Re: Devo: `We Put Subliminal Messages In TV Commercials'

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
Newsgroups: alt.slack
Date: Fri, May 3, 2002 10:53 AM

In article <aat9js$jhb$1@slb0.atl.mindspring.net>, Reverend Lupus
Dobbson <slacker05@mindspring.com> wrote:

> From:
> http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2002-05-02&nav=VIEW&id=99
> 4YB08Z4H0020502
>
> "LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- If you're wearing blue jeans right now,
> blame Devo. Lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh freely admits the group imbeds
> subliminal messages in its music -- including telling people to buy jeans
> because they're "the uniform of the proletariat."
> Devo's members also write soundtracks for commercials and TV shows like
> "Rugrats," and Mothersbaugh admits he has snuck secret messages such as
> "Question Authority" into those tunes. He also says it's "entirely possible"
> he put the words, "sugar is bad for you" into a cereal commercial.

Actually it was Hawaiian Punch.

>
> But why? Mothersbaugh claims Devo has been imbedding messages in songs for
> 30 years because the band likes to be subversive. Devo's latest project is
> less subliminal. It's a cover version of Neil Young's "Ohio," that appears
> on a new CD, "When Pigs Fly.""

I just yesterday made a loop of the opening bars of "Ohio" so I could
do Hour of Slack credits over it... it sounds like the song is JUST
ABOUT TO START for about a minute. Maddening.

--
4th Stangian Orthodox MegaFisTemple Lodge of the Wrath of Dobbs Yeti,
Resurrected (Rev. Ivan Stang, prop.)
P.O. Box 181417, Cleveland, OH 44118 (fax 216-320-9528)
A subsidiary of:
The SubGenius Foundation, Inc. / P.O. Box 204206, Austin, TX 78720-4206
Dobbs-Approved Authorized Commercial Outreach of The Church of the SubGenius
SubSITE: http://www.subgenius.com
For SubGenius Biz & Orders: call toll free to 1-888-669-2323
or email: jesus@subgenius.com
PRABOB

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Mr. F. Le Mur <lemurama@mindXspring.com>

On Thu, 2 May 2002 23:09:30 -0700, "Reverend Lupus Dobbson" <slacker05@mindspring.com> expounded:

<From:
<http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2002-05-02&nav=VIEW&id=99
<4YB08Z4H0020502
<
<"LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- If you're wearing blue jeans right now,
<blame Devo. Lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh freely admits the group imbeds
<subliminal messages in its music -- including telling people to buy jeans
<because they're "the uniform of the proletariat."

Good Clean Fun, but no actual effect.

What is commonly referred to as subliminal advertising has been the
focus of a great deal of attention for more than three decades. The
term "subthreshold effectso/oo, first popularized by Packard in 1957,
preceded the popular notion of " subliminal advertisingo/oo whose originator
is James Vicary. <21>.

Perhaps the most widely known claim concerning the power of subliminal
advertising was made in 1957 by James Vicary, a market researcher. He
claimed that over a six-week period, 45,699 patrons at a movie theater
in Fort Lee, New Jersey were shown two advertising messages, Eat Popcorn
and Drink Coca-Cola, while they watched the film Picnic. According to
Vicary, a message was flashed for 3/1000 of a second once every five
seconds. The duration of the messages was so short that they were never
consciously perceived. Despite the fact that the customers were not aware
of perceiving the message, Vicary claimed that over the six-week period
the sales of popcorn rose 57% and the sales of Coca-Cola rose 18.1%.

Vicary's claims are often accepted as established facts. However, Vicary
never released a detailed description of his study and there has never
been any independent evidence to support his claims. Also, in an interview
with Advertising Age in 1962, Vicary stated that the original study was a
fabrication. The weight of the evidence suggests that it was indeed a
fabrication <13>.

http://www.ciadvertising.org/student_account/spring_01/adv391k/hjy/adv382j/1st/application.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

In article <ts95dusoko2onmfbmtk05n05g77t87jk12@4ax.com>, Mr. F. Le Mur
<lemurama@mindXspring.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 2 May 2002 23:09:30 -0700, "Reverend Lupus Dobbson"
> <slacker05@mindspring.com> expounded:
>
> <From:
> <http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2002-05-02&nav=VIEW&id=99
> <4YB08Z4H0020502
> <
> <"LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- If you're wearing blue jeans right now,
> <blame Devo. Lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh freely admits the group imbeds
> <subliminal messages in its music -- including telling people to buy jeans
> <because they're "the uniform of the proletariat."
>
> Good Clean Fun, but no actual effect.
>

That's right, as the article said, there's no proof that subliminals
work, and besides who needs them when you have luscious photography and
the suggestion of titties.

They ARE a really fun SPECIAL EFFECT.

