Status of this site in December, 2000

This site was developed between December,1998 and Nov, 2000. Although accessible since October, 1999, no promotion on major search engines commenced until late November, 2000. All of the content is therefore relatively new. Explore, learn and enjoy - and raise the relevant ethical, commercial, legal and political issues as you perceive them in the relevant quarters.

Additions and amendments since the principal framework was completed in October, 2000 include Robbie Williams magazine cover, News clippings, correspondence pages focussing on correspondence with the Advertising Standards Authority and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, additions to What is and what isn't subliminal advertising, and quite a few more Spanish/Mexican ads. None of the additions however change the basic premise of the site, nor the conclusions of the author. Additional changes since January, 2001 are noted at the end of this section.

The conclusions drawn by the author are:

That subliminal advertising, as considered by the general public, is misnamed and should be called semi-subliminal or (in some respects) marginally perceptible advertising.

Semi-subliminal advertising is just as unacceptable as subliminal advertising is/would be.

Semi-subliminal advertising is relatively common but nowhere near as widely used as indicated in the books of Wilson Keys.

Semi-subliminal ads would seem to be commercially effective and capable of influencing a commercially significant proportion of the population. This conclusion is based on the long-term usage by major companies, in particular US tobacco companies. This conclusion runs contrary to virtually all social science and business studies research/articles on the subject. But such studies, as noted elsewhere, rarely focus on Advertising.

If marketing data indicates semi subliminal advertising is effective, this indicates that all consumption is not a matter of free choice. This would therefore raise major issues with regard to certain product ranges e.g. cigarettes and alcoholic drinks. If semi-subliminal advertising does influence the purchasing or consumption behaviour of anyone using these products then these individuals who are influenced would seemingly have a justifiable legal claim against the relevant ad agencies and their clients. Effective advertising using manipulative means that cannot be determined by the lay person would seem to raise issues regarding breach of trust, exploitation, and infringement of their rights as determined by relevant legal statutes.

Given that semi subliminal advertising relies upon basic associative conditioning, priming, cueing and reinforcement techniques, familiar to psychologists, such ads could easily be examined in experimental conditions. Additionally, it is notable that the use of embedded elements in ads tends to follow a fairly restricted set of rules. Again this means that the use of semi-subliminal techniques are ripe for experimental investigation by interested parties. Suggestions for experiments and other studies will be provided on the experiment page in due course, when time permits. The author and a colleague began some studies along these lines in March, 2001. The images used in these experiments and the results will be added to this web site in due course.

Additional changes after mid-January, 2001

[Note references to pages not available on this Basic version of the site do not have active links]

28th January, 2001. Modifications have been made to the Overview page and a new Utilities page added.

13th February, 2001. Dr Pepper label added. Additional information provided about one Marlboro ad.

16th February, 2001. Some additional material added to the What is Subliminal Page? on the subject of Meta-subliminal ads i.e. those which take a tongue-in-cheek, self reflexive, knowing look at subliminal advertising techniques. They parody what are deemed to be 'old fashioned' techniques but often also ad a twist that makes many such ads deceptive and manipulative.

14th March, 2001. The Contents Index was updated and extended to include pages under construction and those currently inactive and awaiting implementation. A Download Accelerator was added to all pages to speed up downloading and enhance viewing. A small selection of classic games and game clones, including Breakout, PacMan, and Space Invaders were added to provide a distraction from weightier viewing. Other changes include changes in page counter management, site search engine, and other services with a transfer of these from MyComputer.com to Bravenet.com when the former withdrew their free service. Additional Coca Cola company labels come under the spotlight.

15th March, 2001. Correction of coding relating to Next page links on some 50 pages.

18th March, 2001. Links within pages to sites with complementary sources of information began to be established. Links to date include skeptical articles on the CSICOP web site, Disney subliminals, Astrological commentary, Visual perception, The Subliminal Web and others. New hit counters added.

20th March, 2001. Index List of Ads and Contents (Page) List updated.

June, 2001.No further additions will be made to the basic site in the forseeable future. If you wish additional information, new additions, more links to relevant sites you will have to move to the Full Version of the Site.

Revised : June, 2001. No further changes will be made to this page. If you wish to view additional material you will need to view the Full Site. Click here for the Full Site Home Page