Marlboro Country

"Subliminal advertising is at the laughable end of the scale. This is based on an experiment in a cinema that seemed to show that frames flashed on the screen, so fleetingly that they could not consciously be seen, would make people buy more Coca-Cola and popcorn. For years, it was blithely accepted as an established truth that such subliminal ads worked. In fact, the experiment had never been done and all attempts to repeat it failed. It just doesn't work." Bryan Appleyard.

"To commemorate its 50th anniversary, the Vicary experiment was replicated at the International Branding Conference, MARKA2007...The 1,400 delegates watched the opening credits of the movie used in the original experiment, PICNIC into which subliminal messages had been placed at six second intervals. Then, the delegates were asked to choose between two fictitious brands. One brand 'Delta' had been suggested using the subliminal messages and the other 'Theta' had not. When choosing between the two brands, 81% of the audience chose 'Delta' in preference to 'Theta'." Hypnosis in advertising

Just been down the newsagents, and came back with a packet of Marlboro. Which is odd, because I only went to buy a copy of The Sunday Times. And I don't smoke.