Brand Voodoo

When people find out that I work in advertising, the talk almost inevietibly finds it way to the subject of subliminal messaging.  Subconscious mental manipulation.  Mind control.  Books have been written about it.  People actually believe that we all practice it... like some kind of secret advertising society ritualistic brand voodoo.

We've all seen the stories -- hidden pictures of naked bodies in the ice cubes in Dewar's print ads, the "SEX" design on Pepsi cans, and the male body part in the Joe Camel caricature.  I'm sure you have many of your own examples.

Fact is, I've been in this business for 24 years and I've never sat in a meeting where anybody plotted about placing any hidden messages in any clients' advertising.  It just doesn't happen.  It seems ridiculous to me.  I call it all incidental coincidence... even the examples cited above, I believe, were not intentional.  Rather, they were created by someone finding something after the fact and creating a story. 

You see, good marketers understand that good brands are like good friends.  Good marketers strive to create brands that are honest, genuine and care about you.  Good brands want a lifetime relationship, not a quick sale.  Subliminal advertising is counter intuitive to the concept of building genuine, honest and long-term relationships.  A friend who tries to manipulate you is not a friend for very long.

What do you think? 
- Butch

PS -- I did work with an illustrator who hid written messages in his advertising art, but they were generally declarations of love for a girl or pithy little messages all for fun... that's a whole different story.