This is where BBC R&D expertise on High Frame Rate (HFR) television came in.īBC R&D are exploring various aspects of a future broadcasting system, and HFR is one aspect that is currently being explored. It became apparent during these tests that this duration was not going to be short enough for the subliminal to remain largely unnoticeable. This would give a minimum subliminal duration of 20 milliseconds (ms). A typical TV screen or projector can usually only refresh at 50fps (ignoring any internal processing or upconversion that a television might do). The final factor of how long the subliminal should remain on the screen was the trickiest to evaluate. It was decided that the message should be perfectly readable on a still frame. A good balance was struck between font size (100pt), colour (50% grey) and transparency (10%). The visibility of the message was chosen so that the message was not overly obvious or distracting. The fast paced BBC drama Spooks, produced by Kudos, was chosen for this test.įor the frequency of the message, we decided to follow Stroebe’s lead, and the message of choice was to be repeated every 5 seconds. This would be impossible to do within a video clip, but we were advised that a clip full of rapid camera-work and quick edits should work instead. In the lab, this can be done by flashing a meaningless arrangement of letters immediately after the message. This is because, for the messages to be rendered consciously invisible, they need to be ‘masked’. ![]() To generate the hidden messages, there are a number of factors that can be varied when inserting the hidden message into the video: the duration of the message, how often the message is displayed and how visible is the message.Īfter some initial experimentation in the lab, it was decided that the video on which the subliminal would be shown would have to contain lots of activity and motion. So when they sat down to watch the clip containing the subliminals, they knew they were taking part in an experiment – just not what it was testing. So we asked members of the Infinite Monkey Cage audience to volunteer to take part in an experiment, making clear that we couldn’t reveal the nature of the test until afterwards. If the audience members are aware of the existence of the messages, they are likely to be completely ineffective. Under the guidance of Professor Stroebe, Radio 4 producer Phil Tinline and BBC R&D developed a test in which the unknowing audience of the Infinite Monkey Cage could be subjected to subliminal messages and if their decisions could be swayed one way or another.Īccording to Professor Stroebe, one of the most important aspects of a subliminal experiment is not only that the hidden messages remain hidden, but that those participating in the experiment do not know that what they are watching contains subliminals. ![]() Can this result be transferred to a public venue? Work by Professors Karremans and Stroebe from the University of Utrecht in Holland have repeatedly shown that subliminal advertising does work, again only under the strictest of lab conditions. ![]() In a controlled study by University College London, participants were asked to choose whether a word that appeared subliminally was positive, negative or neutral the authors claim that the participants responded more accurately to negative words. In recent times, subliminal messaging has been shown to work, but only when performed in the strictest of lab conditions. In the BBC Radio 4 documentary, presenter David Aaronovitch will dispel the myths and misinformation surrounding subliminal and explore the scientific theories about subliminal influence. And what we had shouldn’t have been used promotionally.” However, the strict control and use of subliminal messaging throughout the world still exists. I had only…a small amount of data – too small to be meaningful. Several years later, during an interview with the trade paper Advertising Age, James Vicary confessed that “we hadn’t done any research, except what was needed for filing a patent. With little evidence, other than the results shown by Vicary, mass panic ensued around the world, with the UN proclaiming “the cultural implications of subliminal indoctrination is a major threat to human rights throughout the world” In this first “field trial”, James Vicary claimed to have increased sales of popcorn by 57.7% and sales of Coca-Cola by 18.1% by flashing unnoticeable messages reading ‘Eat Popcorn’ and ‘Drink Coke’ during big screen movies. ![]() The aim of subliminal messages in video is to briefly flash a message on top of a video for such a short time that they don’t appear visible, with the intention of influencing a person’s decision. Subliminal messaging was first popularised by the infamous “Eat Popcorn” experiments in 1956.
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