Disney Movies: What Are Subliminal Messages?

Subliminal messages are prearranged thoughts or ideas placed into the subconscious mind. Subliminal messages involve reacting to stimuli that are above your physiological threshold but below your perceptual thresholds. So basically your brain processes the messages without you knowing. The two main types of subliminal messaging are auditory and visual. In these two categories there are also subcategories. According to Anthony Pratkanis and Anthony Greenwald, who are Psychology professors, have defined these four different subcategories as:

Those who believe in the value of subliminal audiotapes would be wrong to claim that:

According to the article "The Influence of Subliminal Messages", it states that subliminal messages can influence our attitudes and behavior. Also, under certain circumstances of course, subliminal messages may or may not have the

Society uses manipulation to divert people’s attention every day and oftentimes people do not realize that they are being manipulated. An advertisement through television is one of the many ways that people are manipulated. TV uses advertisements daily by incorporating subliminal messages to get people to do things that they would not otherwise be thinking about doing. The following articles “Can TV improve us?” by Jane Rosenzweig, On Sale at Old Navy: Cool Clothes for Identical Zombies!” by Damien Cave and TV’s War of Words” by Deborah Tannen exemplify instances where manipulation is being showcased at its best.

According to Robert Scholes, author of On Reading a Video Text, commercials aired on television hold a dynamic power over human beings on a subconscious level. He believes that through the use of specific tools, commercials can hold the minds of an audience captive, and can control their abilities to think rationally. Visual fascination, one of the tools Scholes believes captures the minds of viewers, can take a simple video, and through the use of editing and special effects, turn it into a powerful scene which one simply cannot take his or her eyes from. Narrativity is yet another way Scholes feels commercials can take control of the thoughts of a person sitting in front of the television. Through the use of specific words, sounds,

For example, in the Facebook Advertisement, a couple visuals were used along with some text to convince the reader to either buy the product or take further consideration into buying the product. One of the persuasive, visual techniques it used was color choice. The background is filled with a blue color, which is often a color associated with security and the sensation of being safe. This helps convey one of the messages of the messages of the advertisement: the Tase-let will keep you safe and secure when you’re in a possibly dangerous situation. This isn’t the only persuasive technique that involves color. One of the distinguishing colors of the colors shown in the visual representations of the Tase-let is red, which is used twice. Red usually conveys a feeling of power and strength. This helps make the advertisement effective because while giving the audience a feeling that the product will make them feel secure, it will also give them the feeling that the product will make them more powerful and in control of a situation that they might end up running into. The images of the Tase-lets and the example of a person wearing the Tase-let also follow the rule of thirds, where the first third displays the product and the second third displays an example of that product in use. The words written at the bottom of the Facebook ad also contribute to

According to Robert Scholes, author of On Reading a Video Text, commercials aired on television hold a dynamic power over human beings on a subconscious level. He believes that through the use of specific tools, commercials can hold the minds of an audience captive, and can control their abilities to think rationally. Visual fascination, one of the tools Scholes believes captures the minds of viewers, can take a simple video, and through the use of editing and special effects, turn it into a powerful scene which one simply cannot take his or her eyes from. Narrativity is yet another way Scholes feels commercials can take control of the thoughts of a person sitting in front of the television. Through the use of specific words, sounds,

The use of bold and capital letters aids the effectiveness in both advertisements. Capital but, bolded letters capture the audience's attention and cause the audience to read the words at a slower pace, aiding the audience’s ability to recall the message presented by the ad (Altan, Ruth). Chick-fil-a’s ad uses bold but, capital letters while stating “SMART PEEPLE EAT CHIKIN” (McDowell, Jim). Dunkin Donuts’ advertiser also utilizes the same technique.The decision to implement bold but, capital letters in both ads encourages the audience to remember the Dunkin Donuts and Chick-fil-a instead of competitors.

