The Limits of Subliminal Mind Power Techniques

A word on Subliminal Advertising Subliminal advertising is simply defined as ‘any form advertisement that has a hidden message designed to appeal to the viewer’s subconscious.The term ‘subliminal advertising’ was first coined by market researcher James Vicary in the 1950s. Vicary inserted subliminal messages such as ‘Hungry? Eat Popcorn’, and ‘Drink Coca Cola’ into a film. The messages were displayed for only a fraction of a second, the idea being that they would be interpreted by the subconscious mind but too fast for the audience to notice them. Vicary claimed that the messages resulted in a significant increase of popcorn and cola consumption throughout the movie but these claims were later proven to be a hoax. He was never able to prove the effectiveness of his theory.
Since this time subliminal advertising has been used by many large brands although it can be difficult to know when subliminal advertising is being deliberately employed as it’s often very subtle. Since it hasn’t been conclusively proven to be ineffective, many governments consider it to be manipulative and potentially dangerous and therefore have outlawed it. The idea behind subliminal advertising is comparable to hypnotic suggestion. It’s know that people are already in a very suggestible state, similar to hypnosis, when watching TV for longer periods of time so advertisers who use subliminal messages in their advertisements are trying to tap into this to increase sales. It was the acceptance of how powerful the mind is.

Does Subliminal Advertising exist?
Today subliminal advertising is rarely seen in such obvious ways as those used by James Vicary in the 50s. The techniques that many advertisers use today do show some relation to subliminal techniques but are much more cleverly incorporated. For example the clothing company French Connection UK uses the acronym FCUK to grab the attention of consumers without resorting to obvious subliminal advertising techniques such as flashing images and messages.
Today advertisers are more concerned with creating associations with their products than trying to use subliminal messages. For example companies that sell deodorant will often create the association that using their product leads to success with the opposite sex. As advertising has evolved using subliminal messages has become quite an old-hat technique and is rarely if ever used in such a crude way as when James Vicary used it in the 50s. However the ideas behind using subliminal advertising such as preying on the consumer’s suggestibility whilst also trying to appealto their needs is certainly still used today – so to some extent subliminal advertising still does exist in so much that there is a very strong power of association within modern advertising. The public does truly appreciate how deeply this influences their buying behaviour. The classic example is the pretty woman with the sports car.

Caveat: Subliminal Manipulation
Advertisers however need to be careful not to step too far. Studies have shown that the subconscious mind does not respond well if it perceives it is being manipulated, and will the opposite than the desired reaction is possible.

Caveat: The need for repetition
Subliminal persuasion also requires that the individual is bombarded with the message for a long period of time, from weeks to months, depending on the complexity of the message or idea. While this is a good reason to repeat adverts as many times as possible, mainstream advertising comes nowhere near the threshold required for the relay of complex psychology constructs.

About the Athor
Selfhelpable.com is where you’ll find trusted self-help reviews where programmes are trailed and tested, so you know exactly what you’re getting before you buy. We explore mind power techniques subliminal audio and hypnosis scripts.