Hidden persuaders

[mikey2much]

Back in the late sixties I read a book by a man named Vince Packard called ‘Hidden Persuaders’. The subject concerned the way our thoughts could be controlled without our knowledge. For an example, they played images of cold cups of coke spliced into the film at theaters the picture came and went so fast the viewer was not aware that they had seen them but their brain was. The result was greater soft drink sales during the show.

My question is this; if they could do this back in the mid sixties, what can they do now. When we have a thought can we be sure that the thought was really ours or is there a chance that the thought was implanted in our minds.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Yeah. That was called "subliminal advertising". Only thing is, it was pretty well subsequently demonstrated that it doesn't really work.

I believe it did have some effect, but not in so basic a way. If you flashed subliminal pictures of a burning desert at people repeatedly during a 5 minute interval which they were watching some unrelated movie, a few of them would drink more water than normal during break, but it wouldn't turn them into a pack of thirst-maddened zombies.

But there were some cool things in that book, and some tricks that they still use in advertising. I remember Packard claimed that advertisers used a lot of images of sex and death to sell their products, no matter what they were, and he had the famous image of some melting ice cubes in a glass of scotch in which you could supposedly subliminally make out the image of a human skull. Women in ads often made vaginal symbols with their fingers and arms, or the negative space in the ad was arranged suggestively.

One thing's for sure: In a million-dollar photo-shoot that's going to appear in a 20 million dollar advertising campaign, you can bet that absolutely nothing is left to chance. Everything is designed to mean something to the person who sees that ad, to elicit some response. The best motivational psychologists in the world work on Madison Avenue.

 

[3113]

If you flashed subliminal pictures of a burning desert at people repeatedly during a 5 minute interval which they were watching some unrelated movie, a few of them would drink more water than normal during break, but it wouldn't turn them into a pack of thirst-maddened zombies.

Damn. There goes another plan for world domination. Back to the drawing board.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

There's good money to be made in Industrial Psychology.

However, its much easier to sell you stuff youre likely to buy anyway. Advertisers know all about you.

 

[Handley_Page]

Back in the late sixties I read a book by a man named Vince Packard called ‘Hidden Persuaders’. The subject concerned the way our thoughts could be controlled without our knowledge. For an example, they played images of cold cups of coke spliced into the film at theaters the picture came and went so fast the viewer was not aware that they had seen them but their brain was. The result was greater soft drink sales during the show.

.

And not long thereafter it was banned.