People of all ages are being drawn into the flashy images, relaxing aromas, and hidden messages in movies. These are just a few ways movies attract their audiences via the use of subliminal messages. Looking briefly at the history of subliminal messages, exploring the different types of subliminal messages, and analyzing findings from research can help form a better understanding of their existence.
Subliminal messages have a long, ancient history. Dixon, a psychologist as well as a researcher, mentions that the first philosophical thought of subliminal perception came between 400 BC and AD 1850. The idea that people may be affected by unconscious stimuli may have originated with Democritus, when he mentioned, "Much is perceptible which is not perceived by us." Other early references to the possibility of subliminal perception occur in Plato's "Timaeus" and Aristotle's ideas on the effects of unperceived sensory stimuli on dreams (Dixon 6). However, much of the very early history of the subliminal perception has been hypothetical. The beginning of experimental work did not start until the mid nineteenth century. Since then, the use of subliminal messages has drastically increased. .
The public became aware of these hidden messages in 1956 when a public relations agent named James Vicary announced that he had instigated long lines at a New Jersey movie theater concession stand. He said these lines were due to flashing split-second messages that read, "Hungry? Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coke" that hit the movie theater screen at instantaneous times (Key 21). This was similarly to what Jim saw when he was trying to watch James Bond.
Psychologists, Pratkins and Greenwald defined "subliminal" as the processing of stimuli presented below the threshold of conscious awareness (Pratkanis and Greenwald 56). Subliminal advertising, defined by researchers Rogers and Seiler, is "the use of words, pictures, and shapes that are purposely inserted into advertising materials so the viewers of the material cannot perceive the imagery at a conscious level, but rather at a subconscious level" (Rogers and Seiler 38).