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I wasn’t paying much attention to the news in 1957. I don’t think I’d have noticed when James Vicary coined the term “subliminal advertising.” But the advertising world perked up and started paying very close attention.

According to a study Vicary published that year, he had placed a tachistoscope in a theatre projection booth in New Jersey during the summer of 1957. All throughout the playing of the film Picnic, he injected one of two different messages on the screen every five seconds, each exposed for only one three thousandth of a second. The first message: “Drink Coca-Cola.” The second: “Hungry? Eat Popcorn.” According to Vicary, during the test Coca-Cola sales shot up 18.1%, and popcorn sales showed an astronomical 57.8% boost.

Radio and television stations began airing subliminal commercials in 1958 and 1959. Congress promptly proposed bills to ban the use of such manipulation. Instantly there were scholarly books written about the potency of subliminal advertising and it’s ability to persuade unaware consumers to purchase things they wouldn’t have normally bought.

It also helps to remember that Joe McCarthy had just finished finding a communist under every bed in Hollywood, and that the Rooskies had pushed Sputnik into orbit ahead of our Tellstar. Americans were convinced that there were forces shaping their destinies and they had no control over them.

Dr. Wilson B. Key published his book Subliminal Seduction in 1973, pointing out messages and secret signals in advertising, including the now-famous example of a full-page photo of a gentleman’s study. In the center of the photo was the gentleman’s leather chair and a glass of scotch on a table by that chair. When the glass was enlarged from it’s original 3/8 inch, Dr. Key was convinced the ice cubes spelled out the letters S-E-X. Acccording to him, the word “sex” (which we couldn’t make out without a magnifying glass), was a motivator to purchase the product being advertised.

The controversy over subliminal advertising had become so persistent that in January of 1974 the Federal Communications Commission threatened to pull the licenses of any broadcast stations using subliminal techniques.

But a very interesting thing had happened, largely unnoticed by the media. Dr. Henry Link, the President of the Psychological Corporation, tried to duplicate the test. He didn’t get the same results. In fact, in his test there was no difference between Coke and popcorn sales during the test as compared to sales before the test. Dr. Link challenged Vicary to re-produce the results.

Vicary finally confessed to falsifying the data.

Vicary had previously published a variety of unusual studies of female shopping habits, in which he studied the eye-blink rates of women shopping in supermarkets. He observed that “psychological spring” lasts twice as long as “psychological winter.” He won’t be remembered for any of those experiments, though. He’ll be remembered as a fraud.

So, imagine my surprise when I was browsing the web this weekend and came across a site which claimed, and I quote: “Advertising in magazines is based on the fact that under any circumstances, you store more information in a fraction of a second–and are influenced by it–than you are ever consciously aware of.” The site provides quite an education on the power of subliminal advertising… including the assumption that “they” don’t want you to know about it. Of course, this site also had links to such other sites as “Will the earth’s surface skid?”

This stuff is still around? Yes. Conspiracy theorists are convinced that subliminal advertising exists, and is being used against an unsuspecting public. And apparently there are speakers commanding stout fees for pointing out the “clues” to a fascinated unsuspecting public. They all have web sites with “proofs” of their claims. A simple search will pull up plenty of them for you to amuse yourself with all day.

But consider this: it’s hard enough to persuade people when you can manage to get their attention. Yes, it is possible for people to learn without full awareness, but there is a limit to the human brain’s ability to process data. The more we pay attention, and the more we think about what’s being said, the easier it is to remember the message later.

Advertising that we pay little or no attention to is not mysteriously powerful. It is rather amazingly weak and inefficient. Like I said, it’s hard to persuade people when you have their attention. Getting them to buy from you by NOT getting their attention? Don’t bet your advertising budget on that premise.

Besides, when I see the word “SEX” I don’t immediately think of a specific brand of scotch.

If you are interested in learning how to persuade people to buy what you have to sell, let me recommend the 12 Most Common Mistakes in Advertising DVD from Wizard Academy Press. Best-selling author (and my partner) Roy H. Williams has identified the most common mistakes that advertisers make over and over again. At the publisher’s direct price of only $19.95 (US) you’ll learn why your ads aren’t working so well, and how to get better results.

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It’s true. TIME magazine wants me back.

John Reese, TIME’s Consumer Marketing Director said so in the most recent mailing I got from them. “Dear Chuck, we appreciated having you as a subscriber, so we’ve arranged a special offer to welcome back former TIME subscribers like you.”

In fact, they’ve added a bribe: a free Ultronic ^TM Touch-Screen Organizerwith a bunch of features. They’ll send it with my paid subscription. It has a calculator, an alarm clock, a telephone book, an e-mail address book, does currency conversion, and offers the correct time in 24 cities.

