Advertising: Subliminal Messages - Essay Example

Advertising: Subliminal Messages What compels us to buy some of the things that we buy? Is it that we simply can buy them so we do, or is it because intelligent advertising has subconsciously convinced us to do so? The advertising industry is hard at work every day to come up with new tactics and ideas to convince us to buy as well as to “seize” us mentally. When we sit down in the evening to watch the local news, we are given the news in 8 minute increments broken up by advertising slots. We see advertisements for toilet paper, medications and even condoms. What is it that separates one type of latex condom from the next? They are all required to adhere to certain standards to guarantee a certain level of safety when used, so why is one brand more expensive than the next and so on? Additionally, one can ask what makes one brand more successful at appealing to customers than the next brand? These questions are all quite easy to answer. The advertising industry spends billions of dollars every year and employs psychological specialists to make sure that the products in which they are hired to sell, not only sell, but beat out the competition. The entirety of this paper will discuss how advertisement influences our buying decisions with subliminal messages and psychological trickery. Additionally, a study proposal will be described which will allow for data to be obtained on the impact of advertisements. (Connor, 2008). A subliminal message is a message which appeals to our sub-conscience. It is a message in which we are not aware that we are receiving. This is extremely relevant to everyone as everyone is a consumer in one way or the other. Additionally, we are suffering with terrible economies almost globally due to oil issues and multiple wars. Saving money when possible is important to most everyone, with the exception of the wealthy who are profiting off of the global economic drought. Even more relevant is the magnitude of intrusion that comes with placing unknown messages in front of people with intent to deceive them into thinking something because specific and therefore acting a certain way. One is not allowed to give another individual drugs without that person knowing it. Suggestive subliminal messages should be viewed the same way. The correlation between the two is that both are going to cause someone to act in a way that they might not normally act. Therefore, the advertising and entertainment industry should bare the burden of forthrightness in all types of media. In other words, if one is trying to sell a type of sunglasses, it is unfair to subliminally indicate to the consumers a message of sexual content or another type of message which subconsciously induces the consumer to act on making a purchase of the product due to the hidden message that says -with this product comes sex and happiness!. (Vicary, 2008). In all fairness, all advertisements do not contain subliminal text or images. Advertising companies do however, work directly upon us psychologically. An advertisement may appeal to us by explaining that without a particular product of theirs, one might become ill, be unhappy, have unfortunate events take place or even die. They may also lure us in by creating the illusion that their product is all that is required to fit in with one’s peers and be treated well, become healthy or live long. All of these types of suggestions are made in order to plant a specific type of idea within the consumer’s mind which is strong enough to last several days or even months, “Psychology in advertising has long been used as an effective means to sell a product or service. Understanding the underlying concepts that affect human psychology can help a company better sell their product or alternatively can help a consumer understand marketing strategies that get them to buy products”(Gresko et al, 2003). In continuing with the psychology of advertising, the idea of word order is crucial. One tactic that the advertisement industry uses is one which makes a consumer uncomfortable or uneasy because something is strangely out of place. For example, we are used to hearing the phrase “he or she” but if an ad uses “she or he” then they have gone against the norm and therefore gotten our attention. This means that the memory of their ad will stay with us because it was something out of the ordinary. This causes a consumer to possess a more heightened sense of awareness without doing so consciously. (Gresko et al, 2003). Another psychological scheme utilized in advertisement is the concept of closure. If an ad can leave us hanging so to speak, they have gotten our attention as we wait for the needed info to be provided by the source at a later time. This is entirely how soap operas and drama series are made. The element of non closure will easily rope anyone in to every show in order to achieve closure.(Gresko, et al, 2003). Yet another tactic used is the appeal to our emotions. This is a particularly effective method of advertising. Such ads will display slogans such as “for a limited time only” or “one day only sale” which appeals to us on a level of anxiety or fear that we may miss something very important. Emotional advertising may convince us that with their product, comes happiness anf fun, such is the case in cigarette ads and alcohol ads. These types of ads are famous for portraying parties, people vacationing and apparently having the best time of their lives. Yet another example of the emotional appeal is one of conveying authority, “4/5 doctors recommend” or “developed by an engineer”. When we are made to believe that an expert has made or recommended a certain product, we feel that much safer about purchasing it over and over. (Vicary, 2008). When we see ads which are displayed or talked about in a scientific way, we tend to feel that that product is more credible than one that is not portrayed in a scientific manner. One example of this is the cosmetic company Clinique. When one goes to a Clinique counter at a department store, one will find attendants wearing lab coats and displaying cosmetics in packaging that almost appears like pharmaceuticals. The cabinets are also very white with silver trim giving the consumer the feeling of being in institutional or medical settings. This acts to convince the consumer that the products are not only healthy but also well tested. (Connor, 2007). Earlier it was mentioned that ads appeal to our ego. This is particularly true in cosmetic adds and plastic surgery ads. The famous company L’Oreal coined the motto “your worth it!”