Subliminal advertising

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Subliminal advertising describes a form of advertising that cannot be noticed even with tense attention , for example because it consists of very short messages that are displayed using a tachistoscope . An alternative name is secret seducers (English hidden persuaders ).

One aim of subliminal advertising is to prevent defensive reactions against the advertised product or company. The recipient should subsequently justify an inexplicable change in attitude through positive product properties. However, the perception threshold is not the same for all people.

The effectiveness of subliminal messages is controversial. Many people believe in it and fear that it will be more effective than non-subliminal advertising.

First discussions

Practices of subliminal advertising were discussed for the first time in the general public after the journalist Vance Packard reported in his 1957 bestseller The Secret Seducers about the technique of subliminal influencing in advertising allegedly developed by James Vicary . However, these research results have often been questioned. In fact, five years later it turned out that James M. Vicary wanted to win new customers for his advertising agency Subliminal Projection Co. with this hitherto unknown technology and that the experiment had never taken place in this form.

As part of the simulated eat-popcorn-drink-cola study by James Vicary, advertising messages such as “drink Coca Cola!” Or “eat popcorn!” Were shown for fractions of a second during a film. Packard claimed in his book that these imperceptible ads in the foyer of the cinema increased Coca Cola sales by 18.1% and popcorn sales by 57.7%.

Studies

Effectiveness in conjunction with current needs

Studies from 2006 and 2009 suggest that subliminal advertising can work if the advertising messages match the recipients' current needs .

Beyond Vicary's fantasies

In the study, Beyond Vicary's fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice (English for, About. Vicary's fantasies addition: the effectiveness of subliminal priming and brands choice ') from the year 2006, the underlying performance led the brand name of an iced tea beverage led to the fact that more subjects preferred this drink to mineral water. However, this was only the case when they were thirsty. The subliminal message had no effect on any of the other test subjects.

The hidden persuaders break into the tired brain

In the study The hidden persuaders break into the tired brain from 2009, the subliminal presentation of the logo of a dextrose tablet during a computer game led the test subjects to Consumed the product more - but only when they were tired and felt the need to improve their ability to concentrate.

Legal position

In Germany, the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty regulates that advertising must be easily recognizable as such and that no techniques for subliminal influencing may be used (Section 7 (3)).

In Switzerland, the Federal Act on Radio and Television (RTVG) prohibits “surreptitious advertising and subliminal advertising” (Art. 10, No. 3).

Reception in popular culture

The subject is taken up in an episode of the 1973 television series Columbo and the technique used with prior creation of the need for murder. (→ Subliminal (psychology) - reception in popular culture )

literature

  • Horst W. Brand:
    • The legend of the secret seducers . Beltz, 1978. ISBN 978-3-407-54544-2
    • Subliminal advertising. Nine theses . Central Association of the German Advertising Industry ZAW e. V., 1988. ISBN 3-923085-45-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ EJ Zanot et al .: Public perceptions of subliminal advertising . In: Journal of Advertising , 12, 1983, p. 3945.
  2. ^ Wilson, Gilbert, Wheatley: Protecting our minds: The role of lay beliefs . In: Yzerbyt, Lories, Dardenne (eds.): Metacognition: Cognitive and social dimensions . Russell Sage Foundation, New York 1998, pp. 171-201.
  3. ^ W. Weir: Another look at subliminal "facts" . In: Advertising Age , 1984, p. 46.
  4. ^ Johan C. Karremans, Wolfgang Stroebe, Jasper Claus: Beyond Vicary's fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice . In: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology . tape 42 , no. 6 , October 2006, p. 792-798 , doi : 10.1016 / j.jesp.2005.12.002 .
  5. ↑ Christina Bermeitinger, Ruben Goelz, Nadine Johr, Manfred Neumann, Ullrich KH Ecker, Robert Doerr: The hidden persuaders break into the tired brain . In: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology . tape 45 , no. 2 , January 2009, p. 320–326 , doi : 10.1016 / j.jesp.2008.10.001 .
  6. ↑ State Broadcasting Treaty (entered into force on September 1, 2017) (PDF; 700 kB).
  7. ↑ SR  784.40: Federal Act on Radio and Television (RTVG) of March 24, 2006 .