A plug for Benson and Hedges Intro Note: If you have not already looked at the following ads under Brainteasers, look carefully at each one and you will see that they are not natural photographs. If you have any doubts about this you can compare them with the photographs in nature.htm . If you have looked at the Brain Teaser page and do not wish to read additional material about the ads featured on that page then skip ahead to the Maidwell ad.
Dick Ward, in his book Illustration for Advertising, discusses and illustrates some of the many techniques that were used to produce adverts prior to the development of computer based artwork. Super-realistic images are the result. And, as they are drawings or paintings they do not need to conform to real world imagery. They can contain features that would never appear in an untouched photograph. In ads containing one reasonably clear, but nevertheless semi-subliminal element, such as the twisted wires evident in this ad, one can also expect to find other related elements. Usually these are closer to the boundary of perceptual ability and less noticeable but nevertheless they seem to be used to complement the initial message or else as a means of preconsciously* biasing judgements in favour of the principal semi-subliminal message. Ads for Marlboro cigarettes, for example, offer excellent examples of this multi-layered technique. And for an excellent example of multiple imagery see the Impulse Ico ad on the The Ads of the Month Page page. |
A belly full of laughs
Look carefully at the crotch and you'll notice that the word s e x is incorporated into the centre of the lightning flashes. The e is reversed but bear in mind that all of us, when we were kids couldn't tell the difference between correctly presented and reversed lettering. We still have the ability to recognize such reversed lettering, especially when there is some additional information to direct attention. In this respect the caption on the ad draws the viewers attention to the correct focal area. It states 'I wish I had the guts to drink a Jim Beam.' This may seem counterproductive but one has to bear in mind that viewers of ads and other scenes tend to perceive the 'whole picture' and not the contributory elements. The caption is intended to direct attention but not sufficient to encourage the viewer to reflect consciously on the contents of the relevant part of the ad. The recognition of the sexual message would arise from either previous experience with Jim Beam ads and/or the sexual content of the magazine the ad was incorporated in or simply from the preoccupation's of the age group the ad was directed to. A similar device, where the caption cues in attention to an aspect of the ad, is evident in the Marlboro ad noted above and others. |
If the price is right There are some means one can use to rule out projection. First, do the letters you perceive seem to be recognizable from almost any angle. If so, then you are probably projectively 'reading' elements into the ad. They probably do not exist in reality. The most common letters embedded in ads are, of course, s e and x but you might find approximations to other words such as skin, cancer and other words. As sex is the commonest word It is rather unfortunate that when viewed upside down both s and the x present exactly the same configuration, unlike less asymmetrical letters such as B and J. They are also easy to disguise in textured backgrounds because of their similarity to scratches and swirls. Note also that skilled practitioners do not neatly align lettering, nor spell 'words' neatly - you will find numerous combinations of shapes suggesting S's and X's and fewer E's. As embedded 'lettering' only attempts to influence thoughts and moods, not give instructions, the embedded lettering can afford to be ambiguous. Resolution of the ambiguity will rely upon what is of interest to the viewer and what he or she has been presented with recently. S e x, for example, may be more readily recognized after reading magazine headlines or articles devoted to sexual activities or interests e.g. magazines for young males and females such as Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Gear, Details, etc.. A
second test is to note whether the letters that you
perceive are limited to specific areas of the ad or
to specific types of ads. If so then you probably
have developed the
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Camel Tracks The techniques used in Camel ads are extremely varied and change in some respects according to the nature of the marketing campaign. At the heart of the secondary imagery in Camel ads is the manikin embedded in the camel logo. Camel campaigns are essentially based on imagery rather than embedded lettering. A number of examples are discussed on the page devoted to Camel ads. The images are primarily sexual or allude to sexuality but Camel ads overtly and covertly also bring in imagery likely to trigger anxiety and insecurity e.g. guns, baton wielding police officers, aggressive behaviour, masturbation, alien abduction and so on. |
How's Dis for a laugh? The
logic of the advertising profession case is simple. If people accept
their claim that
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The Maid is unwell
In this case the ad agency and their clients seem to have got their research base wrong - or else some disgruntled employee of the ad agency had a last fling before leaving the company. A few weeks after its launch the product was being heavily discounted in the clearance section of the author's local supermarket. Farewell, sweet maid. Another ad in this series and additional commentary can be found on the Ads of the Month page. |
No ads today, only Death in the Country
Regardless of how powerful the emotive responses to an ad containing semi-subliminal material are, as indicated above, only practice can help one accurately detect the imagery. One criterion to help you detect relevant ads is this: whenever you find an ad that appeals to you, or you find distasteful, or an ad that is intriguing but you cannot discern the reason why, then this is when you are most likely to have an example of an ad containing semi-subliminal artwork. Time and time again, this simple suggestion to the author's students has led them to bring adverts into their consumer psychology class and classes on perception. On the surface the ads they bring in seem innocuous but they have, in many cases, contained semi-subliminal artwork. The Pirelli ad featuring Carl Lewis, the Benson and Hedges deckchair ad and some of the Marlboro ads are all examples brought to the author's attention by students who recognized that there was an aberration within the ad but they could not pin down what it was. The Marlboro Country ads and various spirits ads take their thematic elements to the extreme. In addition to sexual and oral elements, Marlboro ads often incorporate death masks and other emotive imagery in calculated attempts to trigger anxiety and smoking in unsuspecting viewers. This ability to recognize but not know is not as odd as it might seem - bear in mind our ability to detect reversed lettering. This ability is often demonstrated in simple experiments. For example, the glass in the Stella Artois ad noted above is often described as sexy. In essence, the message in the ad has 'got through' to the viewer. But, despite the 'obviousness' of the 'lettering' once it is pointed out, very few people notice or comment upon this feature of the ad when the ad is first viewed. Viewers tend to perceive the whole of an ad or scene but it seems that specific elements influence judgement even although they do not register in conscious awareness. The subsequent 'mental set' that develops hinders subsequent recognition of the contributory elements. See the pages devoted to a summary of some relevant psychological theory and the Frequently Asked Questions for a more extensive discussion of some aspects of this topic. |
The longer the period that such techniques have been used, the greater the degree of sophistication in their use. If the companies responsible are setting the trend for large brewing, tobacco and food conglomerates - and they have evidence to back up the effectiveness of these practices - then consumers need to become much more familiar and sceptical about the advertising and promotional activities of the companies whose brands are clearly associated with the use of semi-subliminal content. |
Last Revised: 3rd January, 2003 |