Subliminal Message in Mass Media's Advertisements

Muhammad Kazarrudin B. Kamarudin | 2010590147 | LG2205A
“Subliminal Message in Mass Media’s Advertisements”

Ever since the mass media family was born a couple of century ago with the invention of periodical newspaper, viewers and audiences from all over the globe has rapidly enjoy the interactive and informative content catered for them. As the years have progressed, many inventions have been made that add up the list of mass media components which vary in form of means and characteristic thus bringing their own unique value. Its old school form, newspaper, has been a source of authority, confidence and substance with customized contents according to the sections and newspapers’ publisher. Another form of printed media, magazines, has tremendously offer leading edge information that boosts up reader’s self-esteem and opens up the path to social acceptance. Radio, meanwhile, can be put as intimate companion especially with the innovation of portable radio that can be accessed on the go of which has been a grace in the 90’s. The more interactive brother of all this family is television where it brings reality effect with its capability to portray full dimension scenes like the real life. No matter how variety they might be to reach the audience, but they are, in fact, performing the same function to transmit information and giving entertainment. Nevertheless, as we are progressing towards the 21st century, we will often see that the distinction of media are blurring where the functions will overlap with each other, as asserted by Aitchison (2001) that they are all combining into one to be more personal, private and individual in the mean to emerge a personal contact with audience. This situation has been a loop hole for firms to wide open their brand structures by putting advertisements in every each of this mass media components. Given the benefit that it will surely reach large potential customers, the number of advertisements being pushed into these media outlets has incredibly mushroomed from few decades back due to increasing level of living for modern society, as agreed by Yadin (2002) that advertisements serve a contemporary purpose dictated by several characteristics other than its scale of reach and is needed by a complex, large and industrialized society. The complex and industrialized society here plays an important role as it brings the image of an active, developed and full of needs society which acquire a set of thinking that can be penetrate and lure with certain products that meet their needs or wants. Advertisements, being advertisements, has gained a lot of improvisation from the first time it was on aired and the knowledge on the art of advertisements been passed down over the generations. Without wondering this fact, Knapp & Hall (2006) state that advertisers have been using series of in-house researches and common sense in their advertising strategies. What is being concern here is the effort of nearly all retailers and advertising agencies playing with the belief of viewers and audience of media outlets. Without we notify it, these advertisements they made are powerful containing specific subliminal message that appeals to emotional and even unconscious needs that cannot be processed by normal level of brain (Parloff, 2010). This specific subliminal message which will be discussed further in this research has tremendous effect on audience as most of the times, it will inflict what the retailers trying to say – buy their products. This happens because of the power from subconscious mind that will support the decision to buy everything with the trigger from subliminal message that happens to be agreeing their current belief (Hesketh, 2010).