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.
