Where would you draw the line?

There is no real dividing line between those aspects of adverts that can be easily seen, noticed, attended and responded to and those elements that are embedded, camouflaged or hidden amongst more readily perceptible elements. For example, can you tell which category the following Kamel ad falls into? At present I bet you don't. However once you check it out on the Kamel page you surely will. It's a howler.

The standard terminology used by the layperson and many professionals would refer to all ads containing elements that were not noticed as subliminal ads.  However, the term semi-subliminal is most appropriately reserved for the material illustrated on these pages. Brief definitions are given below but see the introduction and FAQs for a fuller commentary on the terminology.

Subliminal to a psychologist means below the level at which conscious perception occurs.   Subliminal material cannot therefore be seen.    As you will undoubtedly note, the majority of the advertising material on this site can be seen by most individuals with normal vision.  It is therefore semi-subliminal rather than subliminal in nature. But hopefully you will find the phenomenon no less intriguing because a different and more accurate term has been applied.

Although most semi-subliminal material included in adverts should be visible this is not always the case. The ability of any individual to see something varies from moment to moment.  And what is seen (perceived) can also be influenced by lighting conditions, context and other factors.  There will also be differences due to interpretation of ambiguous elements in an ad. Differences do not necessarily mean that what is reported does not exist. It may simply mean that people are selective about the cues they respond to when presented with unclear or ambiguous material.

Unscrupulous and unethical advertising agencies and their clients rely upon this inability to see (perceive) everything that is printed when they incorporate semi-subliminal elements into their advertising. They know that lay viewers of printed ads will never consciously notice. For technical reasons this is not the case with TV viewing as was indicated by the response to a spoof 'subliminal' insertion in the programme Have I Got News For You in April, 1997 and other experiments that have made use of TV programmes to air 'subliminal' messages.

Dozens of viewers, apparently unfamiliar with Have I Got News Fo You, did not realize they were viewing a spoof ad and rang the BBC to complain about the 'subliminal' message on their screens. The 'subliminal' ad was apparently urging them - against all common sense and reason at the time - to "Vote Conservative".

Underlying the use of the semi-subliminal ads illustrated on these pages is the apparent belief by some advertising professionals and their clients that people are influenced by semi-subliminal information. This may be a spin-off from research that indicates that people are influenced by subliminally presented information - but not to the extent that subliminal messages influence behaviour. In other words the ads seem to be based on a belief that people can be influenced even though they are not consciously aware of what is occurring.    Why this should be so is addressed more extensively in the author's forthcoming book Sexy, Subliminal and Deadly?: The psychology of manipulative advertising.

One analogy likens the outcome of this (presumed) manipulative process to that used in hypnosis. When individuals indulge in behaviour influenced by the suggestions of a hypnotist they rationalize what they have done, no matter how silly their behaviour might have been. They are unaware of the hypnotists suggestions. It is seemingly assumed by some ad professionals that semi-subliminal advertising might operate in a similar manner. For example, the impulsive consumption of fast moving consumer goods such as alcohol, tobacco and food might be influenced without the consumer being aware of any external influence. And, of course, even if purchases had been influenced by semi-subliminal aspects of advertising the subsequent consumption would be rationally explained: 'It was actually an impulse buy BUT it was a bargain.'

This tendency to rationalize events formed the basis of a joke attributed to David Letterman and reported in the Guardian newspaper (26th April, 1997). He claimed NEVER to be influenced by subliminal advertising, or any advertising come to that. Nevertheless he 'went out and bought a Combine Harvester, on impulse, the other day.' 

The Letterman example is far fetched. The power of ads, or even a series of ads, to influence people, is considerably less than any hypnotists suggestions.  But, such ads are in constant use by major companies. And the majority of companies using semi-subliminal and other manipulative techniques are well versed in marketing and evaluation. It would be difficult to imagine them intentionally wasting time, effort and money on techniques that are not proving commercially viable. Their efforts run against conventional wisdom and one has to wonder why. Despite the persistent arguments emphasizing the inability of 'subliminal' advertising to influence behaviour from all sides: from business interests, advertising specialists and psychologists alike, these ads just keep on coming (pun intended). The reviews by Pratkanis and others are typical. It therefore seems likely that these companies manage to influence sufficient individuals to make the production of semi-subliminal adverts commercially viable.

So what constitutes a semi-subliminal advert? At some point, in between those adverts whose contents can be seen without difficulty and ads that might contain images/messages that could never be seen i.e. are truly subliminal, there is a borderline area. This borderline area is populated by semi-subliminal ads, the type of ads illustrated on this site. These ads ostensibly possess the characteristics of normal advertising but they also contain additional, semi-subliminal, features. These additional features, if judged by the propagation of such ad, seemingly give them an 'edge' over conventional ads.

The following simple diagram illustrates this continuum but you might also like to bear in mind some heretical thoughts. Despite the fact that such ads are relatively common in the advertising of

some products, the ad agencies responsible for them, and their clients, might all be suckers. They might be relying on techniques that have no validity. The standard professional viewpoint may be accurate and semi-subliminal techniques do not work. The continued use of semi-subliminal contents may simply be out of faith or fear that competitors who do use such techniques might have the edge. And because the ad agencies and companies using techniques know that they are unethical and unacceptable to the public their use cannot be publicly acknowledged.

Read on and reach your own conclusions. You are now ready to navigate the subliminalworld.com/ web site. Enjoy your journey.

A full list of the site pages can be found in the contents list below. Other links can be found in the navigation bars at the top of the page.

There are also some simple navigation buttons at the foot of the page linking to the Introduction, Business Page and the next page in the series. Usually the next page will be on a related subject but if it is the final page of a section then you will be taken to the next section. Hopefully this will not be without your conscious assent. The information on the status bar at the foot of the page and the alternative text on images/buttons will normally provide an indication of the contents of the Next page.