Public Perceptions of Subliminal Advertising: Why Practitioners Shouldn't Ignore This Issue

Although subliminal advertising has long been discredited by academics and the advertising industry, many people still believe that it is used and is effective.

Public Perceptions of Subliminal Advertising: Why Practitioners Shouldn't Ignore this Issue

Martha Rogers and Kirk H Smith

What is commonly referred to as 'subliminal advertising' - that is, embedding material in print, audio or video messages so faintly that they are not consciously perceived - has been the focus of a great deal of attention for more than three decades (Saegert, 1979; Hart and McDaniel, 1982; Synodinos, 1988). The term 'subthreshold effects', first popularized by Packard in 1957, preceded the popular notion of 'subliminal advertising', whose originator is James Vicary. Vicary was a New Jersey marketing researcher who...

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