Subversive Advertising - Essay Example

Subversive Advertising Debate al affiliation) I would like to make an argument against subliminal advertisement. Subversive is unethical, illegal in countries like Britain, Australia, and United States, and has been proved unsuccessful. For this reason subliminal advertising is harmful and manipulative and therefore should be banned. The theory behind subliminal advertising is that a person influences the behavior of the consumer by secretly appealing to their mind with sounds, words or images.

This is frightening because consumer’s subconscious minds are influenced without their knowledge in responding to the advertisements. Some of this advertisements feature appealing and sexual messages which ethically, is not correct. For instance, the Coffee symbol on Starbucks has sexual undertones; the suspicious number of fins on mermaids.These form of advertising was first raised by James Vicary who claimed to have recorded higher sales of Popcorn and Coca Cola in movie theatre. James Vicary increased his sales by flashing the message “Eat Popcorn” and “Drink Coca-Cola”.

Subversive advertising is regarded as a paradox because consumers are manipulated without their consent and awareness; which is ethically incorrect. For this reason, it has been banned in countries like Britain, Australia, and United States. The above named countries spend a lot of money on audiotapes containing subliminal messages which is not good for any state’s economy (Toynbee, 2012). The advertising industry is a powerful and prominent industry that engages in subliminal advertising which majority of people are not aware of.

With the help of subversive advertising, advertisers tend to bypass the unconscious minds of their clients by controlling and manipulating them in many ways. Legislations against the vice have had no impact in curbing the use of subversive advertising. In this information era, people do not have control over others. The advertisers have the knowledge while the clients who are the victims do not. For this reason, the advertisers have long played with their clients mind. It is a scary imagination, when one realizes that the advertisers have gained control of people’s lives without their notice.

Subliminal advertisement often develops desires that cannot exist and ends up manipulating people into buying unneeded brands of products. The subconscious mind is an extremely delicate part of the most subtle things in the entire universe. It is not to be sullied, smuggled or twisted in order to boost the sales of products or services. The privacy of the human soul has to be protected at all cost, even though it appears a challenge is doing so in the modern world. Subliminal advertisement should be in order to prevent producers and even politicians from manipulating the minds of other people Subversive advertisement is immoral as business people would be using tricks to sell their products.

Therefore, using this form of advertisement tends to risk the reputation of a company. This is because if a company fails to sell their products using conventional advertising methods then they will feel the need to re-examine their products. Subliminal advertisement tends to manipulate the minds of people through auditory and visual. Subliminal advertisement is often meant to influence people without their awareness. “Individuals can be persuaded or coerced to behave in particular manner as a result of bits of information that they can access through visual and hearing” (Schwartz & Shagass, 2010).

References Schwartz, M., & Shagass, C. (2010). Physiological Limits for "Subliminal" Perception. Science, 133(3457), 1017-1018. doi:10.1126/science.133.3457.1017Stewart, P., & Schubert, J. (2008). Taking the "Low Road" with Subliminal AdvertisementsA Study Testing the Effect of Precognitive Prime "RATS" in a 2000 Presidential Advertisement. The Harvard International Journal Of Press/Politics, 11(4), 103-114. doi:10.1177/1081180x06293938Stubbing out subliminal messaging. (2009). New Scientist, 203(2719), 5. doi:10.1016/s0262-4079(09)61991-6Toynbee, M. (2012). Subliminal advertising.

BMJ, 345(dec10 7), e8345-e8345. doi:10.1136/bmj.e8345