#Subliminal seduction series#

He has no understanding about how advertising works, how the people in it do their job.īut to study the issue with honest skepticism, we must dismiss the advertisers' statements as anecdotal and focus only on testable evidence. People in advertising continue to laugh about Key. I can't believe this guy has made a living spreading this drivel for so long. I've been in the advertising business for thirty years. Key has no concept of what the advertising world is really about. I worked in New York advertising for five years. He was probably killed by Men in Black for discovering the truth.īy the way, here are a couple more Amazon reviews from people who seem to actually know something about advertising: The student would not be dissuaded, and probably concluded that the panelists were covering up an industry conspiracy. All the panelists told him he's wrong and that none of their companies had ever done or seen such a thing. He was firmly convinced that hidden sexual imagery is present in all advertisments even the curve of a letter S seemed to be in an especially suggestive typeface. One of the panelists pointed out that first of all, there is no subliminal aspect to the boldly pictured swimming pool and second of all, please show us an ad in which you do not find hidden sexual messaging. The student who asked the question showed a magazine ad, and pointed out how some curves in a swimming pool mimic the curve of a woman's back. Moreover, any ad agency that airbrushed naked women into pictures of their clients' products would find themselves fired very quickly. The author Key has never worked in advertising and his books exhibit no practical knowledge of the advertising business, other than his own delusional perceptions of what he sees in ice cubes. They said that book was the oldest joke in the advertising industry. As one, the panel collectively groaned and laughed. During one Q&A session, a guy stood up and asked about the findings made in Subliminal Seduction.

#Subliminal seduction series#

So what does the advertising industry have to say about subliminal advertising? As it happens, I took a series of advertising seminars earlier in my career with a panel of local ad executives. This comes from a time before digital computers, and should provoke anyone to ask 'If they were that good then, what are they doing to us now?!?' The manipulation of our minds is more far reaching than even he could have guessed. This is where you will miss the boat by not taking the information in this book seriously.

Key has an uncanny insight into a subject that more people should become aware of. Why would commercial artists continue to do it if there were no evidence that it works? You have to understand psychology to appreciate that you can be manipulated by hidden messages in visual images. I have studied subliminal techniques for 30 years.

Just listen to what a few Amazon customers have said about Subliminal Seduction: Key's assertions have inspired whole college curricula dedicated to propagating the claim that the advertising industry systematically influences the public with subliminal advertising. Subliminal Seduction has been highly successful over the decades, spawning at least two sequels (though they contain much of the same material). Key took it to a whole new level, 'exposing' advertising methods that he had envisioned or perceived on his own. Packard's book discussed ways advertisers might appeal to consumers' hopes, fears, and guilt. The magnum opus of subliminal advertising is a book written in 1974 by Wilson Bryan Key, Subliminal Seduction, inspired by Vance Packard's original 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders. Draping a bikini model across the hood of a Camaro is not subliminal advertising.

In fact sexual imagery is all over advertising, but if you're able to perceive it, it's not subliminal and thus not part of this discussion. So, for any such message to be truly subliminal, it must not be consciously detectable. Subliminal means below the threshhold of conscious perception.

In the second, sexual imagery is cunningly hidden within artwork to make it more compelling for no consciously discernible reason. In the first, a marketing message like 'Drink Pepsi' is flashed on a screen so briefly that a person cannot consciously perceive it. Put on your 3D glasses and grab a seat in the theater - it's time for a wild ride through the psychological cinematic world of subliminal advertising.Īlleged subliminal advertising is said to take place in two forms.