Chapter II: Subliminal Advertising………………………………...……………………p

Chapter II: Subliminal Advertising

What is subliminal advertising?

If we descriptively summarise the term, we can say that itis a subliminaltechniqueof presentingconsumers withsubliminal stimuli via mediaused in marketing,with the purpose of directlyinfluencingconsumers and their purchasingbehaviour without themhavingconsciousawareness of it(Trappey, 1996, p. 517).According to Dijksterhuis, Aarts and Smith(2005),there is a possibility in subliminally affecting consumers’ choices. However, even thoughthere is a good amount of evidence supporting the effectiveness of the subliminal stimuliusedin advertising, we cannot declarefor certainthatsubliminaladvertisingalwaysworks.Therefore, we should not see thistechniqueas a myth and ignore studying the subject further(Dijksterhuis, et al., 2005).Moore (1982)states that there is nospecific level ofsubliminal stimuli that guarantees everyone in an audience to perceivea subliminal message.If the presented stimulus levels are kept low, it would not affect the unconsciousness of people that have higher threshold limits. This does not mean that theapplication of subliminal advertising would bealwaysunrewarding asevenifa very small amount of people were influencedby it, there would be anincreaseinsalesof the presented product, or whatever was aimed by the use of the subliminal messages(Moore, 1982, p. 41).

Since Vicary’s claims ofinfluencing consumer choices usingsubliminal stimulioccurred, subliminal advertising becameacontroversial topicand many researches and experiments have been done. Although no one was able to produce the resultsVicary claimed he did, there have been some evidenceon theeffectiveness ofsubliminal advertisementproduced. It is suggested that while it is possible to influence product choices of consumers by subliminal stimuli,it occursonly whenspecific conditionsare met(Verwijmeren, et al., 2011).