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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
II. Integrated Marketing
Program Situation Analysis
ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE 4-2
Subliminal Rats or
Purely Coincidence?
4. Perspectives on
Consumer Behavior
One of the most controversial topics in all of advertising
is subliminal advertising. Rooted in psychoanalytic
theory, subliminal advertising supposedly influences
consumer behaviors by subconsciously altering perceptions
or attitudes toward products without the
knowledge—or consent—of the consumer. Marketers
have promoted subliminal self-help audiotapes,
weight-loss videos, and golf game improvement tapes.
Studies have shown that the majority of American consumers
believe that advertisers sometimes use subliminal
advertising and that it works.
The controversy hit national proportions in the last
presidential election. In the Bush-Gore campaign, Democratic
officials and some advertising experts accused
the Republican National Committee of running a subliminal
advertisement on television by having the
phrase “bureaucrats decide” flashing around the screen
and then, in larger print, flashing the word “rats” for a
fraction of a second while an announcer criticized candidate
Gore’s Medicare plan. Republicans argued that
the word appeared for one-thirtieth of a second on only
one frame out of 900 and was purely an accident. Advertising
analysts, including two experts on political advertising,
disagreed, contending that there is no way such a
thing could happen by accident. At least one noted that
the word was “carefully superimposed.” A Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) investigation concluded
that no further action would be taken.
The concept of subliminal advertising was introduced
in 1957 when James Vicary, a motivational
researcher, reported that he increased the sales of
popcorn and Coke by subliminally flashing “Eat popcorn”
and “Drink Coca-Cola” across the screen during a
movie in New Jersey. Since then, numerous books and
research studies have been published regarding the
effectiveness of this advertising form. Some of these
have reported on the use of this technique by advertisers
to manipulate consumers.
Numerous articles have reviewed the research in
this area. Timothy Moore, after reviewing the literature
three times (1982, 1988, 1992), has concluded that
there is no evidence to support the fact that subliminal
messages can affect consumers’ motivations, perceptions,
or attitudes. Joel Saegart and Jack
Haberstroh have supported Moore’s conclusions in
their studies. On the other hand, in 1994 Kathryn Theus
concluded after an extensive review of the literature
that “certain themes might be effectively applied by
advertising or marketing specialists.”
In more recent writings, opposite positions are
again taken. In a study conducted in Australia by an ad
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
agency and Mindtec (a consulting firm), 12 groups of
television viewers were hypnotized and asked questions
about specific commercials and programs.
According to the study, 75 percent of the hypnotized
subjects stated that sexy images were the main attraction
for viewing, as opposed to only 22 percent of the
nonhypnotized subjects. The researchers were surprised
by the subliminal details that hypnotized participants
were able to recall. In the ads, names and
slogans that were visible only when the commercial
was paused had high levels of recall, even when the
brands recalled were not those being advertised. On
the other hand, in his book, Ice Cube Sex: The Truth
about Subliminal Advertising, Haberstroh reviews
research and discussions with practitioners and concludes
that subliminal advertising does not influence
consumer behaviors, advertising recall, attitudes, or
any other marketplace behavior.
When Haberstroh asked ad agency executives if
they had ever deliberately used subliminal advertising,
96 percent said no, 94 percent said they had never
supervised the use of implants, and 91 percent denied
knowing anyone who had ever used this technique. A
study by Rogers and Seiler supported these results,
with over 90 percent denying any use of subliminal
implants.
Going even further, Haberstroh contends that subliminal
advertising does not even exist except for a few
pranksters playing around with artwork for fun. But
not so fast! Fashion retailer French Connection is not
only employing subliminal advertising but incorporating
it into a tagline. Using print and posters, the
tagline “subliminal advertising experiment” is
arranged in such a way as to spell out the word sex if
one reads vertically. Likewise, Master Lock has become
the first company to run a one-second national print
commercial. The goal of the ad is to reinforce the
brand name. And, in upstate New York, a personalinjury
lawyer paid $35 each for one-second spots in an
attempt to gain new clients. At this time, no one knows
if any of these efforts have been successful.
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