. This leaves the consumer to feel that ‘yes, perhaps I am worth it and should splurge on myself with this product‘. Virtually all cosmetic product ads are run like this where a direct appeal to one’s ego plants a permanent idea and self affirmation within the consumer which later encourages them to buy these products meant for “special” people or “real” women or men. (Vicary, 2008). Advertising creates a story and convinces us not only that we are a part of that story but at present, without a particular product, our lives are empty and no good. Advertising may even encourage us to change our beliefs or how we feel. In the Elaborative Likelihood Model, there are two possible routes to be used to change the consumer’s beliefs or ideas, they are known as the central route and the peripheral route. The central route is a changing of one’s beliefs on a conscious level. An example of this is the many news reports about individuals from the Middle East. We are bombarded by images of Middle Easterners wielding weapons and behaving like terrorists. We are almost never shown the larger population of individuals native to the Middle Eastern countries which are kind, peace loving and no different from the rest of us. The media neglects to point out that there are extremists in all religions and ethnic backgrounds. When one portion of a large group is singled out and highly publicized, the audience begins to adopt the idea that anyone who comes from where these individuals come from, have to be bad. In the peripheral route, the information reaches the psyche only to find it too full of other information, so it may reside there for a while for later recall or may be forgotten altogether. (Connor, 2007). Two of the most frequently used topics in the advertisement business and more specifically in their subliminal ads, is sex and death. It is human nature to be fascinated by both and when any topic or item can be somehow joined to one or both of these issues, a memory of that topic or object will then be associated with either sex or death and therefore be memorable. The challenge to any advertising company is to get their point across as quickly as possible. Each fraction of a second is valuable, time in which to capture and reel in as many consumers as possible. Air time and production costs are more expensive second per second than any movie or television program. Producers who make commercials aim to utilize each and every frame of a commercial to their advantage. Most ads are essentially designed to drive a point home or send a message to the consumer in a matter of a portion of a second, literally. This is the “why” advertisement companies utilize subliminal messages from time to time. The adding of a catch word or image in one of the many thousands of frames of a commercial may send such a strong subconscious message that the commercial itself is meaningless. (Vicary, 2008). Certainly the legality of this type of practice is relevant to discuss. In fact, most companies which use subliminal messages will maintain a low profile about the fact that they are doing so. Usually only a small group of individuals which are in upper level positions are ever made aware of this practice. Additionally, these individuals are normally required to sign a gag order, stating that under no circumstances will they disclose that their company was involved in subliminal messaging as part of their marketing strategy. Almost arguably, intentional subliminal messages could be construed as theft by deception. If we are purposely exposed to messages intended for us not to pick up on consciously, that could and does compel us to go buy something that we don’t need or want. Money is lost that we still would have had if it weren’t for the subliminal message which convinced us to buy it. (Vicary, 2008). Companies such as the Disney Corporation, have been accused of using subliminal messaging in many of their movies. Numerous rock bands have also been known to utilize strange subliminal messages in their music, often drawing attention to situations where teens have listened to specific music and then acted out in violent or suicidal ways. The band Judas Priest was accused of just such an incident when two teens attempted suicide after listening to some of the band’s albums. It was discovered that the band had included a subliminal phrase in one of their songs which simply said “do it”. It was unclear as to why they included these two words as a subliminal message or even what the two words were supposed to really be saying or indicating. (Connor, 2007). It is clear that subliminal messages do in fact, affect us in surprising and frightening ways. We are exposed to them all the time and don’t even realize it. We may be regularly purchasing products which we don’t really need, due to having been exposed to repeated messaging telling us that this product is one that we simply can’t live without. We may associate different things with sex or happiness simply because of the way that they are cleverly advertised on television or in magazines. Fortunately, here in the UK, there are regulations about subliminal messages, but many other parts of Western culture are in fact exposed to subliminal messages every single day. It is an affective way to sell a