Even at 30 frames per second, one frame is NOT invisible, anyway. Even
such a short glitch looks like a mistake, and if it leaves an
afterimage on your brain you can even tell what the image is.

I was investigating some subliminals -- or rather, one or two-frame
cuts -- in a movie just the other night. The new "13 Ghosts," which is
a pretty average modern day monster movie. With 13 monsters.

In this movie, the ghost monsters are made to look more frightening by
way of "The Exorcist" type quick-cuts. Since they're ghosts they're
only half in our reality, and instead of being shown as
semi-transparent, they're shown in extremely jerky motion, in very
quick cuts, with lights flashing like mad, and with jump cuts in any
prolonged glimpse.

This helps the monster make-ups look a lot less hokey.

I was looking at this in a DivX form on my computer and so was able to
go through it like an old film cutter would like to, crawling through
frame by frame. I hear tell that DVD players let you do this too.

Judicious use of sound effects -- little whistling super-fast SWISH
noises and flashbulb like sounds -- were used to punctuate the visual
cuts, which also helped a lot.

The whole thing has a look and cutting-style to it that remoinds me of
those Marilyn Manson videos by that one youngish director guy, what's
his name, also did that movie THE CELL (which is a partial rip-off of
RED DRAGON, the mystery novel, later made into MANHUNTER).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: dyskolos <dyskolos@menander.org>

"Rev. Ivan Stang" wrote:

> That's right, as the article said, there's no proof that subliminals
> work, and besides who needs them when you have luscious photography and
> the suggestion of titties.
>

There's no proof that they DON'T work.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

In article <3CD2F485.792471EA@menander.org>, dyskolos
<dyskolos@menander.org> wrote:

> There's no proof that they DON'T work.

Cain't prove there's no God, neither.

Cain't prove there's not nothin', nohow.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "glassgnost" <dlindnerSPAMBLOCKED@socal.rr.com>

R.J. Reynolds certainly seems to believe in them. The "Joe Camel" campaign
was a showcase.

Get this: Remember when they admitted that JC was "based on male genitalia"?
Despite this, the campaign ran successfully for about three more years. This
is because they didn't let out the *whole* truth: Joe Camel is a
hermaphrodite.

I'll post somthing to ABS on that soon as I can get my hands on a decent Joe
Camel jpeg.

We still have a copy of Subliminal Seduction floating around here. It was
mandatory reading in one of my wife's psych classes. I recommend it.

--
"You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"
- Dr. Strangelove
Mystical Reverend Doktor glassgnost, Minister of Unnatural Selection
- dlindner (at) socal (dot) rr (dot) com -

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

That book Subliminal Seduction has been majorly discredited by skeptics
who investigated the author's data and claims. The basic "research"
that went into it was made up from whole cloth. For instance, the story
of the subliminal popcorn frames in trailers selling more Cokes and
popcorn is baloney. It's just a guy selling a book. The skulls and
titties seen in ice cubes in magazine ads are put there by our minds,
not the art department's air brush artists. Like the Face on Mars and
Elvis in clouds, it's there if you want to see it.

Advertisers do use magic tricks, and they do consciously work Big Soft
Round Things in as subtle-to-utterly-unsubtle bait, but these tricks
involve lighting skills, great Photoshop tweaking, and JUST TALENT IN
GENERAL, no matter how wasted said talent might be on some ad. Although
the artist might not say his talent is wasted, when he's picking up his
paycheck, and paying rent with it.

I would heartily DISRECOMMEND the book Subliminal Seduction. It's up
there with, say, repressed memories of alien abduction brought forth
through hypnosis.

The Conspiracy is tricky, but the idea of flash-frame "subliminals"
being anything more than irritations or artistic embellishment -- snake
oil -- is a case of the psych industry tricking itself. It's great fun
to look for subliminals frame by frame in Oliver Stone movies, and they
add to horror movies and "bad memory flashback scenes", but they don't
weild spell-like hold over your will, not on any level. Your will
doesn't need anything that subtle to be warped.

Now the MESSAGES BEAMED INTO YOUR FILLINGS from RUSSIAN CIA MICROWAVE
TRANSMITTERS on the GRASSY KNOWLL, that's different.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "nu-monet v4.0, Expert in Sexual Deviancy" <nothing@succeeds.com>

Rev. Ivan Stang wrote:
>
> That book Subliminal Seduction has been majorly
> discredited by skeptics who investigated the author's
> data and claims...It's just a guy selling a book...

Oh yeah?

THE TOP TEN SUBLIMINAL SUGGESTIONS IN USE TODAY, RATED
BY EFFECTIVENESS:

1) Confuse the usage of "your" and "you're".
2) Advertising on the Internet will make you money.
3) Britney Spears is female.
4) DVD is better than VHS.
5) You need to upgrade your Windows operating system.
6) Sit down, shut up, turn on the teevee.
7) Alternative fuels are a cruel hoax.
8) Subliminal advertising does not exist.
9) Thong swimsuits look stupid on men.
10) Linux is a better operating system than Windows.

