Subliminal messaging techniques have been around in popular media since the advent of
radio, when advertisers attempted to promote brand loyalty by playing specific tunes or
series of sounds in their advertisement.
Though subliminal messaging never garnered any significant business, when television
came around attempts to communicate secret messages or override the free will of a viewer
went into overdrive.
Never supported by any serious science, it was long thought that series of colors, sounds,
or rapidly flashed messages that lasted for mere frames may have a lasting impact on the
human brain.
While none of these efforts yielded any significant results, it hasn't stopped governments, corporations,
or police departments from trying.
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show- today we're taking a look
at some weird, and some cool subliminal messages aired on TV.
8.
BTK Killer – On January 15th1974, Joseph Otero was subdued in his Wichita, Kansas home
and suffocated with a plastic bag.
His wife, Julie Otero was then strangled with a rope.
Using another plastic bag, the killer then suffocated 9 year old Joseph Otero Jr. and
then hung his 11 year old sister, Josephine Otero from a drain pipe with rope.
The police found no leads, and months later on April 4tha 21 year old woman was found
stabbed 11 times.
For years the police searched for a killer with no leads, while the killer taunted police
by sending letters describing his murders to the media or by leaving them in books at
the public library.
In 1978 local Wichita station KAKE-TV ran a report on what was by then known as the
Bind, Torture, Kill killer, or BTK killer, and in an effort to get the killer to turn
himself in the report included a subliminal message saying “Now call the chief”, as
well as a pair of glasses.
In the midst of an interview, for just a few frames, a white screen appeared with the words
“Now call the chief” written in the upper left corner along with the glasses.
The glasses were included because when the killer hard murdered his most recent victim,
Nancy Fox, there was a pair of glasses left on her dresser, and the police thought seeing
the glasses might stir remorse in the killer.
The ploy was unsurprisingly not successful and the BTK killer wouldn't be caught until
inadvertently giving himself up in 2005.
7.
Mr. Eko, Lost – The Television series Lost is famed for being full of twisting turns
and... well, giant plot holes that barely resolved.
However, mystery abounded across its six seasons and the show's creators loved to tease the
audience by dropping barely noticeable hints in unexpected places.
In the second season of the show audiences were introduced to Mr. Eko, a violent Nigerian
guerrilla turned Catholic priest.
Despite his character arc developing over the course of many episodes, unbeknownst to
most viewers his entire backstory was plainly visible all along.
Carrying a big stick, Mr. Eko had carved several biblical passages onto it, and it is only
explained by another character as something he did “because he's a priest”.
Yet the show's writers were clearly asking the audience to look closer, and those that
did discovered the real significance.
The passages written on Mr. Eko's stick tell the story of his life before arriving at the
island and his ultimate demise.
Starting with Titus 3 which tells of sinners living in malice and envy but finding salvation
in God, we discover Mr. Eko's violent past.
Next is Acts 4:12, a nod at Mr. Eko's not-quite-authority as a priest.
Finally, Eko's stick also contains Psalm: 23: “Though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff
they comfort me.”- the passage clearly referencing Mr. Eko's fatal confrontation with the shadowy
smoke monster that would kill him.
6.
God, The Simpsons – First airing on December 18th, 1989, The Simpsons has run for nearly
three decades, yet the show got its start in very humble beginnings.
On April 19th, 1987, the first iteration of the show ran on The Tracey Ullman Show as
a series of short sketches, and given their popularity after three years the sketch was
developed into a half-hour prime time show, becoming Fox's first series to land in the
Top 30 ratings in a season.
The rest is television history.
However throughout the course of the show one of the things that continuously stands
out (other than Marge's hair) is the four fingers and four toes of each character.
While technically this is because it makes hands easier to animate, the show hinted at
something else entirely when in the episode “Homer the Heretic”, Homer comes face-to-face
with God, and sharp-eyed viewers quickly spotted that God had five fingers and even had five
toes.
What this says about the show has been hotly debated since, with some viewers simply claiming
that it was a subtle joke to the audience, and others saying that God represents The
Simpson's true animators and is crossing over from our five-fingered world into The Simpson's
world.
5.
Sansa Stark, Game of Thrones – 'Subliminal' is not what most people would use to describe
Game of Thrones and its over the top brutality.
Amidst a show full of decapitations, rapes, and more murders in one episode than some
cop shows have in a season, Game of Thrones still manages to weave some ingenious subliminal
messages into the background... or in some cases the very foreground of scenes.
Costume designer Michele Clapton has long been manipulating the design of the character's
costumes to hint at backstories, predict the future, or comment on the present of each
character.
