Nexus - 0207 - New Times Magazine-pages

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The heads of two penises on the edge of a knife blade could suggest male castration. But who is this ad aimed at? Unlike the Kanén ad which appeared in men's magazines, the Parkay ad appeared in Family Circle, a magazine read primarily by women. According to Dr. Key, the suggestion of castration could be an unconscious motive for an insecure American housewife. What ad agency could resist the urge to exploit her fear that her husband inight be attracted to a younger woman by suggesting that if she fattens him up, he'll be less vulnerable. And presumably, “old softies" - men whose age has rendered them impotent - get castrated as punishment. As the last sentence in the copy explains, "... guess that’s what happens when you're an old softie.” Subliminal advertising is designed to activate a buying decision days, weeks, months, or years after it is perceived. By 1919, Dr. Oto Pétzl established that there was a strong relationship between subliminal stimuli, posthypnotic suggestion, and compulsive neurosis. An individual will perform acts - buy Parkay or anything else properly introduced at subconscious levels - without any conscious knowledge of why he is doing such a thing, although he would most definitely have a conscious rationale highly compatible with his or her self-image. So “least meimorable” enters her subconscious and sits there like a time bomb waiting to go off. Advertising agencies try to steer clear of the messy business of ethics and morality. Their job is to sell products. They often appeal to heavy users of a product in their advertising - for an alcoholic beverage, those who drink fifteen or more drinks per week. But if we look at the Johnnie Walker advent, (see diagram), we might find the advertisers a little remiss. All they did was to photograph a glass of ice cubes. They didn't even bother to display any of the liquor itself. Yet this ad appeared in virtually every major U.S. national magazine, including Time, Newsweek, and Playboy. Considering the average figure for retum on investment, the $2 million invested in this advert for advertising space would have had to yield about $50 million in sales to pay for itself. Those are facts of life, advertising style. Anyone who believes the frequently repeated statement “Advertising doesn't work" isn't aware of the economic of the situation. Indeed, advertising works - particularly when the customer believes that it doesn't. Nevertheless, this rather unimpressive picture of six ice cubes must have something going for itself to stimulate $50 million worth of sales - and that “something” is in the ice-cubes, or rather, in the airbrush painting of ice cubes. If you look at the “ice cubes" close up, you'll notice melting faces, one face screaming, a skull, a bird, a monster, a castrated penis, a devil mask, and more. The brain is able to perceive these images, although some are Because of subliminal messages which play with subconscious fears and fantasies, our identity can become dependent upon the world of consumer goods. upside down or highly distorted. Heavy alcohol drinkers, those to whom this ad was aimed, are involved in a monstrous self-destruct syndrome. Many are consciously aware that they are destroying themselves. Nevertheless, they compulsively and, in he case of the alcoholic, addictively drink on. Having shown this slide at several Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Dr. Key found that many recovered alcoholics were able to relate their withdrawal hallucinations to the imagery. It's entirely possible that this Johnnie Walker ad could have been researched at an AA meeting simply by listening to the testimonials of hallucination experiences. The great majority of all alcoholic beverage advertising has subliminal stimuli, many using subliminal death and self-destruction imagery. Indeed, it may be that the appeal to the death instinct or the suicide urge may be used to sustain the alcoholic beverage industry at its present size. One of the most important inventions of the last thirty years is the tachistoscope. It's a hand little gadget that allows someone to flash an image at speeds of up to 1/3,000 of a second - well below the conscious threshold of perception. Using this device, researchers found that they could flash the words happy and angry on an expressionless face. Test subjects reacted far better to the face when happy was flashed. Now stop and consider: if the mere flash of the words happy and angry change a person's evaluation of a neutral, expressionless face, what results could be obtained if the word sex were somehow permanently but subliminally displayed on, say, a product someone was advertising. The advertiser might become so enthused that he'd want to use it everywhere, for he'd have to search far and wide for a more powerful motivator - the promise of sex form trying or using a product. Advertisers might want to put the word sex on everything - display ads, photographs, display boxes, billboards, mailers, crackers, magazine covers, everything -rackers? You might think this is a bit far-fetched, but Ritz crackers not only have the word sex embedded on the box, but the word appears numerous times on each cracker (see diagram). Researchers have found that words and pictures, when considered as subliminal stimuli, are mutually reinforcing, integrative, and similar in their effects upon behavior. Now imagine how a crackerjack advertising man might feel about giving Ritz crackers sex appeal, like alcoholic beverages whose ads often show beautiful men and women in suggestive poses. Imagine his sense of conquest by einbedding the word sex on those homely little wafers, thereby transforming them into luscious, round, bit-sized morsels. Dynamite! Sex is virtually embedded in everything. It's in ads for liquor, cigarettes, film, cars - just about every consumer product. It's embedded in the covers of magazines - not just Playboy, and Penthouse, but Time, Newsweek, Life, and most other large circulation magazines. Although it is by far the most commonly used, sex is not the only word embedded in advertising. The same principle that works for sex also works for other verbal substimuli. And although the advertisers’ choice of hidden words doesn't identify them as masters of Elizabethan English, it does show them to be cunning exploiters of the language, willing to use emotionally charged words - always associated in the vemacular - that are associated with sex and death. About nine such words are frequently used in national advertising: sex, {_k, c_mt, p_ssy, pr_ck, penis, dead, die, kill. Occasionally, phrases akin to posthypnotic commands are embedded: U Buy and Get Jt. But among the embedded words, sex is king and hidden virtually every where. One of the great calamities in the world is the frenzied pursuit of expensive consumer items such as alcoholic beverages and cigarettes - that have demonstrably deadly effects. Yet most people accept this usage where we spend billions for the privilege of slowly and painfully destroying ourselves ... with remarkable calm. Much subliminal advertising is apparently directed toward the self- destruction fantasies we have at subconscious levels. Not only do we find it in alcoholic beverage ads and a variety of other products, but it's in cigarette ads also. Apparently, "death" sells! The tobacco industry spends nearly one billion dollars a year on advertising, most of it aimed at people under twenty. Because of subliminal messages which play with subconscious fears and fantasies, our identity can become dependent upon the world of consumer goods. APRIL-MAY 1992 16*NEXUS Take a look at one ad Benson & Continued on page 64