Many years ago the movie, and
relatively new, television industries introduced something pretty special into
their wares – subliminal messaging and subliminal advertising.
It seems as though popcorn and
soft drink sales were down at the movie houses.
Rather than coming up with a plan to sell more by lowering prices or
improving the taste of both, they felt it was far more practical to feed their
patrons secret messages to simply buy more.
If you never heard of such a
thing, you’re in for a treat.
Subliminal messaging is akin to
brainwashing. Every so often throughout
the movie unnoticeable frames, previously inserted by the powers-that-be
contained messages such as Drink more soda,
Enjoy fresh popcorn, and Don’t forget
the candy.
These generic suggestions to
viewers were largely unnoticed for years.
I was unable to find any statistics on whether or not this tactic was
actually successful in prodding patrons to consume more food and drink. Still, the method was implemented.
Television folks thought that was
a really good idea and climbed into bed with advertisers to do the same thing
to their TV shows. This time, though,
they would insert “advertisements” for actual products rather than just soda or
popcorn or candy.
For example, Jiffy Pop, Pepsi,
and Hershey Bars, subliminal ads would be included in the shows. Note: I
used these examples as just that – there are no correlations to these actual
products that were known to be used subliminally.
All this mental trickery seemed like
a stellar idea, until the time it was exposed, that is.
Suddenly the backward shuffle and
the finger pointing two-step dances were born.
Public apologies and crow dinners were aplenty on Madison Avenue and Hollywood
To prove they were not ‘down for
the count,’ these marketing geniuses tried their hand at something called product placement.
Product placement is that special
time in, for instance, an action movie when the bad guys are involved in a car
chase. Somewhere down the road a beer truck
with Molson Golden Ale prominently displayed across the side, is blocking the
roadway.
Or, in the vein of fairness, two
women – a black woman and Asian woman – are physically fighting in a
warehouse. During this hand-to-hand
battle, they precariously hang over an industrial railing and fall some 15-feet
onto luckily placed cartons of Charmin toilet paper. And their fall is broken. After all, it’s squeezably soft.
Those wind up being memorable
moments that are paid for by the beer and toilet paper companies. That box of cereal, coffee creamer, and
automobile, used by the actors are also sponsored by the respective companies.
So it was with great interest
that I wondered why some other products were not capitalizing on what could be
rather lucrative product placements, adding to subsequent sales because of
being used by “professionals.”
Football, NASCAR, soccer, and
most other sports-related activities have all jumped onto the “Official”
product of the moment.
The official beer of NASCAR, the
official car of golf, the official drool cup of football, the official pillow
of soccer, are all examples of professionals using some sort of product.
While watching one of those
verity cop shows, I noticed the frequency with which people are stopped by the
police for any number of reasons; broken tail light, weaving across the road,
speeding, all leading to a traffic stop.
Invariably, inside the offending
vehicle are found drugs. Pills,
methamphetamines, crack cocaine, weed, heroin, are regularly discovered somewhere
at the scene. Either under the seat, in
the glove box, on the perpetrator, are just a few of the normal places the
pharmaceutical treasure hunt ends.
These caches of drugs are often
packaged in plastic baggies, plastic envelopes, or in glassine pouches.
This is where Glad should be
advertising. I’m pretty certain their
plastic bag products are at more than a few crime scenes.
Their new ads could be proudly
placed among the other advertisements during these cop shows. They could demonstrate how their bags can be
torn to easily accommodate crack rocks and reefer, alike. Their new line of baggies could be
manufactured with eight corners instead of the conventional four; this would
allow dope dealers to package more product by getting twice as many corners
from a conventional baggie.
Here’s a slogan idea: Glad.
Nine out of ten druggies prefer Glad for their dope needs.
I need to go and wait by the
phone for a call from Glad to become head of their advertising department.
You’re welcome.
