In the BBC Radio 4 documentary, presenter David Aaronovitch will dispel the myths and misinformation surrounding subliminal and explore the scientific theories about subliminal influence. And what we had shouldn’t have been used promotionally.” However, the strict control and use of subliminal messaging throughout the world still exists. I had only…a small amount of data – too small to be meaningful. Several years later, during an interview with the trade paper Advertising Age, James Vicary confessed that “we hadn’t done any research, except what was needed for filing a patent.

With little evidence, other than the results shown by Vicary, mass panic ensued around the world, with the UN proclaiming “the cultural implications of subliminal indoctrination is a major threat to human rights throughout the world” In this first “field trial”, James Vicary claimed to have increased sales of popcorn by 57.7% and sales of Coca-Cola by 18.1% by flashing unnoticeable messages reading ‘Eat Popcorn’ and ‘Drink Coke’ during big screen movies.

The aim of subliminal messages in video is to briefly flash a message on top of a video for such a short time that they don’t appear visible, with the intention of influencing a person’s decision. Subliminal messaging was first popularised by the infamous “Eat Popcorn” experiments in 1956.

Subliminal music videos