Instances of subliminal messages
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These are instances of subliminal messages that have led to controversy and occasionally legal allegations. *In 1978,
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television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
station
KAKE-TV KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and ...
received special permission from the police to place a subliminal message in a report on the
BTK Killer Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself, for "bind, torture, kill"), the BTK Strangler or the BTK Killer. Between 1974 and 1991, he killed ten people in Wichita and Park ...
(Bind, Torture, Kill) in an effort to get him to turn himself in. The subliminal message included the text "Now call the chief", as well as a pair of glasses. The glasses were included because when BTK murdered Nancy Fox, there was a pair of glasses lying upside down on her dresser; police felt that seeing the glasses might stir up remorse in the killer. The attempt was unsuccessful, and police reported no increased volume of calls afterward. *During the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign, a television ad advertising for Republican candidate
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
showed words (and parts thereof) scaling from the foreground to the background on a television screen. When the word flashed on the screen, one frame showed only the last part, . The
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
looked into the matter, but no penalties were ever assessed in the case. *In the British
alternative comedy Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe ...
show '' The Young Ones'', a number of subliminal images were present in the original and most repeated broadcasts of the second series. Images included a tern coming into land, a tree frog jumping through the air, a man gurning, and the end credits of the film '' Carry On Cowboy''. These were included to mock the then-occurring matter of subliminal messages in television. These images appear in the U.S. box set DVD ''Every Stoopid Episode''. *
Shaun Micallef Shaun Patrick Micallef (; born 18 July 1962) is an Australian comedian, actor, writer and television presenter. He is currently the host of the satirical news comedy series ''Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell'' on the ABC. He also hosted the game sh ...
's Australian '' The Micallef P(r)ogram(me)'' shows contained strange subliminal messages that can be seen on the DVDs. As they are of random, humorous statements, questions, etc., they are not regarded as advertising. They were usually images of politicians, as is the case with his more recent
Newstopia ''Newstopia'' (stylised as ''NEWStopiä'') was an Australian half-hour satirical comedy programme hosted by Shaun Micallef. The first series premiered at on SBS TV on 10 October 2007 and concluded on 3 December 2007. A second season began on ...
. *In Warner Bros.' 1943 animated film "''
The Wise Quacking Duck ''The Wise Quacking Duck'' is a 1943 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The cartoon was released on May 1, 1943, and stars Daffy Duck. Plot The cartoon begins with Mr. Meek (voiced by Darrell Payne) carrying an axe i ...
''", Daffy Duck spins a statue which is holding a shield. For one frame, the words "BUY BONDS" are visible on the shield. *The horror film ''
The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty W ...
'' is well known for its frightening yet effective use of subliminal images throughout the film, depicting a white-faced demon named Captain Howdy. This image is shown in the character Father Karras' nightmare, where it flashes across the screen for a few seconds before fading away. *A
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logo appeared for one frame during the Food Network's ''
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'' series on 2007-01-27, leading to claims that this was an instance of subliminal advertising. The Food Network replied that it was simply a glitch. *In
Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
racing, the paint scheme of many cars would carry messages intended to look as if they were of banned tobacco products in many Grands Prix where tobacco advertising was banned, though many of these were jokes on the part of the teams (for example, Jordan Grand Prix ran
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sponsorship as "Bitten and Hisses" with a snake-skin design on their cars). A similar procedure was used by NASCAR driver
Jeff Burton Jeffrey Tyler Burton (born June 29, 1967), nicknamed The Mayor, is an American former professional stock car racing driver and current racing commentator. He scored 21 career victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, including two Coca-Cola 600s in ...
after the
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was banned by a court order in 2007, and by Penske Championship Racing in NASCAR (where Cellco Partnership is prohibited) and the IRL ( Marlboro). In both instances, a distinctive design where the banned company's identity (the Verizon "V" and the Marlboro chevron) were integrated into the car's design. *On November 7, 2007, Network 10
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's broadcast of the
ARIA In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
