

The second example shown was the U.K's greatest ad ever as voted by Channel 4 viewers, the Guinness “Surfer”. Despite being originally shown nearly 10 years ago this ad has left its mark because it still has front of mind awareness and very high levels spontaneous recall amongst the public.

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.