product, but nevertheless, a dishonest and devious one. (Connor, 2007). The connection between this research paper and the proposal of an actual study is that a real life experiment involving advertisement and its effect on consumers, will illustrate just how and why advertising companies do what they do. Advertisement companies are able to promote products thus creating massive profit margins for multimillion dollar corporations, because they employ psychological and subliminal tactics to appeal to the largest volume of consumers as possible. The ‘how’ of these tactics is the basis for the following study proposal. Project Proposal and Methodology: It is proposed that a survey will be conducted as to what consumers are attracted to in commercials, out of 2 consumer appropriate ads and 2 consumer inappropriate ads (ads selling something which is most likely not going to appeal to this particular consumer group). This proposal is based on conducting a survey among 40 women from a specific college. The first 2 commercials will all advertise the same type of product but will be from different companies. One commercial will be an advertisement for L’Oreal Products while the other will be an advertisement for Maybeline. The number of test subjects will be roughly 40 people. These people will be students chosen at random from the local University. Once the survey is complete, the data will be interpreted as to which was the most affective commercial out of the two shown. The commercials will then be studied in order to discover which advertisement tactics have been used and which ones are proving to be most affective. Finally, the subjects will be chosen randomly but share similarities as far as being someone who would want or need to buy the type of product illustrated by the 2 different commercials. In this particular case, women of college age will be necessary as the ads are promoting cosmetics. Similarly, the same group of people will be used to look at 2 different commercials which are most likely something that this group of subjects would not normally buy. For example, if they are all women, the commercials which are selling something that they are least likely to buy, could possibly be selling men’s body building weight gainer. A GNC advertisement for such a product will be located as well as a competitor’s advertisement for a similar project. Again, the data will be collected and interpreted and the least effective advertising tactic will be narrowed down from these 2 commercials. In order to prepare for this study, I will need to select and procure copies of 4 commercial, 2 which appeal to the group of 40 based on things that their group can relate to, and 2 commercials advertising men’s weight gaining powder. I will then need to carefully watch all of the commercials while making notes on anything that stands out. I will be looking for embedded and symbolic subliminal messages as well as what emotion is being appealed to and what tactics are used. I will have the subjects do the same and compare the data. The subjects will not know why they are watching these commercials until the experiment is over (blind subjects). This way, they will not be looking intently for every little nuance of a message. Possible problems which may arise are that 40 individuals may not be enough people to create an accurate assessment of effective and ineffective advertising tactics. Similarly, 2 commercials in each direction may not be enough to provide an adequate amount of sound data. This type of study would have to be conducted multiple times on multiple different types of people in order to gain a measure of accurate data. It is estimated that this project will take about 3 weeks interviewing 1/3 of the subjects each week. The need to acquire any type of permission will only present with the subjects themselves. If the subjects agree to a survey, then no other permission will be required. The tools needed will be a television and a VCR recorder, in order to record the commercials and a room in which to seat the subjects when they are viewing the commercials. A classroom with a door would be optimal. The basis for the data analysis is somewhat subjective as it will essentially be the responses of the subjects being interviewed. Questions for Survey: Part I: L’Oreal and Maybeline Commercial 1. Of the two commercials you have just viewed, which did you find more appealing as far as the product being advertised? 2. What made you prefer or decide to prefer one commercial’s product over the other? 3. Of the two products, which are you most likely to buy in the future? Part II: After viewing the second set of commercials: 1. Of the two commercials you have just viewed, which did you find more appealing? 2. Of the two products, which did you find more appealing? 3. Is this type of product one that you would typically buy? 4. If the answer to #3 is no, would you consider buying this type of product after viewing these commercials? 5. If so, which product of the two which you choose most likely? Literature Review: Scott, Walter D. Psychology of Advertising This piece by Walter Scott provides a brief history of advertising. In the time of the anthropoid ape, word of mouth was employed to advertise different goods and services. This was actually the standard form of advertising up to the development of symbols which can still be found in the walls of caves, in tombs and engraved into ancient rock or parchment paper. The printing press however, introduced the type of advertising that we see in magazines and other periodicals. The past 15 years has really been the climax to what advertising is capable of and how powerful it really is. It used to be fairly inexpensive to place an ad in a magazine but today, it can run in the millions for one ad in a major periodical. The bottom line to this is that humans cannot imagine something which they have never seen. Once we see something however, it is