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Subliminal Perception: The evidence of things not seen Executive Summary |
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Guy Cumberbatch and Gary W Wood The idea of subliminal persuasion was popularised over forty years ago by JAmes Vicary who claimed that sales of Coca Cola increased by 58% when he flashed the message 'Drink Coca Cola' on cinema screens. Concerns about subliminal advertising have remained persistent ever since. However research has failed to demonstrate any reliable effects of subliminal advertising or of other techniques of subliminal persuauion such as in self help audio tapes and backward messages in pop music. Despite this, other research evidence suggests that people ca indeed process information without being aware of it. Moreover, conscious processing may play only a small role in our daily thinking, feeling and doing with most activities being essentially automatic and below awareness. However subliminal advertising is an inefficient way to influence and seems a very ineffective means of selling and in any case must be considered ethically unnacceptable.
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