What is subliminal advertising?
Subliminal advertising is the term that has been used for the past three or four decades for the type of advertising illustrated on this site. However, it is an inaccurate term. Subliminal actually means ‘below the level of’. When used in conjunction with advertising i.e. subliminal advertising, it ought literally to refer to advertising that is presented below the level at which the visual, olfactory or auditory senses can detect sensory input and lead to conscious recognition of the stimuli. To use the term subliminal to refer to the type of advertising in the books of Wilson Key and the present web site is therefore misleading – all of the secondary images/messages in the ads can be perceived and thus must, by definition, be above the sensory threshold. Numerous other meanings have been given to the term subliminal over the years e.g. beyond attention, information that is unconsciously attended to, etc. But, in essence, the core meaning is still largely associated with the type of a
