History Main / SubliminalAdvertising

* Australia's Network Ten was found to have breached a broadcasting code forbidding this following its coverage of the 2007 ARIA Awards, when the logos for Toyota Yaris, Chupa Chups, KFC, and Olay were rapid-cut into the nomination segments. ''Series/MediaWatch'' found another example in an episode of Ten's ''Series/AreYouSmarterThanAFifthGrader''

* In ''Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge'', mall employee Buzz takes reporter Peter to an off-limits room with a mixing board and intercom, demonstrating that the mall muzak includes subliminal messages to spend more money and be trusting of the salespeople - the subliminal messages themselves have little bearing on the rest of the plot, though Buzz knowing where the room is and how to operate the equipment in general does come in handy later.

* Found in the UsefulNotes/AtariLynx version of ''VideoGame/{{Rampage}}'': There are no (Buy a Lynx) subliminal messages (Or two) in this game (Buy a Lynx).

* The ''Film/JosieAndThePussycats'' film revolved around the recording industry hiding subliminal advertising in pop music. The film itself even had at least one:

* Parodied in DLC for ''VideoGame/Portal2'', where Cave Johnson says that there is a pair of glasses that allows you to see subliminal advertising in every surface.

* Used extensively by the secret agencies of ''ComicBook/{{MINDMGMT}}''. There's an entire section of "Ad Men" whose whole job is to develop these. However, they're not used to actually sell anything; they're either used to communicate information to agents, deliver {{TriggerPhrase}}s, or test for psychic powers in the general populace.

* Australia's Network Ten was found to have breached a broadcasting code forbidding this following its coverage of the 2007 ARIA Awards, when the logos for Toyota Yaris, Chupa Chups, KFC, and Olay were rapid-cut into the nomination segments. ''Series/MediaWatch'' found another example in an episode of Ten's ''Series/AreYouSmarterThanAFifthGrader''.

* ''Literature/TheSpaceMerchants'' makes passing reference to "compulsive subsonics" being used in audio ads until that was outlawed.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Parodied in one episode where people suddenly had the urge to join the Navy after watching a music video ad of 3 exotic women singing in a made up language ("Yvan eht nioj!"). Lisa figures out the subliminal message by playing the video ''in reverse'', where the lyrics were actually saying "Join the Navy!"
** Further parodying it in the same episode as the subliminal advertising was part of a three-pronged advertising plan: Subliminal, "Liminal" and ''"Superliminal"'', which apparently was shouting at random people.
---> '''Navy recruiter:''' Hey you! Join the navy!

---> '''Stan''': If you listen closely, even the music I play in the gift shop has subtle hidden messages!
---> ''[Cut to the gift shop, where soft music plays as two tourists shop]''
---> '''Stan''': ''[over loudspeaker]'' '''BUY MORE KEYCHAINS!! BUY MORE KEYCHAINS!!''' ''[The tourists cover their ears and run screaming]''

* Australia's Network Ten was found to have beached a broadcasting code forbidding this following its coverage of the 2007 ARIA Awards, when the logos for Toyota Yaris, Chupa Chups, KFC, and Olay were rapid-cut into the nomination segments. ''Series/MediaWatch'' found another example in an episode of Ten's ''Series/AreYouSmarterThanAFifthGrader''.

** So instead of subliminal advertising, it is subliminal ''scaring'' in horror movies. As a scene is supposed to become more frightening, more gruesome frames are added for more 'frightening' scenes (such as [[CatScare an unnerving, deadly animal.]]) For the serial killer breaking in, they instead use animals being slaughtered instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': In "Boyz Crazy," Dipper gets suspicious of a song Robbie wrote for Wendy that causes an immediate change of heart in her. With Grunkle Stan's help, he finds out that the song hid secret mind control messages when played backwards.
** Played for laughs when Dipper first confronts Stan about his mind control theories. Stan tells him that subliminal mind control messages are in music all the time.

* In ''Discworld/MovingPictures'', CMOT Dibbler, with the skewed but determined logic that characterises the Literature/{{Discworld}}, reasons that if a single picture you don't even see can make people want to buy something, five solid minutes of it must be even more effective.

** [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Maybe he didn't watch that channel.]]

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* A subliminal in an episode of BrassEye got Creator/ChrisMorris in a spot of trouble; annoyed with ExecutiveMeddling by Michael Grade, ''someone'' inserted a flash-frame caption reading "Grade Is A [[CountryMatters Cunt]]" into the show.

* The first episode of DerrenBrown TV special ''How to Control the Nation'' revolved around using hypnosis to glue the viewers at home to their chairs. Over the course of the show, some (fairly obvious) pictures of a man tied to a chair is flashed on screen. At the end of the day, the illusion depended on the fact that Darren "suggests" that the viewer sit back comfortably, relax their upper body, and place their hands in their laps (due to the law of the lever, it is essentially impossible to stand up from a reclining/sitting position using only your legs as leverage).