Subconscious Merchants: The 25th Frame

Hello everyone! Have you ever had moments when you suddenly wanted to do something unexpectedly? Like eating something, drinking something, or buying something...

Hello everyone!

Have you ever had moments when you suddenly wanted to do something unexpectedly? Like eating something, drinking something, or buying something... At some point in your life, you may have encountered this unexpected urge and even quickly fulfilled your desire due to the strong feeling you experienced, because there is an explainable reason behind this thing that many of you do not pay much attention to:

Subliminal messages!

This expression, which has caused many debates about whether it is real or not, is unfortunately encountered in many areas of life; while walking to your work or school, watching your favorite evening TV show, or listening to songs you enjoy, you are unknowingly exposed to subliminal messages.

Yes, you read it right. While these messages secretly touch your life wearing invisibility cloaks, you are not even aware of it. Because the message to be conveyed does not play to your conscious mind, but to your subconscious mind — to a vast universe, in other words; your perception.

In this case, if consciousness is compared to a World, the subconscious can undoubtedly be called the Universe. Why? Because people perform 5% of their behaviors consciously, while 95% are performed unconsciously. Remember the moment when you were walking from one place to another. How many of you think, “Now I should turn here”? Be honest, most of you walk by heart, even thinking about other things while walking. This behavior pattern is entirely the product of the 95% part — it is everything you do without thinking, it is your subconscious. Referring to this large percentage, it would not be wrong to call humans “autopilots controlled by the subconscious”, right?

Now, we want you to think for just a few seconds: When delivering these messages, would it be easier to convince 5% of the mind or 95% of it?

Of course, it is much easier to operate in a wider area.

Those who want to deliver the message but cannot overcome the blocking barrier, which stands like a thick wall in front of the mind — the rigid rules of persuasion and belief — aim directly at this point in people’s minds. To overcome the blockage, they distract the mind with something else and secretly convey the real message deep into the subconscious. There can be many ways to do this. The invisible side of advertising that tries to make you do things you never planned to — the 25th Frame technique — is just one of them.

To summarize this technique briefly: when the human eye sees 20–26 frames in succession in one second, it perceives them as video. Based on this, the film industry accepted 24fps as the standard to maintain an optimal technical balance and avoid increasing costs, using 24 frames in each second of their films. While this is normal, over time, subconscious merchants wanted to turn this situation into a market. Thus, for a product unrelated to the film but intended to be subtly advertised, they inserted a 25th frame within one second, and even if this frame was shown for only 1/25 of a second, it aimed to make the product/topic remain in our minds. This technique was named the 25th Frame.

This technique was first used in the film industry in 1957 by a marketer named James Vicary in the movie Picnic. In the inserted 25th frame, the text “Drink Coca-Cola! Eat Popcorn!” appeared, and this message was shown to viewers every 5 seconds for 1/3000 of a second. According to the claim, as a result of this experiment, sales during the film’s intermissions increased by 57% for popcorn and 18% for Coca-Cola.

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However, since this technique conflicts with advertising principles, it was soon banned in many countries. In our country, it is also stated that this technique is prohibited under Article 9/2 of Law No. 6112, which directly refers to the 25th Frame technique: “Subconscious techniques may not be used in commercial communication.”

Of course, this did not stop the subconscious merchants. On the contrary, it even led them to different paths in subconscious-oriented advertising. Here are a few subliminal messages that aim to direct the target audience to different content using the product instead of the brand:

1. The sexual imagery hidden among the plants on the cover of the book The Secret Sales Pitch.
2. The arrangement of ice cubes forming the word “SEX” in the Gilbey’s London Dry Gin advertisement published in the July 5, 1971 world edition of Time magazine.
3. The Masonic imagery used in the animated series The Simpsons.
4. The advertisement by Intel, a computer processor company, that created a subconscious effect of racism.
5. The violent images in the background of the youth series Pis Yedili.

In addition to these unsuccessful and disturbing examples, there are also those who use subliminal messages to make their brand more popular and truly succeed while maintaining their image and progressing with quality:

1. Amazon — conveying the message “Everything from A to Z is here.”
2. Toblerone — representing the origin of its products within the white pattern.
3. FedEx — revealing its speed with the arrow hidden between the letters E and X.
4. NBC — addressing all ethnicities with noble elegance.
5. Tostitos — capturing the young audience with the friendship message symbolized in the “tit” letters.

There are still debates about whether these techniques, especially the 25th Frame technique, are effective or not. However, it can be said that these advertisements, directly or indirectly, truly affect life. Even if not immediately, since they code the messages into the subconscious, it is quite possible that they surface at a completely different time, creating a sudden hunger to consume and changing people’s perceptions of brands over time.

So, can these be avoided?

Although attempts have been made to intervene through laws, unfortunately, there is currently no application to monitor what the subconscious merchants are doing. Since they are now almost everywhere you turn your head, avoiding them does not seem easy either.

Nevertheless, there are many producers who aim to deliver beneficial messages. If you are among those who want to stand with those who continue to produce meaningful and quality content against the Subconscious Merchants, we at Bluport are always here.

Remember: Fighting invisible enemies is much harder than fighting visible ones, but it is not impossible. Wishing to challenge the impossible together…