Hypnosis in Advertising

James Vicary caused a public outcry when he suggested in 1957 that people could be influenced by subliminal advertising. He suggested that a study in which moviegoers watching a film called Picnic were repeatedly shown 0.03-second subliminal cuts for Coca-Cola and Popcorn, increased onsite sales by 58% and 18%. Since the revelation of his test the effectiveness of hypnotic messages in advertising has been hotly contested. A CIA review of hypnotic messages titled 'The Operational Potential of Subliminal Perception', claimed that 'Certain individuals can at certain times and under certain circumstances be influenced to act abnormally without awareness of the influence'. Because of this, subliminal cuts were all but banned in the US when the FCC ruled that the use of subliminal messages could result in the loss of a broadcast license. In the UK and Australia subliminal advertising was also illegal, so it has been impossible to verify Vicary's earliest claim one way or the other. Until a remarkable opportunity presented itself. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Vicary test was replicated at the International Branding Conference, MARKA2007 as part of the Hypnosis, Subconscious Triggers and Branding demonstration. The 1,400 delegates watched a few minutes of the movie used in the early research, PICNIC into which subliminal messages had been planted at six second intervals. Then, the delegates were asked to choose between two fictitious brands. One brand 'Delta' had been recommended using the hypnotic messages and the other 'Theta' had not.

When choosing between the two brands, 81% of the audience chose 'Delta' in preference to 'Theta'. This suggests a convincing substantiation of Vicary's results. 'Even though this technique is 50 years old, there are more sophisticated techniques being used in marketing today, this demonstrates the powerful influence of subliminal suggestions the demonstration told us. 'The subliminal cut was the mother of all hypnotic techniques and today her children walk all around you. They are everywhere, in posters, press advertising, on the radio and the T.V. They are the permissible siblings of an outlawed parent.'

Actual, current examples were then revealed of the three most common subliminal techniques used in advertising today. Each example was chosen because of its ability to change the behaviour of the public and its ability to prompt increased purchase of the product advertised. Most notable was the most watched advert on youtube in 2007, the Cadbury 'Gorilla'. This Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate advert features a gorilla playing drums to a Phil Collins soundtrack. The clip reached cult status and has been watched around 10 million times on the internet claimed a chart, published by the TellyAds.com website. It also changed the shopping habits of a generation being responsible for augmenting Cadbury's market share by 30%.

Another example shown was the U.K's greatest ad ever as voted by Channel 4 viewers, the Guinness 'Surfer'. Despite being originally shown nearly 10 years ago this ad has left its mark because it still has instant awareness and very high levels spontaneous recall amongst the public. Both ads use a number of well known hypnosis and subliminal techniques to promote their products. This is by no means unusual. An analysis of the 20 most popular ads ever reveals that all of them use some form of hypnosis or subliminal techniques to sell their message.

It seems that despite early attempts to ban it, the use of hypnosis and subliminals to increase market share are widespread in advertising.

About The Author

A regular speaker at industry events, Jim Brackin is Director of Insight at EspConsultancy.co.uk the research for marketing specialists. After 20 years in advertising and marketing Jim qualified as a Hypnotherapist, and is a Master Practitioner of Neuro-linguistics.