--
Oh, what tangled webs we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.
And so, my friend, the simple fact is,
You've got to have a lot of practice.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: dyskolos <dyskolos@menander.org>

> I would heartily DISRECOMMEND the book Subliminal Seduction. It's up
> there with, say, repressed memories of alien abduction brought forth
> through hypnosis.

Hey man, just seeing the word SEX throws me into an instant craving
for scotch and Ritz crackers.

>
> The Conspiracy is tricky, but the idea of flash-frame "subliminals"
> being anything more than irritations or artistic embellishment -- snake
> oil -- is a case of the psych industry tricking itself. It's great fun
> to look for subliminals frame by frame in Oliver Stone movies, and they
> add to horror movies and "bad memory flashback scenes", but they don't
> weild spell-like hold over your will, not on any level. Your will
> doesn't need anything that subtle to be warped.
>

Last night I was re-reading the section in Lilly's The Center of the
Cyclone about the tapeloop experiments he did, playing a single word
over and over. He found that after a few minutes brain fatigue would
begin to cause variant words to seem to be heard, the length of time
it took being in proportion to the subject's susceptibility to
hypnosis. The variants a subject tended to hear were written down on
cards, and they again listened to the tape. When the cards were
placed in the range of their peripheral vision, where they could not
be consciously read, it would "program the biocomputer" to cause that
word to seem to be heard. So tricky subliminal devices, whether they
work or not, are unnecessary. Just putting anything into the field of
vision plugs it into the brain, and probably has a much better effect
if the conscious perception is distracted from it. Since I read that
a few years ago, and a book about the production of a single
television commercial which I believe was entitled "Thirty Seconds," I
have spent much more of my commercial-viewing time looking at the
background and periphery of the image, and sometimes I find the
DAMNEDEST things. Hell, just reading the blatant subtext of, for
example, a Dr. Pepper commercial in which a bunch of phony-fifties
folk dance around a Buddy Holly imitator singing about being unique,
just about short-circuits the conscious mind enough to buy the damn
product. Do people really WANT to splash that much water with their
car? Do kids really want their heads to turn into giant throbbing
fruit replicas? Mysteries... eternal mysteries.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

In article <3CD8462B.291F0891@menander.org>, dyskolos
<dyskolos@menander.org> wrote:

> >
>
> So tricky subliminal devices, whether they
> work or not, are unnecessary. Just putting anything into the field of
> vision plugs it into the brain, and probably has a much better effect
> if the conscious perception is distracted from it.

Just tonight I went down to the basement to check the wash. I suddenly
thought, "The gas meter over there on the basement wall... I suddenly
recall that it's been at least a month since I called in the meter
reading... maybe the notice they usually leave on my door every month
got lost! And... why did I suddenly remember that it's been over a
month since the gas meter reading? Since when do I remember shit like
that?"

Then on my way out of the basement I started looking for the notice
that the gas man leaves that tells me to call in the meter reading. I
immediately found it, in plain site, though atop a very cluttered pile
of crap by the basement stairs, and in the semi-dark.

It was then that I knew WHY I had SUDDENLY remembered that the gas
meter reading was due. I had seen the NOTE, FIRST, without it
"registering." But some shape recognition program in my poor fucked up
brain triggered the little gas meter calendar in some other program in
my brain. And THEN I started looking for the notice. Which I had
actually JUST SEEN WITHOUT NOTICING.

I was delivered a natural subliminal, and it made me remember the
dullest, most mundane god damn thing! In the VERY NICK OF TIME!!

Maybe I can seduce girls subliminally, AFTER ALL!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: friday@fridayjones.com (Friday Jones)

In article <070520022253415411%stang@subgenius.com>, "Rev. Ivan Stang"
<stang@subgenius.com> wrote:

>Maybe I can seduce girls subliminally, AFTER ALL!

Start with gas meters, and work your way up! (Or down, as the case may be).

---

Alice: Our washing machine was taken away yesterday.
Dave: Good heavens. What had it done?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Her Ladyship Lilith von Fraumench <lilith@ZubJenius.com>

In article <3CD8462B.291F0891@menander.org>, dyskolos
<dyskolos@menander.org> wrote:

> Do people really WANT to splash that much water with their car?

No, but many men do want to "splash" that much "water" with their
"car", if you get my drift.

Her Ladyship Lilith

--
\m/ -=8=- http://lilith.foolspress.com/ -=8=- \m/

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Original file name: Devo- `We Put Sublim.txt - converted on Friday, 13 June 2003, 22:42