As most of you may already knew, subliminal advertising is a rather intriguing concept that has been the centre of attention in the world of marketing and advertising for quite some time now. It is an advertising technique that exposes consumers to pictures of products, brand names and logos, packages, watermarks, and other marketing stimuli, without the consumers having conscious awareness of the exposure. Despite the fact that consumers have no conscious awareness of the stimuli, it is believed that their mind still decodes the message and acts upon it at a subconscious level. Experts are debating as to whether subliminal advertising really affects consumers with its messages, and it is hard to prove – even now – that there are connections between subliminal advertising and consumer behaviour. The question is: does subliminal advertising really work?

Let us take a look at a classic case study of subliminal advertising, the “eat popcorn, drink Coca-Cola” case. In 1957, James Vicary – a well known market researcher – claimed that subliminal advertising really works, providing evidence to support his theory. Over a six-week period, a subliminal advertisement was shown to 45,699 consumers in a movie theatre in Fort Lee, New Jersey, during a movie titled “Picnic”. There were two subliminal advertising messages shown at that time: eat popcorn and drink Coca-Cola. According to Vicary, the subliminal advertising was shown (or flashed to be exact) for 3/1000 of a second once every five seconds. It is clear that the duration of the messages was so short; it is literally impossible for human eyes and brain to capture those messages consciously. What’s interesting was Vicary’s claim that over that particular six-week period, popcorn and Coca-Cola sales was increasing. The sales of popcorn rose 57%, while the sales of Coca-Cola rose a cool 18%. James Vicary’s claim was controversial indeed. He did produce evidence of what might be a connection between subliminal advertising and consumer behaviour, but there were still no evident connections. Later on, even Vicary himself stated that the study was fabricated, making it even harder to confirm his theory.

The study of subliminal advertising continues until today, and marketing experts have come up with several new theories since Vicary’s. One of them was based on the fact that human brain operates a whole lot faster than we know. Even the slightest touch, or any other neural stimuli, could initiate chain reactions within our brain. This means subliminal advertising might have effects on consumer behaviour after all. It is also interesting to see psychological analysis on subliminal advertising, saying that constant exposure of a message (in this case a marketing message) will arouse actions even at subconscious level.

Although the big question of whether subliminal advertising really works is still unanswered, a lot of marketers are using this technique as part of their marketing strategies. There are no definite connections, but many believe subliminal advertising is a technique worth implementing. Either way, it is clear that subliminal advertising might have effects on consumer behaviour, and good marketers always utilize even the slightest chance to market their products and services, right?