1. Zach Rollins
Media Advertising and Sales
21 January 2013
Subliminal Advertising: Its Efficacy and Place in Persuasion Research
The origins of subliminal persuasion in advertising is traditionally believed to be rooted
in the 1950s. It was in 1957 that market researcher James Vicary, who worked for an advertising
agency based in New Jersey, claimed to have flashed the phrases “EAT POPCORN” and
“DRINK COKE” during a movie at a local movie theatre. The phrases were supposedly flashed
on the screen for a mere single frame, short enough to go undetected by the audience but
significant enough to have influenced the subconscious of the moviegoers. So significant was the
technique that Vicary claimed it drove sales of Coca-Cola up by 18% and sales of popcorn by
more than 57% (Pratkanis and Aronson 286). Vicary's insertion of subliminal stimuli were, in
fact, a hoax, and the results of his study were never corroborated. In fact, no study was ever even
performed and sales did not increase. Vicary never flashed any messages on the screen and lied
about the increased sales in an attempt to impress the public and thus save the struggling
advertising agency for which he worked (290).
The Vicary incident has become somewhat of an urban legend in the world of subliminal
advertising and also advertising and market research in general. Though untrue, Vicary's claims
of the efficacy of subliminal advertising sparked interest in a new field of persuasion and
advertising research. Ultimately, in terms of their effectiveness, subliminal messages have been
shown to have somewhat of an influence on the behavior of individuals, but only under certain
circumstances.
In the field of persuasion theory and research, there is general unanimity among

2. researchers that the primary component of persuasion is that of the persuadee's attitude. Daniel
O'Keefe, who has written extensively on persuasion studies, contends that “in persuasion theory
and research, the relevant mental state has most commonly been characterized as an attitude” and
that attitude has been “the mental state...most centrally implicated in persuasion (5-6). In other
words, persuasion happens when the persuadee's attitude is modified or changed in accordance
with the persuader's goals. Further, many scholars agree that attitude consists of three parts and
these three parts are often the primary focus of most research on the concept of attitude. Morris
et al. describe these parts as “the tripartite of cognitive, affective, and conative attitudes” (7). In
the world of advertising, the cognitive level of persuasion is fairly self-explanatory and refers to
one's rational process of perceiving, interpreting, and then using reason to assess an
advertisement. The affective level of persuasion concerns one's emotional reaction, and the
conative level refers to one's ultimate tendency or desire to gravitate toward a particular product.
For the most part, researchers agree that cognition is the central component of a
persuadee's mind, and thus, cognition is arguably the most widely-focused on aspect of
persuasion research. This is evidenced by researchers like Greenwald and Leavitt who suggest
that when it comes to advertising, cognition—the rational, reasoning process—supersedes the
affective or emotional process which the persuadee experiences (586-587). However, when it
comes to subliminal stimuli in advertisements, which level of persuasion is applicable? And
which part of the persuadee's mind is ultimately affected?
As previously mentioned, cognition refers to a rational process of perceiving a message
or idea and then using reason to deduce and interpret the information. Because of that,
researchers suggest that exposing a persuadee to a subliminal message doesn't have an impact at
the cognitive level, as the subliminal information is below the threshold of conscious detection.

3. Therefore, cognition isn't necessarily applicable when researching subliminal persuasion. Rather,
it seems to be the persuadee's affective or emotional attitude which is affected. Krosnick et al.
point to studies which show that a person's attitude can be altered by repeatedly exposing him or
her to a persuasive message at a subliminal level and suggest that, after exposure to a subliminal
message, attitude change occurs “in the absence of information integration” (153). In other
words, the attitude change doesn't occur at the cognitive level.
The bigger question, however, deals with the effectiveness of such techniques. It is
important to note, then, that the studies that researchers like Krosnick have pointed to do not
absolutely prove the effectiveness of subliminal advertising. In fact, the results of many of those
studies are subject to much critique by researchers and do not show a widespread effectiveness of
subliminal advertising. They do, however, show that subliminal messages in advertising do work
in a limited way under special conditions. Strahan et al. performed several studies in which they
attempted to persuade people after exposing them to subliminal stimuli, but they ultimately
concluded that “both priming goal-relevant cognitions and the motive to pursue the goal are
necessary for ads that target the goal to be more persuasive. Subliminal priming per se had no
effect” (566). To elaborate, words like “drink” and “dry” were quickly flashed on a screen to
participants in the study in an attempt to cause thirst in the participants, but only those who were
already moderately thirsty prior to the study responded to the subliminal messages and began to
drink (567). In other words, the participants who already had a goal related to the message
responded in line with the researchers' intentions.
Furthermore, Karremans et al. performed a similar study, this time flashing brand logos to
participants in attempt to alter their attitudes about their preferred product brands. In the end, the
findings were nearly identical, concluding that “subliminal priming will only affect people's

