SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING

What are subliminal adverts? They are covertly embedded images or ‘messages’ that ‘speak’ to the subconscious and not to the conscious mind. Subliminal adverts are used as tools of persuasion by our media manipulators. They are embedded in advertising material for a variety of reasons, usually to stimulate consumption, alter our moods, and enhance negative associations and lots of other stuff we are not even aware of. Before I launch into this however, I would also like to point out that we ‘react’ to images and symbols in a powerful way and our media persuaders know how to use this fact to their advantage. In other words, depending on the intended effect, specific words or images can trigger unconscious thought which may lead to subsequent action. My intention here is to help make you aware of what is placed before you and that you ask yourself why? I present some examples of subliminal adverts for you to chew over, show you how to look for these things, give some links to a few excellent sites on the techniques of ‘embeds’ and best of all, once you are aware of the game being played, you can see ‘it’ and hence, see through it.

I also welcome any examples of subliminal adverts you find so that I can expose this to a wider audience and if you want to write your own piece to accompany your examples, feel free to send them in, so that I can update this section of the website on a frequent basis.

Background:
If you can accept the idea that we have a subconscious and conscious mind and that the subconscious mind misses nothing, it is at this level that our media persuaders target their advertising materials.

The subconscious mind sees all and interprets everything it ‘sees’ as it happens. We do not ‘see’ through our eyes and ultimately, the brain processes streams of energy or wave patterns prior to us making sense of what we think we are ‘seeing’ i.e. our ‘reality’. As the brain is the site of image-processing or reality vision based on how we perceive the world from a cultural basis, it is not too illogical to assume that subliminal adverts can also be made to target specific groups and classes of people within society. In other words, we interpret the world according to what we think we know and what we have experienced, i.e. we respond to embedded stimuli as we do to other societal messages as socialised beings. By this I mean that depending on our social class, age or ‘race’ (which is a big misnomer) we respond to images or words in predictable ways. Some embedded words are almost universal e.g. ‘sex’ but others can only be triggered if they have specific cultural meaning to particular groups. These words and images are usually taboo, e.g. fuck, die, nigger or whatever social descriptor is chosen. Other embeds may imprint the word, consume, work hard, etc. etc. A fuller description of this process can be found in David Icke’s excellent new book ‘Tales from the Time Loop’ (2003), Bridge of Love Publications.

How to look for subliminal advertising and other manipulations:

First off, get hold of a glossy magazine, make yourself comfortable and 'skim' adverts. Do this quickly e.g. spend no more than 1 - 2 seconds per page and do not purposely look for anything other than what you can see. Think about what you have just seen and go back to one advert that caught your eye and look again. What caught your attention? Was it how your eyes were led from one part of the page to the other? Did you wonder about all the dark shadowy stuff that is peripheral to the products being advertised, was your attention drawn to the face or bodies of the models? Did you spot unusual grammar that particularly caught your attention? Was the advert slightly suggestive, hinting of societal taboos? Did you notice something about how the model was standing/sitting? Did you notice that something was not quite 'right' but you had problems identifying it? These are just some of the techniques that are used by our media manipulators to get the message across at a number of different levels and in a number of different ways. Some of these adverts are extremely sophisticated, polished and subtle.

Secondly, arm yourself with a big magnifying glass, put the magazine on a flat surface, relax your eyes, ease your expectations and re-examine those adverts which particlarly caught your attention. This is not an easy exercise to do and it does take some time to get going but you must remember that much of the advertising material that is put before is meant to engage at the level of the subconscious mind. Enough waffle, check out the stuff below. I include a few images on the use of skulls and demons for those hard drinkers of scotch whiskey plus more. If you find something interesting, particularly recent stuff, send it in (email) so that I can expose the tricks of the media manipulators more widely.

The image below can be found on t-shirts. Look closely at what you consciously see and identify the hidden message. The first step is to de-focus your vision by relaxing youe eyes. Click on next for the answer. Remember, that once the message has been identified, you will automatically 'see it'.

IMAGE 1

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The second image is from David Icke’s excellent new book ‘Tales from the Time Loop’ (2003), Bridge of Love Publications. Soloflex do Mens Stuff and they are very much into the body beauty culture. Look closely at the body shades, shade and form. Its quite an artistic style but something is not quite right?

IMAGE 2

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This next one is a little surprising because its from a Walt Disney advert for 'The Little Mermaid' and its so blatant as to be perceived at the conscious level. Yet another 'big dick' embed.

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Click here for further examples of subliminal adverts