ILL EFFECTS24 Apr 2025

Can subliminal advertising make you buy things?

[Eat popcorn!] In 1957, market researcher James Vicary promised he could flash split-second commands on movie screens and subconsciously influence audiences to buy things. He called it subliminal advertising. [Drink Coca-Cola!] Ben drags Rich through the riotous history of hidden persuasion, packed with hucksters, gimmicks, and shrinks. But as silly as these experiments were, what do they reveal about our relationships to advertising today? [Consume!]

Show Notes:

Acland, C. R. (2011). Swift viewing The popular life of subliminal influence. Duke University Press.

Crandall, K. B. (2006). Invisible commercials and hidden persuaders: James M. Vicary and the subliminal advertising controversy of 1957. Undergraduate Honors Thesis. University of Florida. Available at http://plaza. ufl. edu/cyllek/docs/KCrandall_Thesis2006. pdf.

Fullerton, Ronald A. "The Devil's Lure?: Motivation Research, 1934-1954." In Proceedings of the Conference on Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing, vol. 12, pp. 134-143. 2005.

Heffernan, K. (2002). The hypnosis horror films of the 1950s: Genre texts and industrial context. Journal of Film and Video, 54(2/3), 56-70.

Horowitz, D. (1994). Vance Packard & American Social Criticism. Univ of North Carolina Press.

Key, W. B. (1973). Subliminal seduction: Ad media’s manipulation of a not so innocent America. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Mackay, J., & Anonymous. (2023). Hypnosis and pornography: a cultural history. Porn Studies, 10(1), 82-98.

Parkin, K. (2004). The sex of food and Ernest Dichter: the illusion of inevitability. Advertising & Society Review, 5(2).

Samuel, L. R. (2010). Freud on Madison Avenue: motivation research and subliminal advertising in America. University of Pennsylvania Press.

[Video] Aldous Huxley interviewed by Mike Wallace

[Video] Daniels, Harold (1958) My World Dies Screaming

Note: Journal articles are often behind paywalls. If you don't have institutional access but would like a copy of these papers please email Illeffectspod@gmail.com and we will happily send you a copy 

Credits: 

Hosts – Rich McCulloch and Ben Litherland  

Music by -  Brutalust (Colin Frank and Maria Sappho), recorded and mixed by Joe Christman 

Producer – Caroline Pringle 

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