4. behavior if the subliminal prime is goal-relevant, and people are motivated to pursue the
goal...present research has provided important new insights into the world of subliminal
advertisement” (793-798). Clearly, subliminal advertising does have some impact on the
persuadee, but certainly not in a significant way. In short, random subliminal stimuli by
themselves do not alter attitudes.
In closing, subliminal advertising is neither significantly effective nor widely used by
advertisers. Subliminal stimuli have been shown in some studies to be effective, but only under
very certain conditions such as when the persuadee already has a related and achievable goal in
mind. The majority of market researchers disbelieve the effectiveness of subliminal messaging in
advertising, and like Tellis suggests, “the effects are so debatable that even some proponents of
[subliminal advertising] question its commercial viability” (122). James Vicary's attempts at
subliminal advertising more than fifty years ago may have sparked interest and research into the
topic, but ultimately, the research has debunked the urban legends about the prominence and
effectiveness of subliminal messaging in the media.

5. Works Cited
Greenwald, Anthony, and Clark Leavitt. “Audience Involvement in Advertising: Four Levels.”
Journal of Consumer Research. 11 (1984): 581-592. Web. 18 January 2014.
Karremans, Johan, et al. “Beyond Vicary's fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand
choice.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 42 (2006): 792-798. Web. 20
January 2014.
Krosnick, Jon, et al. “Subliminal Conditioning of Attitudes.” Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin. 18.2 (1992): 152-162. Web. 20 January 2014.
Morris, Jon, et al. “The Power of Affect: Predicting Intention.” Journal of Advertising Research.
42.3 (2002): 7-17. Web. 18 January 2014.
O'Keefe, Daniel J. Persuasion: Theory and Research. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage
Publications, 2002. Google Books. Web. 18 January 2014.
Pratkanis, Anthony, and Elliot Aronson. Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of
Persuasion. New York: Henry Holt, 2002. Google Books. Web. 17 January 2014.
Strahan, Erin, et al. “Subliminal priming and persuasion: Striking while the iron is hot.” Journal
of Experimental Social Psychology. 38 (2002): 556-568. Web. 20 January 2014.
Tellis, Gerard. Effective Advertising: Understanding When, How, and Why Advertising Works.
London: Sage Publications, 2004. Google Books. Web. 20 January 2014.

6. Works Cited
Greenwald, Anthony, and Clark Leavitt. “Audience Involvement in Advertising: Four Levels.”
Journal of Consumer Research. 11 (1984): 581-592. Web. 18 January 2014.
Karremans, Johan, et al. “Beyond Vicary's fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand
choice.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 42 (2006): 792-798. Web. 20
January 2014.
Krosnick, Jon, et al. “Subliminal Conditioning of Attitudes.” Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin. 18.2 (1992): 152-162. Web. 20 January 2014.
Morris, Jon, et al. “The Power of Affect: Predicting Intention.” Journal of Advertising Research.
42.3 (2002): 7-17. Web. 18 January 2014.
O'Keefe, Daniel J. Persuasion: Theory and Research. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage
Publications, 2002. Google Books. Web. 18 January 2014.
Pratkanis, Anthony, and Elliot Aronson. Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of
Persuasion. New York: Henry Holt, 2002. Google Books. Web. 17 January 2014.
Strahan, Erin, et al. “Subliminal priming and persuasion: Striking while the iron is hot.” Journal
of Experimental Social Psychology. 38 (2002): 556-568. Web. 20 January 2014.
Tellis, Gerard. Effective Advertising: Understanding When, How, and Why Advertising Works.
London: Sage Publications, 2004. Google Books. Web. 20 January 2014.