The Short Introduction to Jim Hagart's Subliminal World.

Short Introduction

The Subliminal World web site is primarily intended to help bring the subject of what is generally known as subliminal advertising to the attention of consumers who might otherwise never give any thought to advertising material that attempts to manipulate their ideas and behaviour. Additionally the examples are presented in order to refute the continual protestations of leading advertising professionals that there is no such phenomenon as subliminal advertising. They know damn well there is. However, they also know the ads are not truly subliminal in nature. The ads merely contain secondary imagery. Secondary imagery, however, has the potential to influence viewers without their knowledge. In other words, they function in the same manner as subliminal messages. To mislead the public advertising and other professionals continually refer to old history and the literature on subliminal advertising. The never draw attention to their own actions and their manipulative attempts to make use of psychological knowledge regarding subliminal perception. The Subliminal World does exactly that.

If this is your first visit to the Subliminal World web site it is recommended that you read the Full Introduction. However, if you feel so inclined this page provides the gist of the argument. If you wish to do so, feel free to rely on this Basic Intro. Should you do so, note that you are likely to 'suffer' from various misconceptions about the nature of 'subliminal' advertising and its ability to influence people (including yourself).

The Full Introduction

Please note the following brief points.

1. All semi-subliminal ads are manipulative.

2. Not all manipulative ads are semi-subliminal.

3. Both types of ads attempt to sway your thinking by incorporating images or messages into what may seem to be rather innocuous ads.

4. As a general rule of thumb, manipulative ads contain larger images than semi-subliminal ads.

5. Both types of ads can contain images embedded within or overlapping with other images.

6. Not everyone can perceive all the contents of semi-subliminal ads i.e. some people are resistant to recognizing embedded elements within ads even when they have been pointed out to them.

To sum up - don't rely on preconceived ideas when viewing the ads on this site. What you see isn't necessarily what you get. And first impressions definitely do not count.

Although every effort has been made to include only ads that can be viewed reasonably clearly on screen, variations in screen quality, colouring and limited screen resolution, as well as image compression to improve download times, may impair the recognition of the smaller features of some ads. Always attempt to view the original ads before reaching your own conclusions regarding the nature of semi-subliminal and manipulative advertising.

Viewing print ads on screen is only a starter in learning about semi-subiminal ads. It is definitely not the best way to come to an understanding of the techniques involved. Additionally, knowledge obtained from viewing on screen examples may not generalise to print ads all that easily.

Many of the pages on this site contain a large number of images. They may thus take a considerable time to load.

The Menu page provides a quick set of links to all site pages

Click on the image on the left, found at the foot of each page, to return to this Full Introduction page at any time.

Supplementary Information

Viewing the ads will assist you to discover how some advertising companies try to influence you without your knowing how they do so - and without you being aware that they are trying to influence you. Their ads can be sexy, cheeky, rude, disturbing, distressing, crude, cynical, depressing and occasionally, humorous.

To complement the ad illustrations and the accompanying text two extra sets of illustrations are included. These have been labelled Subliminal Sidelines and The Bonus Box.

Subliminal Sidelines takes a satirical and humorous approach to semi-subliminal adverts by re-interpreting the actions and sayings of various well known historical, entertainment and political characters. The sidelines show, in effect, that history and popular attributions are often 'incorrect'. Contrary to established truths, many of the actions and sayings of individuals and characters as diverse as Pierce Brosnan, Pamela Anderson and Winston Churchill were, in fact, due to their having been presented with evidence of semi-subliminal advertising. History just got it wrong, that's all.

Bonus Boxes are easier to appreciate. They simply contain animated versions of various ads. These can only be viewed on java enhanced browsers. Various banners in the text also rely on java.

Commentary and information about any of the ads or requests on this Web site can be sent by e-mail to the Webmaster

To the best of the author's knowledge none of the illustrations, in the format used on this site, are subject to copyright. If copyright has been inadvertently breached please contact the author in order to rectify the matter. All brands and logos referred to or illustrated on this site are the property of the relevant companies and copyright holders. However, commentary and other information produced by the author can be freely copied and distributed. Similarly, illustrations of ads, so long as they are accompanied by commentary or are presented in the form of parody, can also be copied and distributed but please acknowledge subliminalworld.com as the source. Translation of tobacco company ads and relevant commentary into languages other than English will be particularly welcomed.

Last Revised: 3rd January, 2003