Subliminal Advertising Essay, Research Paper

Throughout mass media there are illegal messages that still appear, such images are also known as Subliminal Advertising. Though illegal, such incidences can never be tried nor taken to a court of law. It is highly impossible and unlikely to notice these messages. However, they are triggered by the subconscience and send neural messages to your brain that you are unaware of, thus making it hard to notice when you are seeing these things. They are illegal because it was believed in earlier incidences that cigarette ads were sending similar messages telling the youths of America to smoke.

I have witnessed similar messages called "Threshold Messages", these are images that are digitally re-mastered so that you don?t notice what you are seeing but the neural pathways in the human brain hone in on and receive these messages. If you look very carefully at most Liqueur ads you will notice that the nude upper body of a woman is thrown into the ice in a wine ad, or there is the word "sex" etched into the eyes of a female in a herbal essence ad. However even such images are even unseen to the naked human eye. Unless your light threshold is low, you will not be able to encounter these images, but if you do have a low threshold for light, all you simply need are a little time, patience, and energy.

As I was browsing through a Skateboarding Magazine, I had noticed an ad that was a "Absolute Vodka" ad, I looked all over the add for about an hour, finally I had seen a picture of a skull and crossbones in the ice that was in the glass. Though these images did not appeal to me, think about how they might appear to you average alcoholic or lush.

One technique used by most corporations is a technique usually described as using "buzz words", this is found more in print than is used on television or radio. If we are scrolling through a newspaper and we see an exciting flashy word, our eyes tend to draw towards it. Companies are entirely aware of this, so they flash words on us like, "Free," "New." "Hurry". Something about these words makes us want to see what all the fuss is about, and to read the company?s ad. Now when you do read the ad, there will be "buzz words" embedded into he ad that do not even look flashy. It is always words that do not actually have and significant meaning what so ever, but they are added in anyways. For example, words like, Homemade, Improved, 100%, tasty, and the list continues.

Michael Jordan is selling you Gatorade, Jerry Seinfeld is backing up American Express, and Paul Reiser wants you to use AT&T. Why do these famous stars appear on commercials and show up in ads? The purpose is to subliminally give the product traits that it never even deserves, like wealth, fame, and even success. When you see Michael Jordan drink that Gatorade and then go for a 360 slam dunk, they want you to think that, "Hey maybe if I drink Gatorade, I can become as great a basketball player as Michael Jordan". Now when you see someone like Jerry Seinfeld with American Express, they want you to think, " If somebody so prestigious and successful as Jerry Seinfeld loves American Express, Then it MUST be a great card to have". Besides the less obvious, there is simply the fact that someone wants a famous celebrity to present and sell their product, rather than some common person who holds no social stature in society.

Though Subliminal Advertising is Highly illegal the fact still remains, it is present and it will remain to haunt us until technology advances and ables us to pick up such images.