In order to understand what subliminal messaging is and how it works, you must know the difference between your subconscious and conscious. The conscious mind is the part of your mind that is responsible for logic and reasoning. Whereas, the subconscious mind is the part of your mind responsible for all of your involuntary actions like emotions, breathing rate, and is the storage room of all your beliefs and memories. Just as malls use

It is to no one’s surprise, that sex has become a big influence on today’s consumers. From music and movies to advertisements and TV shows, people have been increasingly exposed to sex, both outright and subliminal. Sex can be portrayed in its most unmitigated aspect with the use of nudity, and sexual or romantic themes. In addition, it can be portrayed through suggestiveness that bring attention to specific notions of sex, such as the use of subliminal messages or sexual innuendos (Peterson and Kerin, 1977). However, are these suggestions to sex being targeted to the right audience and censored to our innocent children? The purpose of this paper is to help determine whether sexual innuendos are present in children’s movies from a variety of

Advertisers and marketing companies are mostly interested in subliminal manipulation because by targeting consumers’ subconscious mind, they can control their involuntary actions, emotions and beliefs. The subconscious part of our mind is able to process around 20,000 pieces of information per second, where as our conscious part can only cope with about forty. This function explains why any subliminal message that our subconscious receives, can be received and responded to by consumers without them ever being aware of it. This form of mind control can be very powerful if used correctly, it could influence consumers to want and buy a product without their control (Winder).

Dave Ramsey, America’s most trusted financial adviser and a radio show host, once said, “We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.” (Ramsey). Ramsey’s quote reflects the state of consumerism that our society is going through. Most of us can easily relate to this quote, let’s be honest most of us have been there done that and then later question our genuine need for whatever we have bought. Regardless, if we feel guilty or not we ought to ask ourselves why and what made this purchase seems so important and necessary at the time. Although this might not come as a surprise to most of us, the answer would be the advertisement industry. In 2016, The United States has spent more than 198 billion U.S dollars on advertising, making America the leader in advertisement in the world (Statista). These ads are designed to force consumers to keep buying things that are unnecessary by sending subliminal messages and applying psychology to trick the consumer into a spending spree. In his short story, “Subliminal Man”, J.G. Ballard uses science fiction approach to illustrate to his readers the preposterous techniques that the advertising industry has been using to boost consumerism. Ballard believes that the consumer’s brain has been tricked into buying against their well, by using technology and applying subliminal technics. Ballard short story questions the effect of consumerism on our moral values, lifestyle, and behavior. Ballard claims that

There was a time when advertisement were made only to market and sell the products but now dramatic changes have taken place in this field (Shead and Dobson 01). Today companies not only want to sell their products but also aim to create emotional attachment with the customers for which they do emotional or subliminal advertising.

Chapter four is titled "I Can't See Cleary Now." Chapter four is about subliminal advertising, and the exploration of further subliminal advertising. In 1957 James Vicary who was a market researcher surprised people about his claim that a Coca-Cola ad flashing on a screen could influence their decision to buy. In chapter three on page twenty-eight Lindstrom explains about subliminal advertising and some examples of what it may be. He explains that “Generally speaking, subliminal messages are defined as visual, auditory, or any other sensory messages that register just below our level of conscious perception and can be detected only by the subconscious mind." Lindstrom then explains that when people are exposed to articles or news stories about subliminal messaging or advertising they feel as if they are not being fooled, he states that's how most people react "whether it's a report of a McDonald's logo flashing for one-thirtieth of a second during the Food Channel's Iron Chef America Program (a spokesperson for the Food Channel claimed it was a technical error), or an unfounded rumor that a cloud of dust in Disney's The Lion King spells out s-e-x."

This was greatly adapted in the 1950’s and has moved onwards, becoming more common in the present. Subliminal advertising largely started in movie theaters, where in cinemas they would strew messages saying “drink Coca-Cola (Sheehan, K. B. 2013).” The “drink Coca-Cola” was a phrase that would appear on the screen during the start of the movies and during the intermission and it would subconsciously impulse the viewer to buy Coca-Cola from the food court. Coming into the future this method is used in videogames where while playing you are met with company logos upon starting the game and thereafter shown products from other companies that are placed within the game. Some of the oldest advertisements that appear are from canned beverage companies and now newcomers such as car companies are coming into play, all the while polluting our screens with more subliminal advertising. The introduction of subliminal advertisements into video games has become the next step for many companies taking advantage of a person getting engulfed in the game screen in front of them. In relative concept, companies are taking advantage of the real estate that is your television or your computer and even your mobile phone to get you to buy their products.