Subliminal Advertising

I was watching one of the new Kia Motors ads the other day, and happened to comment on what a wonderful example of subliminal advertising I thought it was. Now, we’ve all heard the stories about movie theaters supposedly flashing the word “popcorn” for a split second (one frame?) during a movie, or a picture of a plate of fried clams that actually contains concealed images of an orgy. All of which have been repeatedly debunked over the years – there is no evidence of any kind to suggest that these sorts of suggestions actually work. But there IS a different kind of subliminal advertising that has always been with us, and the commercial in question is an excellent example.

The ad is structured to look and sound like an ad for a dating service, only in this case the “match” being made is between a consumer and an inexpensive car, not between two single people. What makes it subliminal advertising is the choice of characters in the ad – one of whom is a young, attractive blonde woman. Since the key demo for most car ads is males, ages 18 to 36, the implication is clear: if you purchase one of these cars, you’re actually purchasing the blonde. The fact that the character is completely passive (she has no spoken lines, and is clearly willing to accept being “paired” with whoever or whatever the Kia people tell her to accept) simply completes the illusion; if this woman is agreeable enough to buy a Kia when told to do so, heaven only knows what else she might put up with. Maybe the male viewer has a chance after all…

Of course, this is nothing new; companies have been using attractive spokesmodels to sell cars for years, with the car serving as a surrogate for the attractive woman, but in an attainable form. Very few men can actually hope to have a supermodel as their significant other, but anyone with a few dollars a month to spend can have a new Kia. The same approach is used to sell all manner of consumer products, although the most familiar examples after cars are probably beer and personal grooming items – use our products and women like these will want to sleep with you is the message being employed. In recent years these ads have become so clichéd that some companies have actually begun using them as parody or self-parody, such as in the Axe Body Spray commercials, where use of the product quite literally results in the user being attacked by lust-crazed females.

From a business standpoint, this form of advertising makes sense only if the gain in sales realized outweighs the negative reaction that will almost certainly come from feminist groups, conservative political organizations, advertising bloggers and other people with no sense of humor. No matter how harmless the subliminal message is – even if the attractive woman is fully clothed and never does anything more suggestive than award a gold star to a successful pupil – someone somewhere is going to condemn the ad as sexist, racist, ageist, or otherwise offensive. If our key demographic group is comprised of people who fall into one of those categories, then we should avoid using this type of advertising.

On the other hand, if our key demographic is Males, 18 to 36 years old, then the criticism of these ads is rather silly. In a free-market economy, companies exist to make money, and the suggestion that they ought to deliberately hamper themselves in order to avoid the risk of offending a segment of the population who will never do business with them anyway is ridiculous. As business people, the question we need to ask when approaching television ads, print ads, radio spots, Internet ads or even outdoor advertising is whether the piece we have developed has a second, underlying, suggestive meaning – and whether or not that will help us to meet our marketing goals…