New research puts life back into subliminal advertising

[Celebration]

http://www.physorg.com/news65283028.html

In a first study, the team asked 61 volunteers to perform a nonsense task -- counting a string of Bs on a screen -- while a 23-millisecond message flashed up.

One group received the words "Lipton Ice" for the iced tea brand, while the other, called the control group, received the meaningless words "Nipeic Tol."

After this work, the guinea pigs were asked to rate how thirsty they were and to choose what drink they would order, between Lipton Ice and a popular local brand of mineral water called Spa Rood, if they were sitting on a cafe terrace.

Those who rated themselves thirsty were likelier to choose Lipton Ice, but only if they had received the subliminal message.

[havocmom]

1. Bet it gets used in politics/news too

Brainwashing, it's not just for Madison Ave anymore!

[Orrex]

2. That's not really a balanced test

The researchers don't seem to establish the participants' beverage preference before the test. If you asked me right now whether I'd prefer an iced tea or a mineral water, I'll pick the tea, thanks.

A better test would have been to offer a choice between two made-up brands of tea, one labeled "Tasty Tea" and the other labeled "Yummy Tea" but otherwise identical. Then, you flash "Tasty tea" in the sublinal message and see how many people choose that one in preference to "Yummy Tea."

Also, you'd need to account for the physical placement of choices. Some participants might favor the bottle on the left, while others might favor the bottle on the right.


This study is cute but ultimately not very enlightening.

[Celebration]

3. re:beverage preference

If the people are randomized into the two groups, it wouldn't make a difference what their beverage preference was before the test. And if you asked them ahead of time as well, it would be making it too big of a deal out of it--perhaps making them think too hard. Same re: the physical placement of choices.

I think you are nitpicking, but of course this is open to researchers to use other experimental designs.

[Orrex]

4. Hmm.

I don't know that randomizing re: beverage prefence would be sufficient, unless it's otherwise controlled-for experimentally. If, for example, 58% of the population (chosen randomly) would pick iced tea in preference to mineral water, then the test as described doesn't demonstrate anything unless the percentage of subliminalized(!) people who choose the tea is significantly greater than 58%. I don't think that article discussed this, though it's possible that the test did control for it.

You're probably right about the physical placement, though. I'll drop that objection!

[Dead_Parrot]

7. Oh, I don't know...

With a total sample of only 166 people, you'd be luck to find any with an initial preference for Lipton's Iced tea, because it's fucking horrible piss. :)

[lvx35]

10. Nipeic Tol is an ANAGRAM for Lipton Ice!!!!

You just rearrange the letters, so yes, this test is totally fucked! I felt something about Nipeic Tol when I heard it, and it was my brain rearranging the letters, which is I am probably not the only person to do!

[cain_7777]

5. Comedy Central uses this tactic often!

During the comercial break, just before the show comes back on, Comedy Central will flash a few milliseconds of the Colbert Report and I've also seen them do it with that dumbass git-r-done guy. Its really a cheap shot at the weak minded and I refuse to watch any show they do it with.

[DireStrike]

6. I just assumed that was an error

I don't work at a TV station or anything, but I think it's pretty easy to cut off one clip with another that doesn't run quite as long. I've also seen it done with commercials from outside the network - I think they're unlikely to shortchange their advertisers on purpose by transmitting a half second of a commercial that doesn't even identify the brand being sold.

Which makes you wonder - is there somebody out there, watching TV for a living, to make sure advertisers don't get ripped off?

I think it's more important to not watch shows that are advertised via splash-screen imposition on top of other shows - sometimes with sound effects! Culprits for this are usually testosterone-dripping channels like FX, USA, TNT, Spike. I guess it's partially effective with that sort of audience (Pretty colors! Flashing lights! Unexpected Action!) but I always refuse to watch any show advertised that way, and email the company about it.

[Celebration]

9. but here is the thing

If it is truly subliminal you won't KNOW if they are flashing it. What you are seeing is liminal (if that is a word). I don't see how we can guard against subliminal. However I would like to think that I would not fall for it.

Remember that *** campaign add with "RATS" in it for Democrats? I am not sure if that could be labeled subliminal--but it was an attempt to plant an idea in the subconscious mind. Sheesh what a jerk.

But for sure anything you actually consciously notice is not subliminal.

[Boojatta]

8. Whatever you do, don't think about a tall, frosty glass of Nipeic Tol.

A splash of Nipeic Tol is a splash of ice-cold refreshment.

Have you had a glass of Nipeic Tol lately?

[Igel]

11. The results may be interesting in that

the expected linguistic results help prime behavior. But it's a long way to show that this actually affects anything a few hours after the experiment.

But priming is fairly old hat. In fact, it's one of the things you really have to look out for in running some kinds of experiments--you have to pick your stimuli carefully and make sure the order is random.

Sometimes priming is phoneticky (two images presented both have the most common word for them in English beginning with 'k'), sometimes it's semanticky (you ask somebody to click on the image of a 'piano' and they ponder clicking on the oboe; or you ask them to click on the 'salad' and they consider the picture of a frog ... because it's an amphibian, like a 'salamander'). A nasty confound to dispose of.