Subliminal Advertising Research Paper Example

Subliminal Advertising Paper Subliminal advertising has a lot of impact on the consumer behavior. Before putting an insight into the ins and outs of the subliminal advertising, we must catch the idea of the consumer behavior. What is consumer behavior? Consumer behavior involves the psychological processes that consumers go through in identifying requirements, looking for ways to solve these requirements, making buying decisions, that is whether or not to buy that product and, if so, which brand and where, interpret information, make plans and execute those plans. Thus we can define consumer behavior as the study of how, when, why and where people do or they do not purchase a particular product. It mixes elements from sociology, psychology, social anthropology and economics. It also tries to comprehend the purchaser’s decision making process, both as an individual and as well as in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand consumer’s requirements. One such tool of familiarizing the consumers with the new products is subliminal advertising. Now let us understand how subliminal advertising works. Subliminal advertising involves the utilization of messages sent to the subconscious mind in order to persuade people about a particular product or service from the inner core of their minds. It is the subconscious mind of a person that is accountable for controlling every action and thought instigated by certain conditions. These thoughts and actions include memory extraction and storage as well as breathing and body temperature maintenance among others. We will write a custom essay sample on Subliminal Advertising specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Subliminal Advertising specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Subliminal Advertising specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The subconscious mind even controls most of the core traits and characteristics possessed by our conscious mind. All these aspects make subliminal advertising a mighty force to reckon with when it comes to persuading people about a certain product or service. The US government banned this form of advertising right after Dr James Vicary released an experiment that involved 100 millisecond-flashes of the messages â€Å"Drink more coke† and â€Å"I want popcorn† that appeared in front of a movie audience back in the 1970s. The people who were part of the experiment did not see the messages that appeared on the screen from the technical point of view, but popcorn and Coke sales soared by more than 50% and 15%, respectively, after the collective subconscious minds of the crowd had been exposed to the pioneer subliminal advertisements. The US government lifted the ban right after groups of people and reputable institutions argued that subliminal messaging could work out miracles. These groups even considered subliminal messaging as a medium that can play a significant role in the treatment of mental disorders and severe depression. But now a days, subliminal advertising is still coping with both ethical and technical legalities since this form of subliminal messaging can invoke advertisers all over the world to control masses of people in buying their products and services without the conscious consent of the people themselves. But some argue that subliminal advertising is not scientifically proven to produce successful results despite the popular experiment of Dr James Vicary back in the 1970s. This is just a popular disbelief as most people have not heard of the results of the 1970 Dr James Vicary experiment. This is because the experiment is still cryptic under a cloak of legendary fiction up to this day. This may be due to the US governments code of secrecy. The fact is that it is scientifically proven that subliminal messaging or advertising can produce quantifiable results. Subliminal advertising or messaging does not necessarily involve unseen messages. It can be done through various methods and means. Graphic designers have discovered many methods. Now the next question that arises in ones mind is why companies use such advertising. An important objective in any capitalist society, firm or company is to make money, usually by selling goods and services. Business people make advertisements in order to allure consumers. With this object in mind, it is no surprise that there are subliminal advertisements; subliminally embedding something that fascinates consumers is a great way to help reach their goal. Consciously, however, people like to be in control of their thoughts. Companies can embed messages into their advertising media in a shockingly large variety of ways. One of the most well-known methods is quickly flashing an image onto a screen. Many people have heard of the theater incident in which moviegoers were flashed phrases inciting them to eat popcorn, and buy cola(Todd). This is done with the help of a machine called a tachistoscope which can flash frames lasting 1/3000th of a second at five second intervals. This was used to increase popcorn and cola. Words have also been subliminally embedded in images by the companies. It has been debated that the only subliminal messages that work are the ones that can be retrieved through some systematic process. Embedded images and words in pictures can usually be studied long enough to figure it out; if not, computers can easily increase brightness, contrast, and other properties to bring out the hidden message(s). Subliminal messages are there to do what they do best: influence people. They often are incorporated into ads to influence people to purchase products, music for any possible reason, and other forms of entertainment in order to get more money out of consumers. Now let us know what are different methods of such advertising? Graphic design artists have a plethora of tools at their disposal to efficiently embed subliminal messages into their pictures. First is embedding. Embedding is the processing of hiding one image in the form of another. This is a difficulty process. The female torso in the Diet Coke can is an example of embedding. Many images, phrases, and slogans have hidden double meanings behind them. This is called double entendre. Symbolism can also go into this category. For example Microsofts Where do you want to go today? Other techniques are tachistoscopic display and lighting and background sound which are used in film and video advertisers. Tachistoscopic displays flash images onto the screen in fractions of a second not perceivable by the conscious mind. Another method tachistoscopic displays can use is superimposing the image onto existing image just below the conscious perception level. Lighting and background sound adjust the mood of the scenery. In most cases, it reinforces the conscious perception. Some examples are- If you put the Coca-Cola logo on its side, and add a little fantasy, you can see a smoking man. Some sources say it looks like a person snorting cocaine. Last but not the least; I would like to say that subliminal advertising is an quintessential tool that influence the masses positively and negatively, hence it should be used prudently. Work Cited Stark, Todd. â€Å"Is Subliminal Influence Used in Advertising? †. April 6, 2010, http://www. realmagick. com/articles/47/547. html