Why is Subliminal Advertisment Used

Written by bmlengel on April 30th, 2009

This is a quick article about the placement of subliminal advertisement pictures by advertisers. Why businesses use them and how exactly they work.

If you look across the media you will find countless examples of various subliminal ads from across the decades and across all markets and product types. Everyone from coca cola, toMcDonalds, to local Bakers are using subliminal techniques!

These adverts arguably can bemanipulative; they give an extra level of depth. Often your’e not aware of the hidden messages, but they still get interpretated by your mind all the same. Other times you may see an advert wondering what’s the matter with it, or what is not quite right about it – perhaps even being a little mesmerised!

These adverts aim to draw you in, to hold your attention for a longer period than normal, and to get the image lodged in your mind. Often the easiest way to do this is to link the product to sex. This is can be as obvious as using a pretty girl, looking seductive in the ad. But sometimes the message is better hidden, or shall we say more subliminal.

For instance there is a famous advert from Coca Cola containing a subliminal image of a nude woman. But she is made out of ice so she is not actually naked.. At first look you probably won’t see her, but she will be registered by your subconscious mind – if you look closer at the image you can see the outline of the woman lying down.

In an ever so slight way you are “attracted” to the product, and the brand. It makes Coca Cola a “sexy” product, a lively and energetic product. Perhaps just one poster like this won’t really do that much. However, when these types of adverts are done all the time and regularly refer to the female form they do start to make an impack and the brand gets linked to the female form, and in a way sex. The final outcome is that Coca Cola is seen as a young, sexy brand, used by beautiful people.

It’s not just Coca Cola writing subliminal messages into their ads - examples can be seen everywhere. For more subliminal advertismentexamples visit our blog.