Subliminal Seduction

1973, 1981 Signet edition
Wilson Bryan Key
Subliminal Seduction: Ad Media's Manipulation of a Not So Innocent America
Bought newish for $4.50
Very worn paperback with photographic insert loose
B-

It's hard to look at this book the same way I did as when I was a teenager who believed in both conspiracies and the good in people.  And yet, if you asked me if I think that there are subliminal messages in advertising*, I would still answer yes.  Where I differ from Key is in visualization and interpretation.  Maybe it's because the ads are reproduced and so much smaller than the originals, but I can't always see all the embedded "dirty words" or people or creatures that he can.  That said, I have spotted them in original ads. 

As for interpretation, I enjoy his takes on the "story" ads, like the adulterous one for Seagram's.  He made me very aware of things like costumes that link up characters in movies and television.  (It's really obvious, for instance, on '70s sitcoms.  Note the outfits that harmonize and contrast.  These are clues to how characters feel about each other.)  But sometimes he's stretching.  If I can get wrong the answer to which ice cube is male after having read this book at least four times, there can't be universally correct interpretations to every ad.  When he's right, he's right.  When he's off-base, he's way off-base.  Also, I'm obviously going to see the incorporation of pagan symbols and "alternate" sexuality in a different way than he does. 

Still, even four decades later, this makes for an interesting read.  I own some of his follow-ups, so we'll be revisiting this issue.



*Key's spelling throughout.  Note it was "MADvertising" in the DeBartolo book.  I always thought it was a Z for the American spelling, but maybe this wasn't consistent in the 1970s?