- Quote from LA Times:
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- "In the United States, there is no routine
monitoring of advertisements for subliminal messages because they are
note seen as an issue."
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- Russian TV Saturated With Subliminal Ads:
- Government Developing Technology To Crack Down On
Illegal Activity
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- By Robyn Dixon
- Los Angeles Times
- 9-7-02
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- MOSCOW -- Deep within a Russian television
advertisement for a local beer, Klinskoye, lurked a split-second
message for another thirst-quencher: Pepsi.
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- An image of Palmolive Fruit Essentials soap was
there and gone in a blink on the NTV television network. Young viewers
of Russian MTV unconsciously absorbed marketing messages for Secret
deodorant, the New Musical Express newspaper and the Red Hot Chili
Peppers album, "By the Way."
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- In fact, according to Russian scientists, subliminal
television advertising, although illegal in Russia, is strewn across
the airwaves.
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- Russian television stations insist that they have no
way of knowing whether video material provided by advertising agencies
contains subliminal messages. Advertising firms and the companies
whose products appear in subliminal messages deny any
involvement.
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- "There are very many cases. I'm surprised by the
quantity," said Svetlana Nemtsova, deputy director-general of the All
Russian Research Institute for TV and Radio Broadcasting, a state
agency.
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- "There are channels that are impossible to watch,"
she said, referring to the amount of subliminal advertising broadcast.
"There are channels that don't overdo it, and there are channels that
don't do it at all."
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- She declined to list the offenders.
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- But time is running out for them. Nemtsova and other
Russian scientists at the broadcast institute have developed equipment
to trace subliminal messages that will constantly monitor Russian TV
airwaves by the end of the year.
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- Nemtsova said the institute hasn't pursued TV
stations for breaches. That would be the role of the Ministry for
Press, Broadcasting and Communications after the device goes into
operation.
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- "We're still testing this device, but we can see
what outrages are going on the air," she said.
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- The broadcasting ministry issued a joint warning in
June to television stations to stop using subliminal advertising.
Those caught could be removed from the air or fined, it warned.
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- Two years ago, ATV, a television station in the
Siberian city of Yekaterinburg, was banned from the air for two months
after being caught bombarding viewers with the subliminal message to
keep on watching it.
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- (Begin optional trim)
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- In 1974, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
warned that subliminal advertising -- not consciously perceived by the
eye but apprehended subliminally -- was contrary to the public
interest. Broadcasters can be fined or sanctioned, but advertisers are
not barred from using them.
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- But debate has raged in the United States about how
effective subliminal advertising really is. Many experts have
concluded that there is no evidence it is any more compelling than
ordinary advertising, although some contest this.
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- (End optional trim)
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- In the United States, there is no routine monitoring
of advertisements for subliminal messages because they are not seen as
an issue.
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- In Russia, the issue is viewed with greater alarm.
Subliminal advertising is seen here as more persuasive and potentially
damaging than it is by many in the United States.
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- Demirchoglyan said that it would require repeated
viewing to compel a viewer to act but that any evil intention can be
transmitted subliminally.
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- Representatives for Procter & Gamble and Pepsi
denied knowledge of any cases of subliminal advertising. A spokeswoman
at Colgate Palmolive in Moscow said no one was available to
comment.
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- Natalya Kolmakova, a spokeswoman for Procter &
Gamble, which makes Secret deodorant, said the material aired for
journalists at the broadcast institute must be either some mistake or
else some prank.
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- Alexander Shalnev, spokesman for PepsiCo Holdings,
raised the possibility that Klinskoye might have inserted a hidden
advertisement of Pepsi into its own beer commercial but acknowledged
that such a scenario made no sense.
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- I don't even want to comment on this because it
doesn't make any sense, he said.
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- Sergei Vasilyev, director-general of the Media
Services Video International advertising company, said he knows of no
cases of subliminal advertising on Russian television.
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- If it's proven and published, it would be a horrible
scandal, he said. I think the damage they might incur dwarfs the extra
sales they could get.
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- Sergei Khudyakov, director of the advertising sales
department at NTV Media, said it's impossible for TV stations to tell
whether video material contains hidden inserts.
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- As of today, we are powerless to do anything, he
said. We are victims of the same hidden advertisements, just like
everybody else around here.
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- But the advertisers' logic is obvious here, he said.
Even though this practice is considered illegal, why not use it, since
there is no way of detecting it? They know they will always get away
with it.
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- The use of hidden inserts is known to be effective.
Any normal company would do it.
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- Nemtsova said that her institute built its new
detection device, known as ODSV-1, at the request of the broadcasting
ministry and that it took four years to develop.
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- The device actually casts almost too wide a net. Not
only does it capture subliminal images, but also frames with poor
focus or quality, and blank frames filled with black, white or another
color.
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- Begin optional trim
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- Some images are perplexing. In a clip aired on MTV,
the body of a woman wearing a T-shirt bearing the word porn was
superimposed with a man's head.
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- What is that? Something incomprehensible. I don't
even know what it's supposed to be! Nemtsova exclaimed, before showing
a string of other cryptic subliminal images in video material bearing
the MTV logo.
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- (End optional trim)
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- Demirchoglyan, the professor from the sports
institute, argued that subliminal messages are more effective because
they are absorbed by a viewer unknowingly and that his or her will is
subdued. The normal resistance to advertisements isn't triggered, he
insisted.
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- The people in advertising understand this perfectly
well, said Nemtsova, showing a computer disc for the Russian
advertising industry that extolled the virtue of ads that bypass
conscious thought. One section described how to advertise using hidden
television messages. The maker of the disc, like many CDs and videos
bought in Moscow, was anonymous.
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- When the Russian detecting device begins work at the
end of the year, the broadcasting ministry will decide which cases are
breaches of the law and which are permitted.
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- Nemtsova rejects the claims of Russian television
stations that they have no way of knowing whether they are airing
subliminal advertising in tapes received from ad agencies.
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- Although the state will monitor all stations
constantly, Nemtsova believes that television stations should take
responsibility upon themselves for airing untainted video material.
She says each station should install the device to check the quality
of the material being broadcast.
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- Factories that make vodka or sausage check the
quality of their products, she said. People who show video materials
should be responsible for checking the quality too.
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- COMMENT
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- From Left Behind
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- Watching television is extremely dangerous. This
technology is at least 30 years old. And if you think you're only
being psyched into buying Pepsi, think again. THEY ARE SELLING
PROPAGANDA CONCEPTS, NOT SODA POP! This is one of the reasons why so
many people cannot evaluated factual information any longer. Millions
of us are already programmed from childhood.
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- It's time to take your TV set and set it on your
front lawn, together with a skull and crossbones, as a Halloween
ornament. Be sure you smash screen first. (But be careful to pick up
the broken glass.)
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