TV Commercial Narrator: “You don’t have to _do it_ alone”
Do what?
Apparently the word “SEX” embedded in the beach sand and in the lady’s hair explains what the narrator is really talking about.
If prayer and Jesus aren’t enough, try Madison Avenue advertising techniques to pack ‘em in. Apparently the United Methodist Church agrees.
Subliminal advertising
Subliminal advertising has been commonly used by advertisers dating back to at least the 1950s. Wilson Bryan Key wrote an excellent book in the 70s on this subject with many supporting photos called “Subliminal Seduction.”
The idea is that our subconscious mind perceives and stores some things that we otherwise aren’t consciously paying attention to. Advertisers take advantage of this by trying to stealthly associate their products with the thing people are most subconsciously preoccupied with, which is of course sex.
Although other messages and pictures are used, the letters “S-E-X” often appears in such ads. The letters are usually vague, distorted, sometimes out of proportion to each other, and often cleverly embedded near the edges of the advertisement away from the center of attention.
The advertiser will usually air brush or Photoshop the letters “S-E-X” into common objects such as the hair of people or ice cubes in liquor ads. In this case the advertiser chose to subtly write the letters in the sand on the beach next to the smiling woman. In actuality, the UMC sex embeds on the beach and in the woman’s hair are not really subliminal embeds, but semi-subliminal since they can be easily and instantly seen once they are pointed out to the viewer.
Video
I’ve made a crude video copy of the commercial using a web camera to film my TV screen. In spite of the poor quality, I think you can still see the beach “SEX” embed and hear the announcer say “you don’t have to *do it* alone” [1].
Link to United Methodist Church Organization’s embedded ‘SEX’ commercial
The following are links to a few other examples of advertising with “SEX” embedded:
Link to the scene in the Lion King where “SEX” is displayed
[1] – It’s a wave movie file (*.wmv), about 1.7 megabytes. If you have windows media player installed you should be able to view the video. In Windows Media player, after you first hit the pause (||) you can both pause the video and continue it by hitting the space bar. If anyone can find a better copy of this, please send it to me.
Hmmm… but what about the counter-argument. People who are obsessed with Jesus, see his face in everything from the formation of tree bark to their morning toast. Is it not possible that sex obsessed people (and researchers) will see patterns in randomness associated with their own particular obsession? My skepticism begs for some more conclusive evidence from the ad agency board rooms and graphics departments.
This is not seeing something in randomness. It’s clearly evident in the sand and in the lady’s hair when the contrast is adjusted. The practice of embedding the word sex in TV and magazine ads is well known. In this TV ad, the narrator is saying “you don’t have to do it alone,” a sentence with double meaning, another common practice in advertising.
Again, this sort of advertising is common in TV and magazine ads, especially cigarette and liquor ads in magazines. Obviously the irony and hypocrisy is that a Christian organization makes use of the same kind of advertising to attract people to their churches.
This is quite ridiculous. Do you really think people are subliminally thinking about sex during this advert because of a message ‘written in the sand’ and in the lady’s hair that is barely visible even in still frame…?
It’s far from ridiculous and what you or I think doesn’t matter. It’s the Corporations who spend huge amounts of money every year on subliminal advertising that are banking on such effects.
In any case, even if subliminal advertising didn’t work and companies are wasting millions of dollars on it every year, it’s still obviously hypocritical for the United Methodist churches to even be attempting to use sexual messages to lure people into their pews.
I’m not that surprised to read a story like this. There have been many cases of unethical behavior by all types of people around the world, why not marketers as well. Very interesting post.
hi! nice site!
So interEsting,we need to be eXtra careful.
Indeed, subliminal messaging is one of the most powerful tools advertisers use and one of the most effective themes is sex. So many products are being sold because of this.
And yes it is sad that so many use this method in highly unethical ways. This is definitely one of them.
If this is indeed intentional two thoughts come to mind:
One: Did the creators of this advertisement do this without the knowledge of the UMC
Two: Or did the UMC approve this ad knowing that the word SEX is embedded inside it.
I hope it’s the former and not the latter because this is a direct affront to what they stand for.
I’m pretty sure they know exactly what is going on in their commercials.
The UMC is spending millions each year on these TV ads trying to recruit new members. Because of this, their ads are undoubtably closely scrutinized for content. In this particular ad, the embeds are so obvious I think it’s virtually impossible they are unaware of them. I noticed them immediately when I first saw this commercial.
They’ve been periodically rerunning this particular ad for at least the last two years now (as of Dec 2008).
I’ve seen a Dental logo design that also included a very subtle reference to sexual position. Of course, this is not as worrisome as a very widespread religion using sex in their advertising. Highly hypocritical and wrong in so many ways.
Hi, Great Stuff
Really interesting
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.
religion..can be used for bad things sometimes. followers (just like fans) can do anything to justify what they think is right.
Nice one! If I could write like this I would be well happpy. The more I see articles of such quality as this (which is rare), the more I think there might be a future for the Net. Keep it up, as it were.
This one was prety hard to make out. But I definitely remember the one from THe Lion King… that was crazy!
You know you are totally right, you really never realize what you are really looking at or how you are being influence when you look at some of the subliminal packaging that many of the everyday food and drink items use. I’m a great fan of YoPlait and was surprised to find it on your list.
Such information is making aware people about the present scenario regarding the present status of people and their thought towards religion. I think sex and religions are two opposite ends of a coin which should never be mingled together. Sex is strictly prohibited in all different kinds of religions including Christianity. So, I am not particular amused with this embedded SEX word in promoting Jesus.
This one doesn’t look quite as obvious to me as some of the ones in the product ads. Incredible if true, though.
It might depend on the person. I remember the first time I saw this commercial, the “SEX” word on the beach seemed very obvious along with the “you don’t have to *do it* alone” slogan spoken by the commercial’s narrator. I was a little surprised, not just that a religious organization was using such low handed dishonest tactics to increase church membership, but how poorly the ad was done in the sense of the subliminals not being hidden very skillfully.
Then I recorded the commercial on my PVR and noticed the “SEX” word in her hair/jacket laces stood out clearly. Again very poorly done.
What a stupidity does that ads do. I felt shocking. I preferable not to engaged the word jesus into a sex ads like that. It’s a matter of dishonoring his name.
Sex is a sacred and a gift from God for married people, I strongly disagree using Jesus name related with sex. We all have the rights but set limits as well.
I agree with some of you. This was a pretty low ball and a cheap trick for the church to have actually done. Subliminal or not, this does not get my vote nor would it entice me to go to (their) church more often, if at all.
hmmmm.. this is a very interesting post. If the church really did it for the purpose of advertising, that’s really “unethical” for them to do that. I mean, why not bank on charity(ies) rather than spending huge amount of money for these subliminal advertisements. sounds like a cult to me!