According to an April 2006 issue of the New Scientist, research has proven that subliminal advertising messages work... and that if conditions are right, subliminal advertising to promote a brand can be made to work.

Previous experiments claiming this were debunked. But in a recent experiment, scientists found that eighty per cent of volunteers who had been exposed to the subliminal advertising message chose that product, compared to only 20 per cent of the controls. Those are scary stats indeed.

The term "subliminal message" was popularized in 1917 (World War I), when the US army would sneak messages into songs and put subliminal messages in posters trying to get people to join the army.

A subliminal message is defined as a signal or message designed to pass below the normal limits of perception. Subliminal messages target the subconscious mind and may be generated in the form of an image transmitted briefly and not perceived consciously and yet perceived unconsciously.

While the conscious, rational mind acts as a filter and screens out messages not consistent with our beliefs, the subconscious mind accepts messages without filtering them - rather like the mind of a child.

The effects of subliminal television advertising could be even more powerful on children. It's been found that for each additional hour per day that a child watched television an average of one additional request was made for an advertised product.

But then it doesn't take a scientist to tell us what most parents know anyway. Most of us have experienced pester-power first-hand.

The researchers also found that priming only works when the prime is goal-relevant. In plain English, this means you're likely to buy a product that quenches your thirst only if you were already thirsty anyway.

So, subliminal messages could be more useful in priming a target audience to choose one brand over another, rather than in creating an actual need for the product.

What if politicians started using it to influence our choices? Well, it's very likely they do already.

Do subliminal messages violate the code of advertising? Will this change the way advertising is regulated? How could we detect subliminal messages inserted into creatives?

And, in our opinion, what is "wrong" - the fact that they actually work, or that advertisers would be sneaky enough to use them?

But far better uses have been found for subliminal messages than advertising. In personal transformation, for instance.

As we learn more about the way our mind works, it will become clearer how subliminal messages really affect our decisions and whether they should or should not be allowed in advertising.

_______________________________________________

Priya Shah blogs on internet marketing and personal growth. Click here for free self-help ebooks.

This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

Online Advertising Spending News

online advertising spending

NEW YORK â€” Microsoft's unsolicited bid for Yahoo underscores the strength of online advertising â€” and the confidence the market has that the relatively new ...

Online advertising spending will keep growing

Choose an adjective: Epochal. Momentous. Historic. However you label it, US online advertising spending is entering a new era.

US Advertising Spending - eMarketer

Internet advertising will make the greatest gains relative to total ad spending in Western Europe, where online ad spending will capture 18.2% of total ad spending in 2011.

Worldwide Internet Advertising Spending to Surpass $106 Billion in ...

Advertising Age: Your Online Source for Marketing and Media News ... VP-director of forecasting at Interpublic Group of Cos.' Magna, compiles advertising spending ...

Advertising Age - Data Center

US Online Advertising Forecast, 2007 to 2012

emarketer-us-online-advertising-spending-2006-2011.jpg. Marketing data repository.

emarketer-us-online-advertising-spending-2006-2011.jpg

Everyone knows that online advertising keeps growing and growing. But according to a report being released today, it's growing so fast that in 2008 it is projected to surpass ad ...

Spending on online advertising surpasses TV, report says ...

Retail Industry: Online Advertising Spending and Trends The Retail Industry: Online Advertising Spending and Trends report focuses on the fastest growing segment of the overall

Retail Industry: Online Advertising Spending and Trends

Having grown by more than 30% for each of the last three years, online ad spending in the US will rise by less than 19% in 2007, according to new eMarketer estimates. Lower ...

Online Advertising Spending Growth to Level Off - eMarketer

Though US online advertising is forecast to decline 4.6% in 2009â€“â€“the first drop since 2002â€“â€“the recovering economy, combined with basic structural changes in how marketers ...