The Ambiguously Effective Idea that Just Won’t Die is back and nebulous as ever. A stock called TMXO leaped 31% on September 5 after somebody sent out a GIF with one of those wildly appealing messages that you discover in your e-mail twenty-six times a day.
Apparently “stock spam” can artificially spike a stock by 4.9-6 for the average spammer. So why did TMXO do almost five times better? *Sigh* Because of subliminal advertising: that seemingly innocent GIF consists of four frames, only one of which is the message you think you see. The other three spout BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY.
Before you start fretting that the humping donkeys and phalluses in some liquor ads really do induce you to drink after work, a researcher named Karremans who conducted a recent study on the method explains it “only works when the prime is goal-relevant.” So unless you’re thirsty you won’t actually be predisposed to cozy up with the vodka. And unless you’re into making hoards of money by chumping people who happen to read their stock spam, you’ll likely ignore this entry.
While this is unlikely to break any new ground in online advertising, according to an Ogilvy and Mather poll, about 61 percent of the American public think advertisers embed subliminal messages in most advertising anyway. Yeah, that’s right. Blame marketers for people’s inclination to purchase. – Contributed by Angela Natividad.