Awards was called out for using subliminal advertising in an exposé by the Media Watch program on the
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(Australian Broadcasting Corporation). *In June–July 2007, Sprite used a type of obvious subliminal message, involving yellow (lemon) and green (lime) objects such as cars. The objects would then be shown inconspicuously in the same setting, while showing the word "lymon" (combining the words lime and lemon) on screen for a second at a time. They called this "Sublymonal Advertising." The previous year, Sprite used a similar advertising campaign, but this time it was tied into ''
Lost Experience The ''Lost Experience'' was an alternate reality game that was part of the American television drama ''Lost''. The game was developed by ABC in the United States, Channel 4 in the UK, and Channel 7 in Australia. It was written by Jordan Rosenb ...
'', an alternate reality game. *In ''
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'' (2007), five pictures of the crew are shown subliminally during part of the film. *In '' Brainiac: Science Abuse'', there is an experiment carried out to see if viewers would react to subliminal messages. One was shown during an experiment to discover which substance provides the best skid; the message appeared when a brainiac hit a bale of hay. The second message appeared across a T-shirt of a brainiac saying 'Call your mum', and the third said 'scratch your nose' when a sound wave hit the Brainiac logo. At the end of the show, people were shown in a theatre watching that episode. The test showed that the messages barely impacted the audience. The subliminal content in this episode was legal, as its presence was announced at the beginning and end of the episode. *In Week 11 of '' The Apprentice: Martha Stewart'' in which candidates have to create an ad for the Delta's former low-cost commercial airlines
Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
, the team Matchstick used a 1/48-frame image in the bottom-right corner with the Song Airlines logo. *In the film '' Cloverfield'', three subliminal pictures can be seen during various parts of the film, when the camera footage distorts. The photos are actually frames from classic monster films. The images are shown one at a time: the first, from ''
Them! ''Them!'' is a 1954 American black-and-white science fiction film, science fiction monster film from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by David Weisbart, directed by Gordon Douglas (director), Gordon Douglas, and starring James Whitmore, Edmund ...
'', appears when the group plays the footage back, the second, from ''
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms ''The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms'' is a 1953 American science fiction monster film directed by Eugène Lourié, with special effects by Ray Harryhausen. The film stars Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, and Kenneth Tobey. The screenp ...
'', appears when they close the door on the 'parasites' and the third, from '' King Kong'' appears when the helicopter crashes. A monstrous creature can also be seen in the top right corner (with its mouth slightly open) as one of the clouds over the Statue of Liberty on the release cover. *In an episode of British TV show QI'' QI'' based on hypnosis, host Stephen Fry suggested that he could use subliminal messages to get himself elected as the Pope. The words "Stephen Fry for Pope" then briefly flashed up on the screen. This was repeated later on in the episode. *In the episode "Men Without Women" of ''
The IT Crowd ''The IT Crowd'' is a British sitcom originally broadcast by Channel 4, written and directed by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, and Matt Berry. Set in the offices of the fict ...
'', there is a scene where the character Douglas is trying to seduce Jen by showing her a film about his company on his laptop, which featured a subliminal message of Douglas lying in bed. Jen saw the image, but suspected the image meant something was wrong with his laptop. During the credits of the episode, the same image flashes briefly as a subliminal message. *In the "''Bull''" television series episode "Bad Medicine" on CBS 03//27/2018, an advertisement for Cuties citrus fruit was flashed on the screen in one frame. *In the very beginning of the vampire movie ''Blade'', an image of a cut throat is flashed in the scene where the protagonists are crossing the cold room that precedes the club room, thus generating apprehension. *In the ''
JJ Villard's Fairy Tales ''JJ Villard's Fairy Tales'' is an American adult animated horror comedy television series created by J.J. Villard. The series premiered on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim on May 11, 2020. Cast *J.J. Villard as Police ...
'' TV show, every episode has four to five images or texts written in bloody words with positive messages, random quotes or devilish artwork at random one frames.


See also

* '' Programming the Nation?'' *
Subliminal messages in popular culture While the effectiveness of subliminal messages is often overstated in popular culture, its history in television shows, movies, music and novels have long lead many cultural idioms that persist today. Governments are often depicted as employing s ...
* Subliminal stimuli


References

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