Subliminal Messages in Advertising and the Tachistoscope

Here is more information that we found on Subliminal Messages in Advertising.

“The usual picture that the word “subliminal” conjures up is the movie theater with the messages being flashed on the screen for a fraction of a second telling patrons to buy soda pop and popcorn. This classical experiment really worked. People never saw the message consciously but they bought soda pop and popcorn like mad. The conclusion: we react to things we can’t see with our conscious minds, and we, therefore, react to many more things than we think we do.

The technique of subliminal information giving has been considerably broadened in recent years so magazine ads now employ it. The magazine advertisers do not include a tachistoscope with their product; it is much more subtle than that. Rather than provide images that flash on the screen, for milliseconds, they carefully hide their images where we can not see them with the conscious eye.” – Miles C Olson

<H3>How is a A Tachistoscope Used with Subliminal Messages ?</H3>

* Wikipedia definition of a tachistoscope is a device that displays (usually by projecting) an image for a specific amount of time. It can be used to increase recognition speed, to show something too fast to be consciously recognized, or to test which elements of an image are memorable. Actual tachistoscopes use a slide or transparency projector equipped with the mechanical shutter system typical of a camera. The slide is loaded, the shutter locked open, and focusing and alignment are adjusted, then the shutter is closed. When ready for the test, a shutter speed is selected, and the shutter is tripped normally.