Subliminal Messages Informative Speech

LEBANESE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

Beirut, Lebanon

School of Arts & Sciences

Department of English

Fundaments of Oral Communication

(English 203)

Subliminal Messages

Yara Bazzi

201400343

U. Acra

Outline

General topic: Subliminal Messages

General purpose: To inform the audience what subliminal messages are and how it can be used and where it’s been used

Specific purpose: To help listeners understand what subliminal messages are and how the government and media uses it to try and alter our thoughts through our subconscious level, the 3 different types of subliminal messages and examples of where it has been used in our everyday lives.

1. Introduction

Do subliminal messages really work? Great question. Everyone seems worried that advertisers can control their behavior through subliminal messages. A scary thought? Sure but that’s up for debate. Subliminal messages can be seen as many things, it has its pros and cons but mostly it doesn’t do much at the moment. There are 3 different types of subliminal messages and many different real life examples of where its been used.

1. Body

• What are subliminal messages; the definition has led to some different interpretation, most of which are wrong. Because they fall below the absolute threshold level (ATL), we can’t perceive a subliminal message, even if we’re looking for it. Subliminal messages are designed to target your mind, especially the subconscious section, because your mind controls your actions. Once society uses subliminal messages to influence your mind to a certain point, it can control your thought patterns to a certain degree without your knowledge. The term has been applied more generally to describe any situation in which unnoticed stimuli are perceived. Companies and the government are obsessed with subliminal messages because they are effective at manipulating your thought patterns at the subconscious level. As mentioned before it is designed to target your subconscious mind, you are usually not aware that you are being manipulated. The top five topics incorporated into subliminal messages are sex, drug, food, fear and violence. Next time you watch TV, focus on the show or commercial you are watching and you may notice how these five topics are incorporated in it. 
• Different types of subliminal messages: There are 3 different types of subliminal messages; first there are Subvisual messages that is visual cues that are flashed so quickly (generally a few milliseconds) that people don’t perceive them. Second type is Subaudible messages, low volume audio cues that are inserted into a louder audio source, such as music. An example of this is when the conspiracy of Kanye and the illuminati worked together to kill Tupac through there music that if played slower you can hear them repeat a faint sentence on how to kill Tupac. Last type is Backmasking; an audio message that is recorded backwards, with the intention of playing it forward to disguise the reversed message. Regardless of type, subliminal messages often involve sexual cues. The reason? People claim that associating a stimulus with sex can enhance the appeal of the overall content. A pretty bizarre claim.
• Real life examples: First Amazons logo has a cute arrow pointing from A to Z which implies they have everything starting with a to z, this has been there since the year 2000 and don’t think its going anywhere. The Milwaukee Brewers logo from 1978 to 1993 is an iconic example of a subliminal logo, composed of an M and B to make a catcher’s mitt and the initials for the famous baseball team. Another example is the famous star scene in the lion king where the stars spelled out ‘SEX’. Pirates & the Caribbean’s visual overlap between the skull-and-crossbones and Mickey’s ears. Disney is known to hide mickeys ears in different movies/TV series. And during one of KFC’s advertisements they placed a dollar bill on the lettuce which many complained about because they believed it was false advertising which can be prosecuted. KFC later publicly apologized. Lastly a skittles advertisement shows the skittles package saying explosion of taste and a pretty coincidental placement of one of the skittles right in font of the word explosion making it seem like its ‘sexplosion’.

1. Conclusion

To conclude, are subliminal messages real? Can they alter your thoughts, wants, needs, and actions? Yes, however all to an extent. Subliminal messages can’t make you do something you wouldn’t want to do. Subliminal messages are used in a day-to-day basis but because we can’t perceive a subliminal message, even if we’re looking for it, it comes up usually unnoticed and harmful. There a 3 different types of subliminal messages and often show up in music, TV series and movies slowed down or sped up to find out where it is. So everyone can finally put his or her fear to rest. A fun task would be focusing on whatever you are watching and see if you can pinpoint a hidden message you would usually not notice