
Example of Subliminal Advertising - aresant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQjr1YL0zg
======
petercooper
_This video contains content from Channel 4, who has blocked it in your
country on copyright grounds._

What.. my country, the UK? The country where I have to pay an extortionate TV
tax/license every year, part of which goes to fund Channel 4? How comes I can
view this through a US-based VPN yet not directly in the UK when the content
is from a _British TV station I'm paying for_?

~~~
ropiku
I was surprised too. You can view the video on Channel 4 website:
[http://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown-mind-
control...](http://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown-mind-
control/video/series-4/episode-1/animal-heaven) (hopefully that's the one
linked).

------
corruption
Anyone who thinks this isn't real, go and read some mentalism books. Derren's
ebooks and audio books are especially interesting for beginners.

I was staggered at the practicality of many of their ideas. E.g. I now
recognise when someone unwittingly is using hypnotic suggestion in a
conversation and it doesn't have the effect it may have. I'm able to pretend
to be psychic at parties, and can pull of some pretty good cold reading tricks
as well now.

It's worth learning how to do memory palaces just for fun (one of Derren's
audiobooks has this, which is a good beginner introduction).

If you don't think he's capable of tricks like this without cutscenes, there
are some videos floating around of him performing tricks better than this on
other top class magicians which couldn't have been faked. I suspect he claims
he's doing illusions because it makes it seem less powerful than it really is,
and makes us seem more in control than we really are.

~~~
rbreve
I lost respect for Derren Brown when he did the show where he guessed the
lottery numbers. The video was clearly edited.

~~~
JshWright
Yeah... _clearly_ is was faked. It was so obvious, I'm sure you spotted it
before you read the detailed analysis of how it was done, right?

~~~
mapleoin
You're just trolling now. Could you be a bit more informative and point the
rest of us, who don't know what this is about, to a link with that detailed
analysis?

~~~
JshWright
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1213841/Derren-
Brown...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1213841/Derren-Browns-
lottery-trick-Amateur-film-maker-recreates-stunt-perfectly---magic-hocus-
pocus.html)

------
icey
It's worth noting that Derren Brown is an entertainer / illusionist. For
everything that you see in the video, there are likely a large number of
things you're not seeing.

Instead of working his tricks under the illusion of them being "magic" he pins
the workings on pop psychology - he may tell you that he's using subliminal
messages posted along the route, and not mention a bunch of coloring books
left in the room with similar pictures (for example).

It's a cool video, for sure; but the results are most likely not derived from
"subliminal messages".

~~~
chrisa
Even if this was the result of an illusionist, it highlights something I've
often thought of, and has come up on HN a few times: that very similar
products and movies will come out at just about the same time. The best
examples I can give are from movies, and how close together certain movies are
made and released, that have very similar plots:

Deep Impact (May 1998) -> Armageddon (July 1998)

The Illusionist (September 2006) -> The Prestige (October 2006)

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (January 2009) -> Observe and Report (April 2009)

These movies came out too close together for one to copy the other, so either
the directors and studios were in it together on these movies (entirely likely
I suppose: I don't know much about the movie industry; if anyone does know why
this occurs, I'd be very interested), or one studio got wind of what the other
was doing and made a "copy" before the original even came out, or else
something much more subtle is going on.

In the startup / tech world, I think this happens too, because we all tend to
follow the same blogs, news sources, etc – so any subtle (probably
unintentional) message that makes one of us think of a new product makes 1000
of us think of a nearly identical product, at the exact same time. To me, that
highlights execution is so important, and ideas are a "dime a dozen".

~~~
pavel_lishin
Three examples over more than a decade can be easily chalked up to
coincidence.

~~~
chrisa
I just picked three; here's some more:

(It still could be coincidence I suppose, but it feels like more than that)

[http://www.11points.com/Movies/11_Damn_Near_Identical_Movies...](http://www.11points.com/Movies/11_Damn_Near_Identical_Movies_That_Were_Released_at_the_Same_Time)

[http://www.filmjunk.com/2007/03/07/when-movies-come-in-
pairs...](http://www.filmjunk.com/2007/03/07/when-movies-come-in-pairs-
examples-of-hollywood-deja-vu/)

------
aresant
Summary:

a) Guy hires designers to design a logo.

b) Guy feeds designers subliminal messaging on their cab ride to office.

c) Designers build nearly an exact copy of the logos / messaging that the guy
implanted.

