The efficacy of the "subliminal seduction" as was put forth in the book of the same name and "Clambake Orgy" has been questioned over the years.
Dave Lakhani and yours truly at his Renegades of
Persuasion event last month. If you have not heard my
interview with him, you are missing out. He is the Author of
new book, "Subliminal Persuasion".
However, the use of these subliminal embeddings in advertising has not. As the two books above show very clearly in many cases, and sort of stretch the imagination in others, the film below shows mostly very clear attempts by advertisers to embed words and images. These are mostly surrounded by sex. Don't watch if you are easily offended.
I remember hearing about backward masking in the 7th grade. I remember my brother playing our vinyl record of Stairway to Heaven backwards. I couldn't sleep for a week!
On purpose? You decide. Does it work? Over 40 years later it seems that it is still being done. Or it is a huge coincidence that the TV shows the Simpson's actually used back masking for satire. Catch that one at the end of this clip:
Oh no, not the Golden Arches:
Even movies like Fight Club use these techniques. This quick appearance of Brad Pitt cannot be coincidental. It obviously is not used as a sales technique but as perhaps to communicate with our other than conscious on the storyline. Why would they do that?
Watch how advertisers are persuaded by seemingly everyday events to create an ad concept. Shockingly the host Darren Brown has seemingly willed upon them what "their" creation will be:
Thanks to Hypnosis for inspiring this post.
Does it work? I can only wonder why advertisers and media would use it if it did not to one degree or the other. We are being exposed to thousands of messages daily. All wanting us to do what they want us to do. Which is usually to part with our power or money.
To some degree these methods remind me of some of the techniques in conversational hypnosis.
1. Phonological Ambiguity-The idea is that many words in the English language are similar sounding but have unique meaning. So the hypnotist may say below and mean blow. Other words:
- there: their
- wait:weight
- too:two:to
- you're unconscious now...:your unconscious now...
- New day : nude, eh?
2. Embedded Language-If you thought the above is wild consider the therapist using words embedded in sentences to create other sentences. There are questions, commands and suggestions that is used in advertising, I mean therapy all the time:
- “I think you’ll be wise if you invest in this property today.”
- “My mother used to tell me that the best way to get over a cold is stay in bed and get plenty of rest.”
This stuff is used all the time in advertising. As my last post on memes suggests that we are being pulled and tugged at all the time.
Master Copywriter Harlon Kilstein uses these techniques and more when he gets $20,000 each time he creates an ad. In fact, he recently put together a closed door conference for real estate professionals that teach you how to succeed in today's recessionary environment. He says the problem with most Realtors and Mortgage Pros is that they simply do not know how sell themselves or homes. His students, many non-Realtors are getting $10,000 and up. Are they stealing your fees? Check it out
