I can recall back when I was a kid seeing TV news reports exposing subliminal advertising. They’d show how the ice cubes in an ad for some kind of scotch had been manipulated to spell S-E-X. Or they’d talk about the way a voiceover had subliminal messages dubbed in at a level you couldn’t consciously hear, yet was so convincing that it made you the slave to some deviant nature in your subconscious mind.

I thought the idea of subliminal messages was totally cool. In fact. I think the idea of wielding power through subconscious suggestion was one of the reasons I got into this business…subconsciously, of course. However, since getting into the business, I must admit that I’ve never actually done any subliminal advertising. I did see a can of Glade Air Freshener on which a disgruntled designer had apparently replaced the stamen of a flower with an image of his own “stamen.” But I regard that more as a prank than an attempt to sell room deodorizer through the power of the phallus.

About as close I’ve ever come to witnessing actual subliminal messaging was something my big sister did in fifth grade. She was mad at here teacher so she raised her hand in class and said,  “Sister Mary Catherine, If you see Kay…please tell here I want to see her.” Get it. The “IF you see Kay” kind of sounds like you’re spelling out F-U-SOMETHING-SOMETHING. Yeah, well about 10 seconds after asking that obviously pointless question, Sister Mary Catherine got it. And then my sister really got it.

So I’m wondering if any of the rest of you have had any more actual experience with subliminal advertising than I have. If you’ve got any evidence of it…or perhaps evidence of Bigfoot or the Chupacabra, please share. It would be fun to believe once again that there’s even more powerful than the one we put on the surface.

- Glen Day