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What are subliminal messages? Well, I could give you a long
drawn out complicated explanation, but I'll put it into a way you'll enjoy a
little more. They are messages in movies, advertisements, songs, or whatever
that you don't consciously think, but your brain sees/hears them. If you've seen
the movie Josie and the Pussycats, you might know what I mean. In the
band's songs, they would have a very low voice saying things like "Buy from this
store," "Orange is a cool color!" The audience didn't actually hear them with
their ears, but rather, with their brains, as they headed out to buy orange.
Subliminal messages are kind of like secret messages. You don't think they're
there, but they are.
Several years ago, advertisements started using something called "subliminal
perception," which is like putting in secret messages in their commercials. It
has been around in movies for much longer, and adds are usually there, but we
don't notice them. After all, the longest the ad can be is 3/300th of a second.
It started off as just flashing popcorn boxes and drinks, but it has become much
more!
There are two methods of subliminal advertising. One is where a message will be
present for several minutes in the background of the program you are watching.
But, the message is so light or dark, depending on the show, that is not
noticeable to the human eyes. But, don't worry, it is to your brain. The second
method is to just flash one advertisement every eleven seconds. Sounds weird
right? I bet you didn't know so much was getting by you every eleven seconds!
Many networks have said they have decided not to allow subliminal techniques.
But are they still there? When Congress took this topic, they started getting
people to research it. They found many stations that claimed not to have them
did, indeed, have several. It is illegal. But, yet, many TV shows continue. Many
radio stations still have them. Is Congress doing anything about it now? Well,
no. There is a war going on, we can't expect them to worry about it -- or can
we? Congress has released a statement that subliminal messages are not
dangerous. Maybe that's another way of saying, we decided to stop worrying about
it. Let's move on.
You're probably wondering, what do these subliminal pictures look like? I was
wondering, too. My parents had told me before that there were many ads like
this, especially in alcoholic and cigarette adds. I started to look. Many ads I
think would be too inappropriate to say. But, I'll try and name a few. In an ad
for beer, it shows a picture of beer with lots of ice cubes. Innocent enough,
right? No. When you look closely, with some help from the website, you could see
that in the ice cubes were, well, I will just say woman's upper parts. Another
example. In a Camel cigarette add, it shows a pack of cigarettes on a sandy
Saudi Arabian desert. Looking carefully, you'll see that the word SEX is etched
into the sand several times. Not that you would never see them without looking
for them, but it's there.
Another example of subliminal advertising was done by our President. Well, it
was before he was president, but still, his advertising committee did it. In
case you don't know, his opposition, Al Gore, had a medical plane called
BUREAUCRATS. In Bush's commercial, at the very end, it had BUREAUCRATS at the
top of the screen, but for 1/30th of a second it just had RATS. The word RATS
was just in black letters on a white screen. If you didn't like rats, your brain
would not like BUREAUCRATS.
What about Disney? Good old Disney! Surely they wouldn't have subliminal
messages. Nope. There are tons of websites about Disney's subliminal messages.
Like in 'Aladdin' (I have actually heard this one on a really good sound system)
when the tiger is growling, if you have the proper equipment, you can hear a
really low voice saying "Good teenagers, take off your clothes." There are other
instances of Disney workers getting bored and messing with the movies. In the
'Lion King', when Simba is crying for his dad, and he looks in the sky, the
stars roughly spell out SEX.
At school the other day, we were watching a science video. Who would have
thought SciVideos would have subliminal messaging? But, they did. I noticed
several times whenever they had beakers with gasses coming out, it would spell,
one letter at a time, 'SCIENCE IS COOL.' No one in my class seemed to notice but
me. Probably because I was looking for it. Now, personally, I think that's just
kind of funny for them to make us think science is cool. But what if it said
other things, like 'Drugs are cool.' That would not be good.
I think subliminal messaging is good and bad. It can be good if they are
promoting good messages, like slipping non-drug messages in commercials, having
hidden pictures of kids laughing to sell soccer balls, or even 'Science is cool'
is pretty innocent. But other things aren't right. Like relating alcohol to sex
to gain more appeal. Or smoking to getting girlfriends.
So, what do you think? Should subliminal messages be
eliminated all together, or just certain kinds of subliminal messages? I can't
wait to hear from you! ***Jill20 is the best*** (sorry, I had to add a
subliminal message myself, sorta).
Hope I Helped,
Jill20
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