Subliminal Advertising :: essays research papers

Subliminal advertising: A collective term for public announcements designed to promote the sale of specific commodities or services while being integrated below the threshold of perception or awareness. To sell products, merchants consciously use subliminal advertising as a basis for general consumerism. This seems like an unnecessary task, but when taken into consideration all the people, who have expressed their disbelief in its effectiveness, it is obvious to see how vital and necessary such a task commands. Through this, corporations must take on new strategies and methods of persuasion and justification. The importance is that advertisers rely on a trust relationship with consumers in order to successfully subliminally sell products. In other words, those who don't believe in subliminal advertising, are its likely victims. The effect of subliminal advertising on the individual and the culture has been influenced and promoted by many different elements. Let it be magazines, newspapers or radio; but the most prominent in this field is television. Television advertising influences the choices we make, perhaps more so than anyone cares to believe. It may not be so obvious, but even teachers face competition with advertising. Television stations, for example, have some four billion dollars a year from industry to spend on programming for the same students that teacher’s face. Nicholas Johnson, a former Federal Communications Commission Commissioner from 1966 to 1973 writes that television is diametrically opposed to almost everything a teacher tries to do: TV tells them that the only thing necessary to give them all the joys in life and the values that are important is the acquisition of yet another product. TV is telling them to sit still and don't think. TV is telling them that they are to be treated as a mass. He writes that it is extremely important to understand this force in our society if a teacher is to deal with it. He writes the most important thing to know is that advertising is a business. Johnson continues: It is the business of selling. But what it is in the business of selling is you and your students. You are the product being sold. Who are you being sold to? You're being sold to an advertiser. It is the advertiser who is the consumer in this equation. The advertiser is buying you. The advertiser is buying you from the broadcaster. And why the advertiser is buying you is because he wants you to look at his message; his billboard, his magazine ad, and in this instance, his TV commercial.