Screenshot from Vicary’sSubliminal Messaging

Experiment

Everyday we are bombarded with images. Even when our eyes aren’t glued to a TV or computer screen we are continuously faced with advertisements. Messages from companies are sent to us to “buy this” or “try that”. But, it is what we don’t easily see that we should be concerned with.

Rewind time, to a drive in movie theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey Rewind time, to a drive in movie theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey circa 1957. This is where subliminal messaging as we know it first began. Now the idea of mind control has been around for centuries before its usage in advertising. Stories as far back as the Roman Empire tell of Gods using mind control over mortals. In 1898, a professor of psychology at Yale, E.W. Scripture, recognized the human potential for humans to perceive information on a subconscious level, paving the way for information on a subconscious level, paving the way for subliminal messaging. But in this theater, with an experiment conducted by market researcher James Vicary was the first modern attempt to make people subconsciously recognize a message. Across the movie screen flashed the words “Drink Coca Cola” and “Hungry? Eat Popcorn”. These messages were flashed on the screen for just 1/3000th of a second, in a way that the human eye could not detect them in the film. Reportedly, the the human eye could not detect them in the film. Reportedly, the sales of both Coca Cola and Popcorn increased dramatically that night.1

The important thing here is that just because there was an official ban, does not mean that the technology has stopped being used since. Here in lies the conspiracy.

There are two main ways in which subliminal messages are transmitted and received; they are through visual and audio stimulants. Assuming this technology is effective the resulting aftermath could be potentially very dangerous. Imagine having the ability to influence someone else’s behavior and them have no conscious awareness of you doing this. Well, the National awareness of you doing this. Well, the National Association of Broadcasters saw this conflict and in 1958 banned the use of subliminal advertising.