committed to memory in one way or another and is later retrieved through association. If advertising firms can develop an ad which causes the consumer to associate their product with happiness, fun, pleasure etc, then the product will always be associated with that feeling or emotion and therefore it will sell. This piece, unlike the others used for this paper, provided a history or a time line of advertisement. It was helpful in learning a bit of terminology useful in understanding the mind manupulation which is utilized in modern advertising. Gresko, Jon, Kenneddy, Lynn, Lesniak, James, Living in a Social World This piece details the different emotions that ads provoke within our psyche. The different types of emotions which are addressed by ads are as follows: Health related ads utilize an element of fear. Cigarette and alcohol ads create scenes of fun making us feel or long to feel pleasure. Plastic surgery and cosmetic ads appeal to our egos and our vanity. Attitude changing may also be utilized which is where ads encourage us to change our attitudes to a different attitude. The elaborative likelihood model is also discussed. In this model, there are said to be two different types of routes, the central route and the peripheral route. Both of these routes intend to change what a person believes either copiously or subconsciously. A central route will consciously change one’s beliefs. A peripheral view will approach our psyche bur find it already quite full of other information so it will then not stick or be memorable. Comparatively speaking, this particular piece focused mainly on the psychological aspect of advertising and was quite informative. Classroomtools.com, Sex and Death Among the Ice Cubes This particular piece delves quite deeply into the multiple subliminal messages that we see every day but do not always notice. These messages can appear embedded (not obvious to our subconscious) or symbolic (things we notice in the ad but are representative of a deeper meaning). This particular author dealt mostly with symbolic messages than cryptic wording or embedded messages like some of the other authors. This piece is called “Sex and Death Among the Ice Cubes” because it is human nature to be drawn to issued of both sex and death. Additionally, this author goes on to explain that ice cubes used in ads are almost always some sort of plastic (real ice melts quickly under hot studio lights)which work quite well for planting images and words in. This piece was quite enlightening as it dealt so much with things that we see but do not pay attention to but also gave an air of paranoia as a message was seen “behind every bush” so to speak. BBC News ,Subliminal Images Impact on the Brain This particular work takes an entirely scientific approach to how subliminal messages work. It discusses studies performed by neurologists on the brains of individuals that were provided with subliminal messaging. The results indicated that in fact, subliminal messaging does work as it has an impact on the brain. Connor, Steve, Subliminal Messages do Reach Your Brain But You Won’t Know it This article provides an in-depth understanding as to how subliminal messaging really works. The point to using subliminal messaging is to plant an idea in someone’s mind without them being conscious of the idea itself or the planting of that idea, “Scientists have demonstrated that hidden subliminal images can still attract the brains attention, even when the person is apparently unaware of the visual stimulation caused by the image”(Connor, 2007). Science Daily, Subliminal Messages Can Influence People in Surprising Ways According to the information presented in this work, even the act of waving a flag can induce groups of people to subconsciously act in very specific ways “It comes as some surprise, then, that studies conducted by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have shown that exposing people to a subliminal image of the national flag had just the opposite fact -- moderating their political attitudes. Further, the researchers say that their studies indicate that, in general, subliminal messages -- that is, messages that are processed by our brains but never reach our consciousness -- do indeed influence explicit attitudes and real-life political behavior, a significant extension to what we know about the effects of non-conscious processes”(Science Daily, 2008). Vicary, James, Claims About the Power of Subliminal Advertising, This piece dealt quite a bit with the work of Wilson Key, the individual who is responsible for much of the research involving subliminal messaging that know about today. This article only provided a nit of information but overall, was not entirely useful. Works Cited: BBC News, Sumbliminal Images Impact on the Brain (2007) retrieved 02 July, 2008 from website at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6427951.stm Classroomtools.com (2008) Sex and Death Among the Ice Cubes: Subliminal Messages in Advertising, retrieved 2 July, 2008 from website at: http://www.classroomtools.com/sublimad.htm Connor, Steve, (2007) Subliminal Messages do reach your Brain But You Won’t Know it, The Independent Science, retrieved 3 July, 2008 from website at:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/subliminal-messages-do-reach-your-brain--but-you-wont-know-it-439456.html Gresko, Jon. Kennedy, Lynn. Lesniak, James, (1996) Living in a Social World, Miami University , retrieved 2 July, 2008, from website at: http://www.users.muohio.edu/shermarc/p324ads.shtml Vicary, James. (2008) Claims about the Power of Subliminal Advertising, retrieved 2 July, 2008 from website at: http://www.ciadvertising.org/student_account/spring_01/adv391k/hjy/adv3 82j/1st/application.html Science Daily, Subliminal Messages Can Influence People in Surprising Ways, retrieved 3 July, 2008, from website at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071227183859.htm Read More