Nexus - 0207 - New Times Magazine-pages

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see ay Se moralistic preoccupations - just the opposite of what conventional logic would lead us to believe.” One of the keys of subliminal seduction is to simply bypass the conscious mind. The more memorable the ad is, the less effective it is likely to be. The more common, plain, and unexciting it is, the more likely it is to do its job - which in many cases is to provide a “cover” for substimuli which increase the sales of the product for reasons the buyer is entirely unaware of. The Parkay advert (see diagram) is a good candidate for "least memorable”. It was published in Family Circle magazine in November of 1973. Observers found that really no one paid attention to the ad. Average exposure time was one to two seconds. Maybe one in fifteen readers spent an extra second or two to read the copy. It looked like money in the bank. But how? What is so sales-worthy about this photograph of some margarine on the end of a knife that would justify the millions of dollars invested in space for it? If you are really an intrepid investigator, you might buy some Parkay margarine and try putting some on the end of a knife so that it looks just like the picture. You'll probably try for quite a while. Dr. Key has tried and was unble to get a glob of Parkay to even faintly resemble the photograph - an instant indication that this is an airbrush-created fantasy. It tums out that the two globs of Parkay form glans, or the heads, of two penises. The larger of the two has a highly identifiable coronal ridge. Indeed, it can be demonstrated that subliminal ads do work. Moreover, if admen are true to their colours, it's highly unlikely that they are spending a fortune to amuse themselves playing perceptual games that do not sell a product, especially since they are taking a terrible risk. Most people would be outraged at the invasion of the most sensitive and private areas of consciousness by the admen in the pursuit of sales. Subliminal advertising seems to appeal to the two dimensions of life common to all people: the origins of life (love or sex) and the end of life (death and its related implications of aggression and violence). These two symbolic polarities - sex and death - lie deep at the root of all the world's literature, art, philosophy, science, religion, and human behaviour. As Dr. Key explains, "North American sociely has a vested interest in reinforcing an individual's failure to achieve sexual maturity. By exploiting unconscious fears, forcing them to repress sexual taboos, the media guarantees blind, repressed seeking for value substitutes through commercial products and consumption. Sexual repression, as reinforced by media, is a most viable marketing technology.” Experimental data suggests that substimuli can change a person's altitude toward anything. After enough exposure to subliminal data like this or the clam-plate orgy, many people would change their attitudes toward orgies or group sex. And the theories suggest that it is not the lecher who would be most affected. Similarly, a well adjusted ‘swinger’ (although one may not teally exist) would be far less affected. According to Dr. Key, "Fantasy modification would be most pronounced in individuals with strong, rigid, APRIL-MAY 1992 14°NEXUS