Generative AI and Subliminal Advertising

Have you ever felt an urge to buy a product for no apparent reason? Perhaps it happened after you were scrolling Instagram or watching YouTube or TV.?

You may have been influenced by subliminal advertising, a type of marketing where hidden words or symbols are placed in different media like TV shows, radio or print ads. These messages are meant to be picked up by people without them realizing it, aiming to affect their thoughts, feelings, and decisions at the subconscious level.?

Subliminal advertising first appeared in the 1950s, when flashing messages like "Drink Soda" or "Eat Popcorn" were added to a movie and went by in a split-second so they were imperceptible to the eye. The idea was that people would subconsciously crave these items and buy more at the concession stand.?

Since then, subliminal advertising has been used in a wide variety of media including print advertising. A classic example is when Gilbey’s Gin apparently put the word ‘SEX’ into the ice cubes one of their print ads. The original ad appears on the left, and on the right, we highlighted the word for those who can’t see the word sex clearly.?

Creating Subliminal Messages with Generative AI?

One of the challenges of subliminal advertising is to craftily insert words or images into the advertising. Traditionally, this was difficult and expensive to achieve as the advertising image picture needed to be manipulated by a professional graphic artist.?

The rapid rise of Generative AI ‘text-to-image’ tools like Dall E-3 and Midjourney raises the possibility that subliminal advertising may become readily accessible to everyone. If that is?indeed the case, then it raises the possibility of a substantial increase in subliminal advertising in the future.?

To test how difficult it is to create subliminal messages in advertising, the Future of Marketing Institute worked with Tianyu Xu, a respected Generative AI explorer and consultant. Together, we tested whether it is possible to subliminally insert both words and images into print advertising. In our research study, we specifically attempted to put words and images into ice cubes for a fictional whiskey print advertisement. This is similar to the method we mentioned that was used by Gilbey’s Gin.?

Experiment I: Hidden Words?

A common advertising belief is: ‘Sex Sells’. So, as a first attempt at subliminal advertising, we tried to insert the word sex into ice cubes using DALL-E 3.?

We created approximately 100 images for our ‘Word Insertion’ experiment. Overall, we found it was very difficult to insert words to make a subliminal advertisement. The problem was that in almost all cases, the requested word was much too obvious. Even when we used a complex and detailed prompt urging DALL-E to ‘make the word sex formed by natural curves, edges, and contours of the ice and intricately woven into the ice's structure so that it appears almost as if it's part of the ice itself, requiring a discerning eye to spot and appreciate the artistry’, the result was consistent: the word ‘sex’ appeared much too clearly and we did not regard it as subliminal. An example of a typical ‘word test’ advertisement we produced is shown below.?

Other results were totally unexpected. One of the ads that DALL-E created appeared to show a sexually explicit image. While we won’t show the picture here, DALL-E surprisingly took out the letter ‘e’ in the word sex and, in its place, created what appeared to be a representation of female genitalia.

While getting the subliminal result we wanted was very difficult, we did not find it impossible. Our best effort in this experiment is shown below. The word ‘sex’ does seem to appear, but it is highly stylized and difficult to discern. However, in a sense, that is what a marketer hopes to achieve with subliminal advertising. That is, a marketer wants the image to be barely visible and only seen at the subliminal level.?

Experiment II: Luxury Images?

In the second part of our experiment, we tried inserting luxury items into the ice cubes. In theory, including images of luxury items subliminally in advertisements can subtly shift consumer preferences. These images, often not consciously noticed, can make the advertised product seem more luxurious and prestigious, potentially making it more appealing and increasing the likelihood of purchase.?

We used prompts to have Dall-E put the following five luxury items into the ice cubes: sailboats, diamonds, expensive watches, fancy automobiles, and mansions.?

Again, we found that it was difficult to create a truly subliminal print ad. Most of the time, the image of the luxury object appeared to be obvious in the picture. And that defeats the?whole purpose of subliminal advertising as the object should be only discernable when one pays close attention to the ad.?

Our best effort was the following advertisement, where we asked DALL-E to subliminally put a ‘sailboat’ into one of the ice cubes. If you look carefully at the largest cube above the ice you will see the double masts and hull of the sailboat. The effect is subtle enough that the boat will not be readily apparent to everyone. However, subconsciously the picture of the boat may convey a feeling of exclusiveness and luxury to the whiskey brand. Therefore, we regard this attempt at the creation of a subliminal advertisement to be a considerable success.?

Some Promise, But Inconclusive Results?

The objective of this research project was to determine whether Generative AI software can be used to create subliminal advertising using both words and images.?

Overall, we found that it was very difficult, but not impossible, to produce subliminal advertising using DALL-E. We generated over 100 images for this study, which took the researchers a considerable amount of time. In the end, we produced only 2-3 images that we would regard as reasonable examples of subliminal advertising.?

In addition, when we asked for the ice cube with the word ‘sex’, the ChatGPT filter occasionally denied our request due to OpenAI’s content guidelines. We conclude that given the time involved in making a single good advertisement, professional artists skilled in Photoshop might be a more cost-effective choice for creating subliminal ads.

This post is written by FMI Executive Director David Rice and generative AI explorer and consultant, Tianyu Xu.

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