[LINK] Aussie TV network guilty of subliminal ads
David Boxall
david.boxall at hunterlink.net.au
Tue Oct 14 14:26:36 AEDT 2008
Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> I love this! ... "subliminal advertising" is banned although it's an
> urban myth, so Ten gets found guilty of doing something that doesn't
> work, and then the report says "let it off lightly with just a stern
> warning". I would have insisted it refund advertisers' dollars ...
>
> http://www.snopes.com/business/hidden/popcorn.asp
I reckon it doesn't matter if we don't believe it works - nor even if we
believe it's been proven not to work. What matters to me is that
advertisers are trying to manipulate people's subconscious. That sort
or behaviour belongs in the "Don't even think about it" category. If
they find that one way doesn't work, then they're likely to try others -
and there's a risk they'll eventually succeed.
In part, section 1.8 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of
Practice
<http://www.freetv.com.au/media/Code_of_Practice/Revised_Code_of_Practice_(including%20amendment%20for%20election%20period)_060907.pdf>
reads:
> A licensee may not broadcast a program, program promotion, station
> identification or community service announcement which is likely, in
> all the circumstances, to:
> ...
> 1.8.3 be designed to induce a hypnotic state in viewers;
> 1.8.4 use or involve any technique which attempts to convey
> information to the viewer by transmitting messages below or near the
> threshold of normal awareness;
Whatever we believe, there's evidently concern that viewers might be
subconsciously manipulated. Whether any known technique works at all is
not the point: a healthy society will not tolerate the attempt. Come to
think of it, I reckon a healthy society wouldn't spawn an industry that
would make the attempt.
Just what is subliminal? ACMA has decreed a 2-frame flash to be in
violation, but a 3-frame flash is permitted. They're talking about
fullscreen flashes, but what about smaller parts of the screen? Last
night's Media Watch
<http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2389916.htm> showed a
scene from Channel Ten's "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" in which
part of a graphic (to which viewers' attention was drawn by the
commentator) flashed an ad for 12 frames. The advertised product was
Nintendo DS. The title of the show gives an idea of the target audience.
Though is seemed to amuse Jonathan Holmes, the 2-frame flash is
apparently well established in the century-plus history of subliminal
messaging <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_message>. It seems
questionable to me though, whether it adequately covers all the bases.
For mine, anyone who tries this stuff outside a research lab should be
burned at the stake. But I was ever the traditionalist.
--
David Boxall | When a distinguished but elderly
| scientist states that something is
| possible, he is almost certainly
| right. When he states that
| something is impossible, he is
| very probably wrong.
--Arthur C. Clarke
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