I was immediately enthralled with the description of the controversy over subliminal advertising. Rodman describes the fear “that advertisers were using their knowledge of Freudian and behavioral psychology to affect the consumer unconscious mind.” (434) this idea was later proved a hoax but the fears were real. This fear really categorizes the mood of the world at that time. The 1950’s were ripe with paranoid Rodman writes that it is due to the fears of communism. One of the most interesting morsels of the paranoia surrounding subliminal advertising was the claim made by James Vicaray an unemployed market researcher. He inserted singly frames into movies saying things like “eat popcorn” and “Drink Coke” he claimed the messages were the cause in a boost of sales. This was later proved false. I think a better idea to boost drink sales at movies would be to insert a video of a stream on the screen allow people to get a visual and think about how thirsty they are. People do not like the idea of being controlled especially if we do not know we are being controlled. Humans are constantly consciously avoiding submissiveness. Humans always try to be their own person and strive to make their own decision. Humans are rational and will only respond to conscience activity, we need to be able to rationalize our decisions.
Another interesting bit of class and the readings was about PR and the responses of the various companies. Particularly Tylenol and Exxon, these cases showed the importance of a forward looking and overall importance of a strong PR team. The response of Exxon to the oil spill was very interesting. One would assume and has learned in childhood that it is always better to fess up to a mistake and make sure to take care of it. Apparently Exxon did not remember their childhood lessons. Tylenol who fared much better due to their vigorous campaign following the poisonings, Tylenol spared no expense and kept a loyal consumer base.