Subliminals in TV adverts?

DublinWriter

I read a while back that advertisers were sneakily using NLP Derren Brown-type techniques in ads to influence people's behaviour, especially in ads for alcoholic drinks.

I didn't believe it until I saw something very interesting in that ad on TV for Miller beer where the guy rolls downhill on the bike, goes into a shop for beer, then keeps on rolling downhill back to where he came from.

Watch carefully just as he goes into the shop. There's a chair just to the left of the door partially obscuring a sign. The visable part of the sign reads 'OPEN Abier'.

I do realise that 'Abierto' is Spanish for open, but considering all the visual elements in the ad, I'm not convinced that it was accidental!

Spooky or what?

Morgans

I'm not sure what car it was for - shows that the subliminal message didnt work for me - but its the car add where they have several different individuals signing the words to "Its a wonderful world". (I see trees of green, red roses too...)

Well at the end of the add it, its shows the car coming towards the screen, but the audio track has kids and a family laughing in the background. Fine, and that was all I heard when I've come accross the ad. However, on one occasion, I could have sworn that during the kids laughing and squeezed in before the end of the ad - maybe a second a half long - there was a voice saying "I love you". Thought it was odd and asked my flatmate to listen for it the next time, and after hearing it twice, no signs of the I Love You, but on the third time, he heard it as well. So, it wasnt just me going mad.

Dickburn

I have an interest in NLP and hypnosis and I'm telling you everytime I switch on the radio adds are full of hypnotic language

condra

Maybe thats why radio ads annoy the hell out of me.

jor el

You're all crazy :pac: Subliminal advertising is illegal. You guys should learn to not watch ads so carefully, I thought everyone ignored ads generally.

citytillidie

Thats what Sky + is for record what you want to watch then watch it at a later date and fast forward the ads

humanji

I thought that it was proven that subliminal messages don't work except under specific circumstances (ie if someone is thirsty, showing them a refreshing drink will make them want to get a drink, but even then not necessarily the one advertised).

Ivan

As far as I remember, there was one case where some scientists demonstrated subliminal messaging working by placing advertisements for coca-cola and popcorn in Cinema trailers. The sales then showed a statistical anomaly, of an increase in sales in these items.

But the experiement could never be reproduced and was just written off as hocus-pocus. But I'm sure thats what the government want us to think

But seriously yeah, its never been demonstrated appreciably and thus lays squarely in the realm of Sci-Fi and conspiracy theories.

BaZmO*

DublinWriter wrote: »

Watch carefully just as he goes into the shop. There's a chair just to the left of the door partially obscuring a sign. The visable part of the sign reads 'OPEN Abier'.

I do realise that 'Abierto' is Spanish for open, but considering all the visual elements in the ad, I'm not convinced that it was accidental!

Spooky or what?

Not sure exactly what you're getting at tbh.

jor el wrote: »

You're all crazy :pac: Subliminal advertising is illegal. You guys should learn to not watch ads so carefully, I thought everyone ignored ads generally.

Exactly. Blatent Subliminal Advertising is illegal. However, NLP works slightly different in the sense that it doesn't plant hidden messages within an add saying, "BUY ME, BUY ME" (it wouldn't work anyway).
What it does is to be very slective in the words it uses to describe things and products in particular.
It's like if your boss asks if that job you've been working on is finished. Instead of saying "No it's not done yet" (negative connotation) you spin it to say that you have it completed except for one last piece of information, thereby not using any negatives.

It's all a bit wánky but apparently it works to a certain degree.

Politicians use a NLP all the time, probably not realising that they're doing it either.

Dickburn

jor el wrote: »

You're all crazy :pac: Subliminal advertising is illegal. You guys should learn to not watch ads so carefully, I thought everyone ignored ads generally.

You're right Jor el (great name) however, have you ever had a song stuck in your head that won't go away and just keeps repeating and repeating and repeating? Or as when it comes to radio ads even though you find them annoying they seem to just stick in your head any, it's like there's a little feedback loop that you are seperate from, it keeps playing away while your voice in your head says to itself god I wish that song/ad would stop so it's like that song/ad almost has a mind of its own, inside your head no less!

Again you are right, it is illegal but trust in me they have other ways and means.

KnifeWRENCH

I heard this rumour from my J.Cert Business Studies teacher, not sure if it's true.
Apparently, Coca-Cola used have put subliminal ads on telly. A bottle of Coke would appear for a fraction of a second. A person watching will have seen the bottle of Coke, but won't know that they've seen it. So they get a "sudden" craving for Coke! When it was discovered that they were doing this, they were banned.

Our teacher told us lots of these kinda stories and most of 'em were true. This one seemed a bit far fetched though.

ArmaniJeanss

I think it has been proven in research that the key to succesful advertising is publicity and word of mouth. Subliminal just doesn't work.

kmart6

Sorry but,

First Post:18-04-2006

Second Post:29-04-2008

How did this come back up?!

DublinWriter

BaZmO* wrote: »

Politicians use a NLP all the time, probably not realising that they're doing it either.

NLP is very, very, very powerful.

If, like me, you're wondering what it's all about then by now, you'll want to learn more about it.

There's three embedded commands in a seemingly innocuous statement.

Pigman II

kmart6 wrote: »

Sorry but,

First Post:18-04-2006

Second Post:29-04-2008

How did this come back up?!

Cockrash up there is just very susceptible to subliminal suggestion.