As I set sights on the cigarettes placed strategically next to the cash register, I stole a glance sideways. Guilt created anxiety but aspirations to an artistic identity provided resolve. The overt tobacco advertising still allowed on billboards at the time weren’t the incentive to pick up a pack. That pitch was too obvious. After all, the Marlboro Man later died of lung cancer. The pack of cigarettes was an accessory, a prop to fulfill the promises subtly suggested in period pieces and film noir flicks on late-night television. Artists of all stripes – writers, actors, painters – smoke and drink. Implied sophistication trumped the Surgeon General’s warning and accepted wisdom that cigarettes were anything but sophisticated. Images of charred lungs, oxygen tanks and tracheae disavowed that conceivable excuse. Reality conflicted with dreams, an inconvenience resolved by dated images and inferences. The subliminal advertisements – whether they were sponsored, paid, or circumstantial – in those old films did not consist of shady and split-second images and words typical of latter-day subliminal efforts, but the smoke-filled frames are no less dubious. Psychological inferences and suggestions are wildly effective.
While guerrilla tactics surprise and shock, many times with loud and upfront messages, the eyeblink subtlety of subliminal strategies imply and infer through peripheral vision, attention, and consciousness (Love, 2011; Mercer, n.d.). “In most cases, when you see or hear a subliminal message, your conscious mind ignores it, but your subconscious mind hears it loud and clear (Mercer, n.d., para. 1).” From my experience reading about the practice, the overriding debate and controversy converge on a single question: Is subliminal advertising deceptive and perhaps immoral? Using a discreet word, noise, phrase, or visual to stimulate unconscious desires and buying behaviors (Love, 2011; Mercer, n.d.) has ethical implications, no doubt. Sometimes the subliminal message isn’t within an ad, but in the placement of a social media link or photo of a product on a website or personal page (Mercer, n.d.)
The old adage that sex sells is conspicuously apparent throughout marketing and advertising. Beer commercials, workout pitches, and cologne positioning all blatantly appeal to the reproductive hormones. As Love (2011) and Mercer (n.d.) demonstrate in respective compilations of subliminal advertising, the art and practice of subtly (slyly?) associating a product with sex and power is mainstream. Positioning an erect loaf of bread as either an aphrodisiac or a means and measure of virility does not seem overly malicious, and the icy silhouette serving as the proverbial icing on the cake or, in this case, a can of Coca Cola is not glaringly duplicitous. Then there are other examples like the penis within the abs and the breasts inside the ice cream (Love, 2011).
Would the advertisements be more honest and less deceptive if they positioned the sexual inferences outright as many beer, bikini, and brief advertisements do without apology or ambiguity? Indirect allusions are also read in tea leaves and clouds, forming predictions and patterns interpreted by seers and believers. They reinforce or reinvent beliefs and prompt action. The same goes with subliminal advertising. This is where the practice grasps at a moral and ethical tightrope. When we demanded that tobacco companies cease sponsoring television shows and promoting on billboards, we pushed past moral ambiguity and indifference. The subliminal content of an individual ad’s worth or danger is negotiable. However, the inferences and associations of the practice are downright sneaky. At least be honest about the product and benefits you’re pitching.
References
Love, D. (2011, May 26). The shocking drink and incredible Coke history of subliminal advertising. Business Insider. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from: http://www.businessinsider.com/subliminal-ads-2011-5?op=1
Mercer, L. M. (n.d.) Ten examples of subliminal advertising in social media. Top Ten Social Media. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from: http://www.toptensocialmedia.com/social-media-social-buzz/ten-examples-of-subliminal-advertising-in-social-media/
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