Revisiting The Ad Industry’s Favorite Ghost Story: Subliminal Messaging

For decades, subliminal messaging – the art of sending someone a message that influences the recipient even though they do not perceive it consciously – has been a hot potato for marketers. Research – most research – indicated that it worked. But advertisers didn’t want to admit they used it as a marketing tactic, which just made consumers more and more suspicious that advertising was being deployed to unwittingly manipulate their minds.

Now, in the 2020s, with the topic of attention front-and-center in the advertising industry, it’s worth revisiting the concept. Sure, subliminal advertising works in theory. But:

• Is it still as effective in today’s world of always-on messaging?
• Is it ethical to grab consumers’ attention when they aren’t even aware of it?

Let’s backtrack a bit. Subliminal advertising was a hot potato the minute it first surfaced in the late 1950s. With consumers uncomfortable with the idea they were being influenced subconsciously by marketers, advertising and manipulation became synonymous in the public’s mind. It was the Cold War, after all, and there was a general fear of brainwashing, spying and the invasion of privacy.

Despite consumer fears and distaste, in 1958 the Advertising Research Foundation issued a report entitled, “The Application of Subliminal Perception in Advertising,” which concluded that in certain instances human subjects are capable of responding to stimuli which are so weak in intensity, duration, size or clarity, that they are not consciously aware of them. Around the same time, Vance Packard published his highly influential book, “The Hidden Persuaders,” claiming that consumers “are being monitored, managed, and manipulated outside our conscious awareness by advertisers.”

But even half a century later, subliminal messaging was still a bogeyman. In the 2000s, a TV viewer triggered a media frenzy when they spotted what they believed to be a subliminal message embedded in the Food Network TV show “Iron Chef.” When a particular clip of the show was slowed down and viewed frame by frame, a McDonald’s logo appeared for 1/30th of a second. Barbara Lippert, former columnist for Adweek, explained it as “a flash frame that came up at the wrong time.” A spokesperson for the Food Network argued that it was “a technical error…definitely not a subliminal message!” McDonald’s issued the statement, “we don’t do subliminal advertising.”

The debate has long gone unsettled, as there was scarce evidence of subliminal advertising driving brand outcomes – in part because virtually no agency or advertiser was willing to admit that it engaged in the practice. Nonetheless, instances like these fed the idea that subliminal ads are happening beneath the level of real, attentive consciousness.

But consider this: a lot of advertising is processed subliminally, whether it’s intended to contain a hidden message or not. Ross Wilhelm, a prolific marketing professor at the University of Michigan from the 60s through the 80s, argued that every time we drive past a billboard we likely receive a subliminal suggestion. Each time we flip through a magazine we probably receive subliminal messages from ads we aren’t really paying attention to. And when we flip past a TV channel during a commercial break, we are probably receiving subliminal reminders. In lieu of his position, the impact of social media, feeds, reels and the like probably fit the bill too.

All these exposures beneath the surface may have a true impact. Conventional neuroscience suggests our subconsciousness takes in millions of bits of information simultaneously, while our consciousness can only deal with many magnitudes less – a few dozen bits at a time. There’s a lot of information we’re taking in and processing without consciously knowing it.

Here’s the problem today. Consumers see so many ads, at such a constant pace, that the ability to absorb a message is hampered by just how many other messages are bombarding them at the same time. So even if subliminal advertising works – and even if it works well – the landscape has changed. Metaphorically, there isn’t just one McDonald’s logo flashing in the background of our lives. That McDonald’s logo is contending with dozens, even hundreds of other brand messages that may flash by our eyes in a given minute.

But there’s more that we can learn here. What if the decades-long revulsion to the idea of subliminal advertising isn’t really rooted in Cold War-era paranoia, but in the fact that humans inherently prefer to be in control of what they process?

Infillion published a report earlier this year that walked through the spectrum of attention, proving that business outcomes for brands are strongest when consumers pay attention willingly, interact with the brand, and receive something in exchange. This type of attention, which we call “experiential attention,” seems like it would be the opposite of subliminal advertising. But it’s more complex than that. Subliminal messages lie in murky waters, stuck in limbo somewhere between disruption and continuity. They’re not nearly as annoying as a sudden pop-up ad when you’re in the middle of reading a news article. You may willingly and innocently glance at a logo, perhaps even lingering on it, totally oblivious to that logo’s ulterior motives.

For example, fast food chains often use red and yellow in their branding, because these colors are known to stimulate appetite and energy. Is that message of “Get hungry!” a true “disruption” if the consumer isn’t consciously aware that their brain is being bombarded with that signal? Probably not. But is it the most effective way to drive customer loyalty? Definitely not.

Tricking consumers into paying attention to an ad just isn’t a great look for a brand. While logo tricks are quick and fun, when it comes to genuine brand-building, “honest people don’t hide their deeds,” to quote Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights. Impactful treatment by brands comes from messaging that is delivered with real conscious attention, across meaningful time durations, in uncontroversial, privacy-compliant ways.

Want to learn more about ads that get people to pay meaningful attention? Check out our TrueX Engagement Showcase here.