Throughout the last decades, Consumer Psychology has been considered as a discipline created with the sole purpose of covering an area that, otherwise, would be empty and without answers. Thus, the arguments on which he bases his postulates are not entirely clear and tend more to generate confusion in the public rather than certainties. Focusing eminently on concepts derived from Freudian psychoanalysis and his idea of the existence of the unconscious as part of the personality structure.
In this way, through highly subjective interpretations, consumer psychology (or Consumer Psychology) warns us about the channels that human beings use to prefer a certain product and leave others in the background. In this context, external factors would motivate the choice or not of a certain object, something that is causally based on the advertising used to promote said product. In short, this discipline explains to us what unconscious reasons exist behind the rational act of choosing one thing to the detriment of others, taking elements derived from multiple studies and investigations that seek to “realize” what is automatic or unconscious.
Certainly, and leaving aside speculations that put into question the existence or not of the personality structure proposed by Freud and reaffirmed by his disciples and followers, the concepts to which consumer psychology refers are of vital importance in the area of advertising, being many times a source of inspiration for the various propaganda campaigns carried out. Beyond this, the very use of elements formulated by this discipline of the social sciences makes many focus on the so-called Subliminal Messages, coupling these to the various marketing strategies in order to promote a particular brand or product. But how valid can this concept be?
Being intrinsically linked to the notion of the unconscious, the idea behind subliminal messages is also diffuse and unclear to us (after all, it is only a theory). However, despite this lack of clarity, the value that acquire these messages in marketing is transcendental, even attributing the success of certain campaigns and their consequent generation of large economic income.
Now, how to distinguish a subliminal message in advertising? (We insist: it is not the intention to create controversy about the veracity or not of Freud's postulates) Starting from the idea that advertising is designed for a group of people in general, each of these people should have certain universal archetypes of understanding in your unconscious, so that these subliminal messages are interpreted in the same way by everyone. However, the different personal experiences modify the way in which external events are understood, something that means an obstacle in the function that these messages should fulfill.
On the other hand, taking concepts from Gestalt psychology, there is an instance called "Realizing", in which the human being makes the unconscious conscious. This event, obviously, requires a certain monitoring of the information that comes to us and that, in any case, demands a certain amount of time that many times we are not willing to spend. So, it is there where subliminal messages come into play, acting as secondary data that are not processed by our cerebral cortex and that represent the background of a general whole, where the figure would be the obvious, what is heard, what it reads.
Assuming that both Gestalt and Psychoanalysis are right, the subliminal messages in advertising should be formulated by someone who also knows the information channels of the unconscious, something unlikely and otherwise quite cloudy. So why is subliminal advertising prohibited in Spain?
If already with television and radio the matter was unclear, with the internet it is a revolution. Currently, online marketing campaigns in Spain are carried out in a massive way, investing in these gigantic amounts of money. With the appearance of social networks in the world of the web, online advertising has even become the main focus of propaganda campaigns not only of large companies (as with television) but of all businesses that are put on par with the requirements of the historical and social context that we live in.
Now, checking this type of advertising whether or not there are subliminal elements seems to be a utopia. The amount of information circulating on the web is too much to be interested in whether or not the laws are being followed. But, in the event that someone decides to analyze step by step if someone ignores the regulations in this regard, that someone should realize what are the hidden messages behind the information, something that positions them above the rest of human beings. If the unconscious reveals itself to us only through failed acts, dreams and trance, how then can we know the unconscious process behind a commercial that, supposedly, uses subliminal concepts? Finally, whether or not to pay attention to these codes will always be up to everyone,not needing for it that the marketing campaigns try to hypnotize us so that we buy something. And if the idea does not convince you, I invite you to review the subliminal messages in this article.