More about this guy here:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown>

Definitely worth a look.

~~~
BobbyH
I read the Wikipedia article and there's an awesome section called "Waking
Dead". I did some googling and found another holy-crap Youtube video, embedded
here:
[http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/derren_brown_waking_dead.ph...](http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/derren_brown_waking_dead.php)

Here is a description from Wikipedia:

In June 2005, a clip from the second series was widely circulated on the
internet. In this clip, Brown claims to have created a video game he calls
"Waking Dead" which "is able to put roughly 1/3 of the people who play it into
a catatonic trance". In this episode, he places the video game in a pub to
lure a supposedly unsuspecting patron into playing the game. He then "kidnaps"
the catatonic "victim" and places him in a real-life recreation of the video
game, having him fire an air gun at actors, pretending to be zombies and
outfitted with explosive squibs.

~~~
metachris
That video is really crazy -- and quite fun to watch!

I'm just not really sure if something like that is ok to do to a random person
-- might cause a serious trauma...

~~~
blhack
is it really even possible to do something like that?

~~~
eagleal
If the person suffers from some form of epilepsy, could drop in a state of
unconsciousness. From there should be easy to just recreate a similar
environment to the previous one (if you find yourself, in a credible place
full of zombies, with a gun, you will shoot, instinct).

Video games, offer a good immersion in the story, if played long enough (think
of the current military training).

Though, the people in the video linked are just actors (and bad ones).
Considered the complexity of organization, I was disappointed in the end: just
touch the actor head with his hands, and the actor 'magically' (instantly)
calm down, and return to the previous state.

------
ErrantX
I gather this is the (reasonably old) clip with the logo designers?

Great clip - and I recommend you watch more of Derren Brown. He is by far one
of my favorite entertainers because he makes very clear that everything he
does is a matter of manipulative psychology and "sleight of hand".

Which makes it all the better because you spend the whole episode trying to
figure out how he managed it - and wondering if the solutions (which he often
provides) are actually real.

The other great thing about Brown is that he loves debunking pseudo-science
and other rubbish. The section in one of his books about Neuro-linguistic
programming (NLP) is a fantastically well thought out debunking - he actually
tried NLP at one stage in his early career and you can see his fascination
with the idea before his final realization it was just pop psychology (his
section on religion is equally compelling).

But best of all he pulls some awesome stunts/tricks. Highlights from the past
include: playing Russian roulette, live.... (with blanks, but still lethal...)
and (my personal favourites) "programming" a group of people to pull off a
fake heist and paying for stuff (in the US as it happens) with paper instead
of real money.

------
proee
This makes one wonder how much influence major websites are having on
designers in general. If a designer is using facebook 10 times a day, will
they submliminally add facebook style typography or layout on their next
client site?

~~~
varaon
In the online real-time strategy game Starcraft, there is a term called the
"metagame" that refers to (among other details) the current trends in how the
game is played.

There can often be large shifts in the strategies that a majority of players
are using. They often start with the professional gamer who first developed it
and dominated with it, thus popularizing it. People end up getting exposure
from watching the pros play, and also from having the strategy used against
them. The more someone loses to a given strategy, the higher they will regard
it.

I'm curious if this happens with design trends, as you were saying.

For more info on the metagame, see
<http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Metagame>

------
nazgulnarsil
marketers are _NOT_ masters of persuasion. there's a selection effect at work
that over time the companies best at this sort of thing have triumphed. sure,
there's intelligent direction, but lots of effective marketing tools were
discovered by accident.

------
mrcharles
The 'trick' to this guy's videos is that he's making the viewer believe it's
true.

------
Jim72
At first I thought this was just SPAM. But, I watched the entire video and
found it quite intriguing.

After it ended, I watched the first few minutes again... and sure enough, I
saw the same stuff once I knew what to look for.

------
wakeupthedawn
Watch carefully at around 1:15. When the camera comes is shot behind the
designers, the envelop is not on the table. It is still in Derren's hand, as
it should be. When the camera view switches to the one from behind Derren, the
envelope (or whatever that is) is already seen to be on the table. Then it
switches back to the view behind the designers, and he has it in his hand
again and finally places it on the table. There's lots of other shading
editing throughout.

