Comparing J. G. Ballard's A Few Words On Subliminal Advertising
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In a society that depends so heavily on money and values it more than anything else, it is no surprise that marketing departments have turned to subliminal advertising to help increase their companies’ profits. Regularly referred to as subliminal messaging, subliminal advertising—subliminal meaning “below the threshold”—is relatively a promotional message that the public is not normally aware of. Oftentimes, items are presented too fast for someone to notice them consciously, and it is frequently viewed as a very deceptive business strategy. However, as stated in Art Markman’s “A Few Words on Subliminal Advertising”, subliminal advertising does indeed work, but it will not, and cannot, completely dominate a society. In a contrast, J G. Ballard’s…show more content… G. Ballard’s “The Subliminal Man”, on the other hand, is a direct contrast to Markman’s “A Few Words on Subliminal Advertising”. Set in a fictional futuristic society, we are introduced to two characters: Dr. Franklin, an over-worked and tired doctor, and Hathaway, a seemingly insane working-class man who believes the government is controlling everyone with messages on giant, blank signs positioned throughout the land. Being the skeptic of the story, Dr. Franklin dismisses Hathaway’s asinine theory, informing the reader that subliminal advertising was banned in their society years earlier. Later on, however, Dr. Franklin begins to ponder Hathaway’s theory and starts to take notice of his subconscious spending. Dr. Franklin grows increasingly suspicious, and begins to take an inventory, recording “…In the previous fortnight he and Judith had traded in their Car (previous model 2 months old) 2 TV sets (4 months) Power mower (7 months) Electric cooker (5 months) Hair dryer (4 months) Refrigerator (3 months) 2 radios (7 months) Record player (5 months) Cocktail bar (8 months)” (Ballard 126). To the reader, this spending is unwarranted—why would someone replace perfectly fine electronics and appliances after such a short period of time? It makes no logical sense to spend so much in only two weeks, so Hathaway must be right—the government must be implementing some sort of control on all of the society, most likely with the use of the signs, convincing them to buy items they may…show more content… Franklin is being very closed-minded about the existence of subliminal messaging, he might tend to focus on the fact that the society that Hathaway and Dr. Franklin live is a consumerist society that is unrealistically controlled by subliminal messaging. As Markman stated in his article, it is possible for subliminal advertising to have an effect on someone, but “...Subliminal ad[s] will not make you do something you don’t want to do” (“A Few Words on Subliminal Advertising” 3). Hathaway’s character implies that the government has some sort of tight commercial control over its citizens with the use of subliminal messaging, but the citizens must have some sort of want or need to buy a certain item or perform an action in order for subliminal advertising to really work. Hathaway’s character, as implied in the story, isn’t the type to conform to society’s standards—he’s our modern day rebel who refuses to “live by the rules”. He didn’t need nor want the same melodramatic car as everybody else or the television he couldn’t afford—because he had no sort of want, the advertising did not work on him. This is very logical, Hathaway was not forced to do something he did not want to do, and, as stated in Markman’s article, subliminal advertising only works if you already have a want to achieve a