Why The Need For Subliminals?

The Coke-Cola Vending Machine Examined...

by 'arthur mcmartha'

sub·lim·i·nal

adj

1. Below the threshold of conscious perception.

2. Inadequate to produce conscious awareness but able to evoke a response.

I spotted these images without really intending to. it all began when i was stood around in a waiting room next to a coke machine. i vaguely remembered reading about a subliminal image in a coke advert many months ago. Supposedly, the ice on top of the coke can made the shape of a lady lying down, with her hair hanging over the front of the can. when i stood in front of the coke machine trying to see this supposed subliminal i admit i wasn't entirely convinced. as i walked a little further away from the machine and turned around, a different image of a woman/man on all fours stood out like a sore thumb. this sparked my interest as i considered it to be fairly blatant. instead of standing there and trying to decipher the images, i decided to take a couple of photographs and do the staring and squinting (and questioning of my sanity) in the comfort of home. upon my return home and my further examination of the photographs, i was stunned to find one after another after another. from snakes to dogs to mens faces to babies faces to a weird pinnochio like character....the subliminal images were seemingly endless. furthermore, i found when i rotated the image 90 degrees, 180 degrees or 270 degrees i saw many more very clear faces/images.

Rather than attempt to 'show' you every single image i believe to be contained within the pictures, i simply want to highlight some of the more "in your face" images. i would encourage people interested by my findings to examine the pictures for a minute or two and find subliminals of their own. if you zoom in to even the small pieces of ‘ice’ on the can you will see faces and images in many of them. after close inspection, i fail to see how this could be coincidence or an overactive imagination.

I'm sure there will be people looking at this who are unconvinced. there are also likely to be people who see the images but think: "so what?"

For anyone who has not looked into the field of the subconscious, subliminals or advertising, these images may look pointless or even "cool!", but i would suggest that it is more significant than that. in my view, these findings bring to light the extent to which advertisers are targeting our subconscious mind as opposed to our conscious, in a deliberate attempt to bypass conscious thought. in placing these subliminal images throughout the design on the front of the machine the advertisers are trying to communicate with your mind on a level you aren't consciously aware of. personally, i would question the ethics of such an advertising tactic. in doing this, your subconscious mind is making various connections between coca-cola and the images contained within the design. your conscious mind may not have picked up on the subliminals, but your subconscious mind takes in all information and doesn't filter or discriminate in the way the conscious mind can. ultimately the intention of the advertiser is to get you to spend money on their product. whether it be at that specific moment, later that day, or in 10 weeks time. if they were to focus on your conscious, advertising would be quite ineffective. can you remember the names of every product advertised in the last newspaper or magazine you read? obviously not. even naming one or two isn't necessarily possible. if they focussed only on the conscious mind they would be relying on your conscious memory and your ability to retain information, and this simply wouldn't work very well. what would be our incentive to try and retain the information in our conscious mind anyway? does anybody make a conscious decision to remember an advert? i certainly don't. (well, unless it's on the front of a coke machine.)

If you flick through any magazine and study the adverts, you will see subliminal images which the subconscious mind connects to the product being sold. when a person reads a magazine they spend perhaps one second looking at an advert before turning their attention to the rest of the content of a magazine. therefore, the advertiser is surely aware that they have an extremely limited amount of time to have an influence on your future spending. it's hardly surprising that they would employ techniques which were most effective at leaving a little seed of information in your mind which would hopefully lead to a purchase of their product. it's also not surprising that they would invest in researching and perfecting these techniques. consequently, we have a form of advertising which most people of blissfully unaware of but which works to great effect every day. so next time you scan through a magazine, look at the number of times 'sex' is written discreetly in advertising (or even on the packaging of products themselves) and also phallic or sexually suggestive images. this seems to be the most popular form of subliminal as we are all sexual and we all have an emotional and physical response to the idea of sex. we wouldn't be here without sex, so it's certainly a topic every human will be able to relate to by design.

In my opinion, these findings are significant, and representative of wider issues in society. we are being hoodwinked into holding views, ideas and beliefs using techniques that undermine the rational decision-making mind. it's almost like taking the middle man out and simply feeding us information which we cannot filter and question because we aren't even aware it is there. it is clearly not just coca-cola who would wish to use these methods. a quick search online may bring up the infamous 'RATS' subliminal which was contained in a republican party advertisment on american television which was criticising the democratic party. unfortunately (i mean, fortunately) they left the subliminal on screen for a fraction too long. it is well documented that the film 'the exorcist' contains subliminal images to heighten the level of fear in the viewer. any fast cutting of images which doesn’t leave time for the conscious mind to recognize what it is seeing is simply feeding the subconscious and I consider this to be a violation of the viewer. to play with a person's feelings and emotions will influence their decisions. it is my view that such a technique is being used constantly via the mainstream media to influence the public in an unfair and unethical way.

Included jpegs:

coke.jpg and coke2.jpg - original pictures for you to examine yourself. remember to change the rotation around to get different images. there's plenty to go round!

(Click on links to see full-size pictures)

coke.jpg

coke2.jpg

The rest of the images are the examples i have found. i give a vague description in the filename so i'm not just pointing out exactly what to find. the dog image has a snake in its mouth, which is unclear in my version. play where's waldo / where's wally? and have some fun. if you feel like drinking coke at the end...well...try and have water or something! ;)

beardedman_and_eaglebird_lookingright.jpg, disneyman_moonface.jpg, dog.jpg, doggydalai.jpg, elvis.jpg, facelookingleft.jpg, IMG_1180.jpg, maninhatfacingleft.jpg, maninhelmet_moustasche_lookingright.jpg, penis.jpg, strangestandingbirdwithwhitepenis.jpg, twopeople_gw_face_baldman_face.jpg, womanlookingleftbreast.jpg