"Subliminal" Advertising techniques?

\"Subliminal\" Advertising techniques?

NO, I'm not talking about the "naked lady in the ice cube" thing or the "eat popcorn" in a single frame of a film.

Am I imagining things, or has anyone else noticed that there seems to be a just barely audible telephone ring in a lot of TV commercials lately??

Not as part of an office scene or anything that would actually be part of the normal background noise of a scene, but something more subtle.

Several times a day I'm finding myself popping my head up from the computer and listening to see if it is the phone ringing in another room, then paying attention to the commercial to see if that was the source of the sound. Whatever... it irritates the heck out of me.

Another related pet peeve: cruising down the road with the radio on, just mellowing out. Commercial comes on and has a siren or a car horn honking on the soundtrack. Makes me jump and look around to see whats happening. Injects a little shot of adrenaline, increases heartbeat. After determining that there is no problem on the road, I then listen to the darn commercial. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

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o i hate that. the phone thing.

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I certaily believe there is subliminal activity going on. Since the 50's when this was suggested, there have been multiple trials to prove it. Now they say that blind studies are ethical. The end justifies the means, but I can't go along with that. When you start jacking arond with people in this way it is wrong. Even if all your doing is to get them to buy more popcorn. Given the successful results, advertisers, and governments are bound to use these tools.

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Actually, I took a "phd level" consumer behavior / marketing research course and a big part of it was the study of subliminal manipulation:

Basicly that kind of stuff doesn't work, except in a VERY limited, rather intense, circumstances and its effectiveness is really more of an Urban Legend than a useful psychological technique.

What I'm talking about would be really more accurately called a "barely liminal" attention getting manipulation" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

It doesn't make ME want to BUY the product, but it often gets me to watch part of a commercial to which I would normally be oblivious. Unfortunately for the advertisers, it irritates me and makes ME less likely to buy their product.

I was mostly wondering if the whole thing was just my imagination (my hearing is not all that great) or if other folks had noticed it.

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I have noticed that also, but I am certain that some of the really "subtle" rings are artifacts from audio compression somewhere along the line. I have an .mp3 of the song "Adia" by Sarah McLachlan, and there is one spot towards the end of the song that sounds like my old phone ringing. When I pull out the CD and listen to the uncompressed original, that spot in the song doesn't come off as a phone ring anymore, but it is still close.

Funny thing about that, is that the newest phones now play sound samples when they ring, and therefore sound like radios! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

But as far as subliminal stuff goes, Silviron is right on. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as mind control, except for its outright physical subversion (drugs, surgery/injury or death). Deceit, manipulation, intimidation, trickery etc. do exist, but all of those things merely attempt to misguide; you cannot literally force a mind. Once that mind is "on to you", the purported control is gone.

Oh, on the original question, yes I think the use of phones and car horns is intentional, I F&#%'n hate that, and am wondering when the first lawsuit will hit.

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The ones that I hate the worst are those health insurance commercials that play a long and loud tone to get your attention at the beginning (I guess it's to get the attention of the old people that they are trying to sell to). The problem is that it sounds so much like something from the Emergency Broadcasting System that I keep expecting the government to throw down on them for it, but that commercial just seems to never die.

Isn't it, or maybe the better question is, shouldn't it, be illegal for a commercial to make a sound that mimics an emergency signal? I say this because if I get desensitized to that sound then it might just cause me to miss an important emergency warning when or if I might need to hear it to save my life someday. Is it just me or doesn't it seem to you guys that something that might possibly cost lives, just in order to sell some stupid heath insurance, is just wrong, in an ironic sort of way?

Re:\'\'Subliminal\'\' Advertising techniques?

Fix the Subject line...

Re:\'\'Subliminal\'\' Advertising techniques?

OH.... Took me a minute to figure out what you were talking about... I thought you meant I messed up.

I guess Raggie hit his delete key a couple times too many or something.