subliminal graphics
though i don't work on this blog's graphics anymore, i sometimes change its look temporarily using stylesheet presets made years ago. the current preset sports this banner. i wonder how many people would notice, if they stared at it, that there's a blurred and faded woman in the banner peeling off her panties to expose paradise alley.in college i was a conditionally big fan of books by nutcase wilson key on alleged subliminal advertising. funny thing about wilson key, despite him going off into la la land and making most people think he was nuts: there are incontrovertible examples of embedded manipulation of photos in popular advertising.
if you read too much wilson key and look too much at ads, you'll eventually start seeing the word "sex" in clouds. i was at that stage when i found an ad that proved that at least one artist had done it. it was on an envelope for a promo package from a magazine house or something. a picture of a living room had some schlep painting on the wall with two boulders arranged like a big cock and nutsack. proof? not yet. i looked at the picture and saw a clear enough embed of a large "Sex" airbrushed next to the rock nutsack. proof? not yet; like clouds, it could have been chance.
the proof was that in this living room was a large mirror on the wall next to the painting. the rock cock and nutsack were reversed, but the "Sex" was not; it appeared with the same orientation as the non-mirrored original. the cloud theory of embedding was debunked in that one.
i eventually collected 20 or 30 examples of what appeared to be manipulation attempts, with heavy concentration on magazine liquor ads, some of which were good for about 2 hours of staring — the ice-filled glasses gold mines of airbrushing fantasy. wilson key was damned straight when he noted that ads for alcohol and cigarettes center on death wishes. glasses of booze had multiple vehicles clearly discernible, executioner images (e.g., hood, ax), and demonic/ghost/hell swirls. i don't know if that shit works, but major ad campaigns were obviously trying it.
less objectively notable are the symbolic things. one of my favorites was a bahamas vacation ad where a man and woman were standing in perfect blue water, wearing/holding snorkeling gear. the woman held a white shell with a spray of red around its entrance, and the guy was pointing his red-tipped snorkel at it. yeah — subtle!
i stopped collecting ads after getting enough evidence to know that it was definitely going on. though it bothered me at first, and i was heard spewing borderline typical "anti-corporation" dreck (since cured, of course), i can't see anything wrong with it. if you're stupid enough to be influenced by subliminal images, you deserve what your influenced actions give you.
posted by saltypig @ 16:57
Hey Pig,
That is AWESOME !
Never would have noticed.
I feel better now. I wondered why reading your posts was giving me wood :^)
hey, they give me wood too, and i wasn't even looking at the pic.
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