Oh, and 56 issues of TIME for only $29.95 (86% off the cover price).

And, you know, I’m seriously thinking about renewing. Especially if they offer some new applications, like time sheet calculator. Oh, not because I want the Ultronic ^TM Touch-Screen Organizer. I’m prepared to find it another useless trinket that will clutter up my desk until I finally junk it.

I’m considering re-subscribing because this is the sixth time they’ve contacted me about my lapsing subscription. Think about it… I used to subscribe… I found value in the publication… I let the subscription lapse… and now, for the sixth time since the magazines stopped coming two months ago, TIME has told me that they value me as a subscriber. I’m beginning to believe them.

I’ve been preaching for years “frequency sells,” that it’s not enough to contact a potential customer once. You need to do it again… and again… and again… Eventually, the potential customer will believe he’s getting to know you, is beginning to trust you, and may ultimately buy from you.

Is your message getting repeated enough times to help your prospective customers remember what you’re telling them? Do they know your message by heart? Perhaps the single most important thing you can do is to repeat your message. Repeat it again. Repeat it until you’re sick of hearing it.

Repeat it until those people who weren’t paying attention the first time, who didn’t quite catch what you said the second time, who started wondering what they thought of you the third time, who began to consider your message the fourth time, who started idly wondering what buying from you might be like the fifth time… yeah… those people… can recite your message from memory.

In this case, I “know” TIME magazine. I “know” that “no other magazine gives me more insight into our rapidly changing world than TIME.” I know because they’ve told me so. Told me six times now.

Humm. I may re-subscribe now that they’ve told me six times how much they value me as a subscriber. I may not. (I’m still being distracted by that Ultronic ^TM Touch-Screen Organizer. Frankly, it’s getting in the way of their primary message.)

I am, however, reasonably sure of one thing: If TIME contacts me a seventh time to tell me that I’m a valuable subscriber, I’m definitely going to renew.

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I wish I had a buck for every time an advertiser has told me that his objective was to “Just get his name out there.”

Is there any value to another name being flung around in mass media? Perhaps. But without name associations, very little value. What’s a name association you ask? It has to do with the way people remember.

Think back to your earliest memories. Many of us have strong recollections of things that happened to us when we were as young as two, but seldom anything earlier. It’s not coincidental that our memories begin at about the time we learn to talk. Do you remember anything that pre-dates your ability to speak? You may retain a vague impression of something that you experienced before you started talking, but the strong memories all use words as anchors in our minds. We need words for our memories to work to their full ability.

I say, for instance, “tree.” You visualize a tree. You can’t help yourself. And more than likely, you don’t remember any particular tree… you have an impression of a drawing of a tree from some book you saw as a child. You may have seen hundreds of trees before that first memory, but until you had a word to equal “tree,” you didn’t plant (no pun intended) a tree in your memory.

Can you see that tree right now? It’s likely to be something resembling an oak, or perhaps a walnut. It probably won’t be a pine or fir, even if you grew up in parts of the country in which evergreens are common. Why do I say that? Because those are the representations of trees that we all saw in books when we started reading. Word associations stick with us for life.

The words themselves have the ability to trigger memories. And those memories… even those composed of fractional feelings… are what give storytelling the power to move us emotionally. If I refer to feeling the “sting of salty tears that trickled down her cheek” you have a much more vivid impression of the scene I’m describing than if I say, “she wept.” Its not more words that make the first description more vivid. It’s choosing the right words to express the exact feeling I wish to convey. When I succeed, you’ll recall not only mental pictures, but also my words will also trigger recall of the other senses associated with that memory… sound, taste, smell, touch… even over-all mood.

So let’s go back to the concept of “getting your name out there.” When people hear your name, is there anything that “sticks” in their minds? Are there memories that people can attach to your name? Or is yours just another name clamoring for attention; momentarily cluttering up someone’s consciousness before it’s dismissed as having no immediate value?

Truth is, if people can’t see themselves using what you’ve got for sale, they will never pay enough attention to your ad to develop any memories of having seen / heard / read it. If you were able to get a prospective customer’s attention with your ad, for goodness sake give them words with which to remember how they feel about your business. It is those words, and their resultant memory associations, are what give your advertising and your company some value to a prospective customer.

And when people associate those feelings with your name, you just may be on your way to actually selling something. It’s the first step to creating a brand identity. So, yes… get your name out there. But get the associations with your name out there, too. Without either one, the other has no value to your prospective customer.

If you could use some direction in your ad writing, there is probably not a better investment of your time than spending three days at the Wizard Academy in Buda, Texas, attending the Magical Worlds Communications Workshop April 27-29. Upon graduation you’ll make better sales presentations, write more convincing proposals, and create magnetic music, art and advertising.

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