“The Myth of Subliminal Messages”

"It all seems to have started with a 1957 marketing agent named James Vicary, who claimed to have increased popcorn sales by 58% and Coke sales by 18% in a New Jersey movie theater by flashing the messages "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry - Eat Popcorn." Although it was later admitted by Vicary to be a fabricated study, this hoax is to this day still mentioned as proof of the effectiveness of subliminal messages.

You can find it mentioned in subliminal message products all over the world, including numerous computer applications, even though nobody has ever reproduced the results claimed by Mr. Vicary.

The belief in subliminal messages probably reached its peak in 1974 when the FCC banned subliminal messages from advertising, probably more as a response to public paranoia than anything else. One survey showed that 68% of the public believed in subliminal messages.

The January 1991 issue of the University of California, Berkeley, noted that double blind tests have consistently shown that subliminal tapes fail to produce their claimed effects.

There is also no evidence that subliminal messages actually affect behavior. In a separate study, Timothy E. Moore showed that subliminal tapes didn't even meet the minimal criteria for perception. He concluded that it is highly unlikely that they have any effect at all, much less a significant effect on behavior or thought patterns.”

[Glendon College, York University. Subliminal Self-help Auditory Tapes: An Empirical Test of Perceptual Consequences.]"