Nexus - 0207 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Study the area where the base of the thumb meets the wrist in the lower, left-hand quadrant of the ad. Notice the two rather bulbous areas at the base of the hand which happen to resemble testicles. The rigid thumb resembles a seini-erect penis. What you are looking at is a two sided illusion, which is a hand on one side and a male genital on the other. It is interesting to note that the underside of a wrist does not have that much hair on the skin. Now you might be thinking, "OK, so they put a male genital in the picture . if you want to sce it that way. So what? How does that influence sales, even if it is repressed in the subconscious?" To answer that, let's examine what else is in the picture and ask a few questions like, "What is a picture of an erect penis doing in a men's magazine?" Dr. Key explains, "The symbolism is predictable repressible, in view of readers’ macho self-fantasies. The over macho image is often considered a camouflage for a more ambiguous, covert sexuality, and a large amount of psychoanalytic theory suggests the illusion's appeal is directed at latent homosexual tendencies - which all men presumably share in some measure. "The ad is clearly not directed at overt male homosexuals ... As yet, there are not enough homosexuals to justify sizable magazine marketing investments. This maybe changing in America, however, in response to such manipulations of the human unconscious," which could increase the number of homosexuals. Dr. Key also points out that the hand-genital symbolism could allude to masturbation. Or the content could suggest that it will help the reader achieve a large, erect penis. While these factors alone might be enough to activate someone's perceptual defenses, there is much more. Consider the knife. It's about to slip. The artist has activated a fairly universal male fear of castration. And if you look in the lower, right-hand quadrant of the ad, just below the bottle, you will see the head of a dog with an awl through it. Dr. Key isn’t sure why a dead dog sells cologne. Animals, while frequently used in women's hygiene products, are seldom used in ads aimed at men. But, as Dr. Key points out, "If it didn’t sell the product, they wouldn't use it." In one to two seconds, this ad is hardly memorable consciously. At subconscious levels, it's unforgettable. Men's magazines have millions of readers. This Kandn ad (and a multitude like it) is probably still sloshing around in the readers’ subconscious, influencing their behavior. Let's find out more about how subliminals work. Look at the Jantzen bathing suit ad. There is nothing especially unique about this ad. Or is there? Examine the details critically. As Anton Ehrenzweig wrote in The Hidden Order of Art, "Superficially insignificant or accidental looking detail [in art] may well carry the most important unconscious symbolism.” And as political scientist Wyndham Lewis pointed out in The Art of Being Ruled, "To ignore your environment is eventually to find yourself a slave to it." This ad appeared in the Canadian edition of Reader's Digest in April of 1972. It's a patriotic ad of sorts. The two models are wearing swimsuits pattermed after the Union Jack and the red maple leaf - Canada's national emblem. According to Dr. Key, “At the unconscious level, every minute detail in a photograph is recorded instantly within the brain." Conscious perception seems to work more slowly. But if the designer has done his job properly, the eye will cover most of the detail in a second or two. Like the Kanén ad and virtually every other major ad, this one is designed to do its work in a matter of a second or two. The eye's fovea - an area smaller than a pinhead located near the centre of the retina, whieh appears to be the major source of consciously perceived visual information - jumps from place to place in involuntary movements called “saccades.” Less than 1/1,000 of the visual fields is in sharp focus at any given time. Not even 10% of the total visual content of a typical ad would be perceived in a normal viewing. Yet all the information and its meaning are recorded instantaneously at subconscious levels. Considering the nature of perceptual defenses, it is almost certain that some critical details would be suppressed by most people - those details which don't seein to make sense. Take, for example, the female model's make a profit. If the bright young men of Madison Avenue couldn't do better than create an ad that breaks even, they would soon be gainfully employed as night watchmen and there would be a new agency selling Kanén cologne. Dr. Key estimates that one insertion of this ad in one of the big men’s magazines probably sold about 3 to 5 million dollars’ worth of cologne - not bad for a picture of a hand holding a bottle that did its work in a one-to-two second exposure and then was promptly forgotten consciously. But not subconsciously - a fact that no agency could overlook. What made this ad sell Kanén cologne? Almost everyone has seen perceptual illusions like the one shown in figure 1. They were first described in 1910 by Dr. E. Rubin, a Danish psychologist. in this case, the profiles form a vase - or the outline of the vase forms two profiles, depending on which way you see it. In Gestalt terminology, this is called a figure-ground reversal. The mind can flip-flop effortlessly from one image to the other. Very few people can see both images simultaneously. This kind of perceptual effect can be used to convey subliminal information. This ad uses a perceptual illusion similar to the "Rubin's profiles.” In this case, il's a syncretistic, or two-sided image. One way of looking at it, it's merely a hand. But look at the hand, then look at your own hand at the same angle (or anyone else's, if you can) and see if the picture and a real hand look the same, And then you begin to find out why a picture of a hand holding a bottle costs so much money. Notice the thumbnail on the far left of the picture wrapped around the cork on top of the Kanén bottle. It is anatomically impossible for the thumbnail to be where it is in relation to the thumb knuckle. Similarly, it's impossible for the thumb, the thumbnail, the bottle, the upper right hand, and the knife to be photographed in a straight shot. They were photographed separately, pasted together, and then retouched with an airbrush - a good deal of expensive work just for a picture of a hand and a bottle. APRIL-MAY 1992 12*NEXUS