Does subliminal advertising work and if so how?
Answer:
Depends on how you define "subliminal." If people are actually unaware that they have seen an image or word, it really does not work. There are times where you can be influenced by a word and "know" what it said/was without "knowing" what it said/was. This is usually a weak effect however. For example you might see an image too quickly to say what you saw, but know you saw something (like a fading dream experience). And say it was a picture of a bottled water. Well if you were already thirsty, this might be the extra nudge you needed to go get a water. Otherwise, it is unlikely to do anything.
Much stronger effects are name recognition. This much less subtle effect that causes us to automatically equate name brands with certain products is also much more powerful (Coke, Oreo, how a lot of politicians win - actually how much was spent on a campaign is a good indicator of who will win). And is built-up over a long time. Knowing how to manipulate the mechanisms of memory is the key. One older Tag (body spray) commercial works well. It shows an attractive guy use Tag, then leave an elevator. An unattractive guy enters and women hang all over him because of the smell. This works very well because the attractive guy uses it (and we of course want to be like him) yet it works even for the unattractive guy. Tapping these ideas is also more relevant than "subliminal persuasion."
I can't create a link, but if you go to wikipedia.com and put in "subliminal message" you can read all about it. Your question made me interested.
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