We must dismiss the wretched word "Subliminal"

Can we please dismiss the meaningless word "Subliminal" from our advertising

jargon!

There was -- and still is -- little proof that these efforts to engineer action

through manipulation of the unconscious led to any behavioral changes

favorable to specific marketers. As for James Vicary's experiment in

subliminal advertising -- it was a hoax: Vicary later admitted that he

hadn't done what he'd claimed. Several subsequent studies of the

effectiveness of embedded messages have shown it to be virtually

impossible to use them to produce specific, predictable responses.

Still, faith in the power of the media to induce millions of people to

act contrary to their better judgment or conscious desires remains

profound. More than three quarters of the U.S. population currently

believes that marketers use subliminal messages to sell products or

services, according to the Journal of Advertising Research; consumers

themselves spend some $50 million annually on subliminal self-help

products, such as audiotapes that are supposed to teach one a foreign

language in one's sleep.

There is only one form of effective, accountable advertising and that is Interactive Marketing

Communication.