For example, Daenerys' signature blue dress contains shimmering dragon-like blue scales
on one portion, an obvious nod to her status as Mother of Dragons.
However it's in the episode where Sansa Stark is married that she created her masterwork.
As Sansa is being married into House Lannister, she is wearing a dress that depicts a direwolf-
the sigil of her house, House Stark- being wrapped up and dominated by a lion, sigil
for House Lannister, exactly as is happening within the show's politics.
Going even deeper however, the colors of the dress hint at various families and tell Sansa's
story.
The red weavings amongst the dress depict the growing influence of the Lannister's on
Sansa, mirroring the way her character is becoming more and more like the infamous manipulative
blonde-headed lords and ladies.
4.
Bad News, How I Met Your Mother – Heralding back to the days of trying to manipulate people
by flashing numbers or colors at them in rapid succession, How I Met Your Mother used a clever
subliminal messaging tactic to build anxiety and dread in its viewers.
In the episode 'Bad News', the audience expects that at any point shockingly bad news could
break, yet sharp eyed viewers noticed a trend of descending numbers appearing in every scene.
Starting at 50, every scene included a prominently featured number somewhere in the scene that
started a countdown from 50 to 1.
A character drinks a beer with a 48 on it, a book contains the number 40 in the title,
a character turns a calendar to the 21stday of the month...
For the sharp-eyed viewers who spotted the countdown they realized that the awful news
they had been waiting to hear was approaching closer and closer, until finally at last the
countdown reaches 1 at the end of the episode and we discover that one of the major character's
father has died.
3.
Marlboro Barcode – After public outcry over cigarette advertising targeting children,
cigarette brands found themselves unable to advertise on television anymore.
To get around the ban on creating commercials, cigarette brands moved to endorsing professional
sports, though that too would ultimately lead to a ban on endorsements- except for Formula
1, where cigarette brand logos covered nearly every race car from top to bottom.
After outcry from many professional sporting organizations and regulatory bodies, a ban
was eventually passed and no longer could cigarette brand logos appear on race cars.
To get around the ban however, Marlboro came up with a very clever tactic- instead of displaying
their well-recognized logo, they instead used a barcode-style design painted on the side
of a Formula 1 car that was bereft of any lettering or much detail.
Yet as the car zoomed around the track and was broadcast on television, the motion blur
effect created an image that was eerily similar to the Marlboro brand logo.
Quickly catching on, the European Public Health Commission applied pressure to European lawmakers
who ruled that the design was too close to the banned Marlboro logo.
Marlboro would go on to plead innocence, claiming that the design was meant to be neutral and
not linked to the sale of tobacco products- because if you can trust anyone it's definitely
cigarette companies.
2.
McDonalds, Food Network – First airing on March 5th, 2005, Iron Chef America quickly
became one of the world's most popular shows, and a prime revenue generator for the Food
Network where it was hosted.
With millions of fans watching chefs battling it out over delicious dinners, some sharp-eyed
viewers noticed something strange in one episode.
At one point in the middle of an episode the McDonalds logo was flashed onto the screen
for a few fractions of a second, not long enough for most to notice, but hopefully long
enough to make viewers hungry for some McDonalds.
Both the food Network and McDonalds denied that they had colluded on a subliminal ad
campaign, saying that it was a technical error and nothing more.
1.
Comedy Central, UK – Back in 2013 a particularly eagle-eyed viewer was watching Comedy Central
at his home in Britain when during a commercial break for Mr. Bean, he noticed a weird flash
that briefly appeared on-screen.
Luckily the viewer had been running his DVR at the time, and after rewinding back and
forth and going over frame by frame he discovered a huge block of text that appeared for mere
fractions of a second on his screen.
Even more strange, the block of text seems to be an ode of sorts to a record store named
HMV, located somewhere called “High Street”.
The giant block of text which filled the screen tells about a shared experience of visiting
the record store with your 'tribe', and laments the loss of these experiences, asking at the
end if “you can't fight progress, can you?”.
The block of text also had several words highlighted, though put together seemed to have no special
meaning.
After posting his discovery to Reddit, some forum members commented that the message may
be part of a modern day “numbers station” broadcast, an updated version of radio broadcasts
made up of random bits of dialogue, poetry, or series of numbers that were coded messages
to undercover spies.
Whatever its origin, it was discovered that this has happened before on the same station
in the UK, with different messages, each replete with highlighted words.
Does subliminal messaging work to advertise a product?
Ever feel strange cravings for McDonalds after watching The Food Network?
Have you spotted any cool details in the background of your favorite shows?
Let us know in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video Why You Don’t Want To Win The Lottery.
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See you next time!