Saturday, October 11, 2008

Subliminal messages

Subliminal messages in ads are illegal. Flashing images so fast that only your subconscious can detect them. It's an insidious process. Here are a couple of examples.

This is an ad for KFC.



And from those "fair and balanced" news guardians at Fox:



I shall leave you with this -- from the actual LITTLE MERMAID poster. If you have the DVD check it out yourself. Or just click on the picture to enlarge it. Oh Ariel!

19 comments :

Anonymous said...

What am I supposed to be seeing on the Little Mermaid poster?

Tim W. said...

Who exactly was looking so hard at a Little Mermaid's Poster to see, what looks somewhat like....




a penis.

Either that or a rocket ship.

Anonymous said...

Emily, I believe the item you are supposed to be identifying is what is known in some circles as a "purple veined custard pump".

Tim, an interpretation of the story can be found here:

http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/mermaid.asp

Jon88 said...

Fox 5 isn't Fox News Channel. That's the local NYC newscast with the ghost of McCain.

estiv said...

That Little Mermaid drawing might be an example of Animator's Revenge, like Jessica Rabbit flashing her privates (which I understand has been edited out of all DVD copies). Never treat smart employees like dirt--they'll get even somehow.

Anonymous said...

Tim W. said...
Either that or a rocket ship.

Don Rickles: "Drop your pants and fire a rocket."

I keep clicking on mine, and at this age, it still won't enlarge.

Anonymous said...

The local news of the Fox affiliate here in St. Louis, KTVI, has the identical news opening: standing set, music, graphics, the two co-anchors standing in the same positions wearing the same wardrobe while reciting an identical opening slogan -- leave out the call-letters and you literally can't tell one from another.

I knew affiliates within given networks were going to common news formats, but I didn't realize that Fox was going to clone them.

(Which means ours no doubt has the subliminal McCains, too.)

Tim W. said...

Sephim, thanks for the link. I do find it more disturbing that people actually complained about it than the fact that, if you look closely enough, you could see it.

Charles Jurries said...

More and more news organizations are having the same graphics package for all their affiliates. There are benefits and drawbacks, obviously, to such a decision. FOX O&O's have the same graphics, Gannett stations have the same package, I'm pretty sure NBC O&O's, CBS O&O's and ABC O&O's have similar graphics.

As far as the McCain thing goes, that looks like more of an error in the operating bay, just like CNN's infamous "X" on President Bush a few years back.

Anonymous said...

yes, and did you hear the one about that japanese video game called "zero wing"?

Anonymous said...

Standardized graphics is not surprising just look at how the CBS O&Os follow the "CBS Mandate"

What worries me is standardized anchors...

I mean the main female anchor on Fox Chicago is Robin Robinson

while the main female anchor on Fox in the Twin Cities is Robyne Robinson.

Coincidence maybe, but I remain skeptical.

serial catowner said...

Hey, that was hardly the only place that stuff showed up in the Mermaid cartoon. I was surprised they were even allowed to air the footage they showed on tv advertising the movie.

Maybe the kids didn't get it, but my adult friends with children were pretty surprised by it.

Zlog said...

Yeah that McCain thing looks like a mistake...those graphics are usually fed out of the control room over a video source, and it would be REALLY hard to insert just a couple of subliminal frames that way. The music also cut abruptly, so I'm guessing they used the graphic from an earlier time when it was going into a McCain story and then tried to cut out just before the video went full frame. Laziness, probably not a conspiracy though. And what's the big deal with the little dollar on the sandwich? Who cares?

Anonymous said...

A subliminal dollar on a sandwich wants me to have more dollars in my pocket.

What a conspiracy!

Anonymous said...

To the "emily" who couldn't see the penis in the poster: Is your last name Dickinson? :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, I thought they were supposed to be larger than that.

Anonymous said...

The KFC one is part of a "spot the dollar bill" promotion, so if it's subliminal advertising, at least they're up front about it.

Anonymous said...

Justin in Chicago:

> I mean the main female
> anchor on Fox Chicago is
> Robin Robinson
>
> while the main female
> anchor on Fox in the Twin
> Cities is Robyne
> Robinson.


When I used the world "clone" I meant it metaphorically. Goddess help us all if Fox News is taking it literally.

Courtney Suzanne said...

When I worked for Disney catalog, the big controversy was the recall of "The Rescuers" DVDs because you could easily see a naked torso in the background of one shot. The only reason it took over 20 years to see this is because you can pause a DVD and go frame-by-frame more easily. Explaining why their DVD was being recalled was very interesting, to say the least. The ones who didn't return it have a collectible on their hands.


http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/rescuers.asp