Subliminal messaging techniques have been
around in popular media since the advent of radio, when advertisers attempted to promote
brand loyalty by playing specific tunes or series of sounds in their advertisement. Though subliminal messaging never garnered
any significant business, when television came around attempts to communicate secret
messages or override the free will of a viewer went into overdrive. Never supported by any serious science, it
was long thought that series of colors, sounds, or rapidly flashed messages that lasted for
mere frames may have a lasting impact on the human brain. While none of these efforts yielded any significant
results, it hasn't stopped governments, corporations, or police departments from trying. Hello and welcome to another episode of The
Infographics Show- today we're taking a look at some weird, and some cool subliminal messages
aired on TV. 8. BTK Killer – On January 15th1974, Joseph
Otero was subdued in his Wichita, Kansas home and suffocated with a plastic bag. His wife, Julie Otero was then strangled with
a rope. Using another plastic bag, the killer then
suffocated 9 year old Joseph Otero Jr. and then hung his 11 year old sister, Josephine
Otero from a drain pipe with rope. The police found no leads, and months later
on April 4tha 21 year old woman was found stabbed 11 times. For years the police searched for a killer
with no leads, while the killer taunted police by sending letters describing his murders
to the media or by leaving them in books at the public library. In 1978 local Wichita station KAKE-TV ran
a report on what was by then known as the Bind, Torture, Kill killer, or BTK killer,
and in an effort to get the killer to turn himself in the report included a subliminal
message saying “Now call the chief”, as well as a pair of glasses. In the midst of an interview, for just a few
frames, a white screen appeared with the words “Now call the chief” written in the upper
left corner along with the glasses. The glasses were included because when the
killer hard murdered his most recent victim, Nancy Fox, there was a pair of glasses left
on her dresser, and the police thought seeing the glasses might stir remorse in the killer. The ploy was unsurprisingly not successful
and the BTK killer wouldn't be caught until inadvertently giving himself up in 2005. 7. Mr. Eko, Lost – The Television series Lost
is famed for being full of twisting turns and... well, giant plot holes that barely
resolved. However, mystery abounded across its six seasons
and the show's creators loved to tease the audience by dropping barely noticeable hints
in unexpected places. In the second season of the show audiences
were introduced to Mr. Eko, a violent Nigerian guerrilla turned Catholic priest. Despite his character arc developing over
the course of many episodes, unbeknownst to most viewers his entire backstory was plainly
visible all along. Carrying a big stick, Mr. Eko had carved several
biblical passages onto it, and it is only explained by another character as something
he did “because he's a priest”. Yet the show's writers were clearly asking
the audience to look closer, and those that did discovered the real significance. The passages written on Mr. Eko's stick tell
the story of his life before arriving at the island and his ultimate demise. Starting with Titus 3 which tells of sinners
living in malice and envy but finding salvation in God, we discover Mr. Eko's violent past. Next is Acts 4:12, a nod at Mr. Eko's not-quite-authority
as a priest. Finally, Eko's stick also contains Psalm:
23: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”- the passage clearly referencing
Mr. Eko's fatal confrontation with the shadowy smoke monster that would kill him. 6. God, The Simpsons – First airing on December
18th, 1989, The Simpsons has run for nearly three decades, yet the show got its start
in very humble beginnings. On April 19th, 1987, the first iteration of
the show ran on The Tracey Ullman Show as a series of short sketches, and given their
popularity after three years the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show,
becoming Fox's first series to land in the Top 30 ratings in a season. The rest is television history. However throughout the course of the show
one of the things that continuously stands out (other than Marge's hair) is the four
fingers and four toes of each character. While technically this is because it makes
hands easier to animate, the show hinted at something else entirely when in the episode
“Homer the Heretic”, Homer comes face-to-face with God, and sharp-eyed viewers quickly spotted
that God had five fingers and even had five toes. What this says about the show has been hotly
debated since, with some viewers simply claiming that it was a subtle joke to the audience,
and others saying that God represents The Simpson's true animators and is crossing over
from our five-fingered world into The Simpson's world. 5. Sansa Stark, Game of Thrones – 'Subliminal'
is not what most people would use to describe Game of Thrones and its over the top brutality. Amidst a show full of decapitations, rapes,
and more murders in one episode than some cop shows have in a season, Game of Thrones
still manages to weave some ingenious subliminal messages into the background... or in some
cases the very foreground of scenes. Costume designer Michele Clapton has long
been manipulating the design of the character's costumes to hint at backstories, predict the
future, or comment on the present of each character. For example, Daenerys' signature blue dress
contains shimmering dragon-like blue scales on one portion, an obvious nod to her status
as Mother of Dragons. However it's in the episode where Sansa Stark
is married that she created her masterwork. As Sansa is being married into House Lannister,
she is wearing a dress that depicts a direwolf- the sigil of her house, House Stark- being
wrapped up and dominated by a lion, sigil for House Lannister, exactly as is happening
within the show's politics. Going even deeper however, the colors of the
dress hint at various families and tell Sansa's story. The red weavings amongst the dress depict
the growing influence of the Lannister's on Sansa, mirroring the way her character is
becoming more and more like the infamous manipulative blonde-headed lords and ladies. 4. Bad News, How I Met Your Mother – Heralding
back to the days of trying to manipulate people by flashing numbers or colors at them in rapid
succession, How I Met Your Mother used a clever subliminal messaging tactic to build anxiety
and dread in its viewers. In the episode 'Bad News', the audience expects
that at any point shockingly bad news could break, yet sharp eyed viewers noticed a trend
of descending numbers appearing in every scene. Starting at 50, every scene included a prominently
featured number somewhere in the scene that started a countdown from 50 to 1. A character drinks a beer with a 48 on it,
a book contains the number 40 in the title, a character turns a calendar to the 21stday
of the month... For the sharp-eyed viewers who spotted the
countdown they realized that the awful news they had been waiting to hear was approaching
closer and closer, until finally at last the countdown reaches 1 at the end of the episode
and we discover that one of the major character's father has died. 3. Marlboro Barcode – After public outcry over
cigarette advertising targeting children, cigarette brands found themselves unable to
advertise on television anymore. To get around the ban on creating commercials,
cigarette brands moved to endorsing professional sports, though that too would ultimately lead
to a ban on endorsements- except for Formula 1, where cigarette brand logos covered nearly
every race car from top to bottom. After outcry from many professional sporting
organizations and regulatory bodies, a ban was eventually passed and no longer could
cigarette brand logos appear on race cars. To get around the ban however, Marlboro came
up with a very clever tactic- instead of displaying their well-recognized logo, they instead used
a barcode-style design painted on the side of a Formula 1 car that was bereft of any
lettering or much detail. Yet as the car zoomed around the track and
was broadcast on television, the motion blur effect created an image that was eerily similar
to the Marlboro brand logo. Quickly catching on, the European Public Health
Commission applied pressure to European lawmakers who ruled that the design was too close to
the banned Marlboro logo. Marlboro would go on to plead innocence, claiming
that the design was meant to be neutral and not linked to the sale of tobacco products-
because if you can trust anyone it's definitely cigarette companies. 2. McDonalds, Food Network – First airing on
March 5th, 2005, Iron Chef America quickly became one of the world's most popular shows,
and a prime revenue generator for the Food Network where it was hosted. With millions of fans watching chefs battling
it out over delicious dinners, some sharp-eyed viewers noticed something strange in one episode. At one point in the middle of an episode the
McDonalds logo was flashed onto the screen for a few fractions of a second, not long
enough for most to notice, but hopefully long enough to make viewers hungry for some McDonalds. Both the food Network and McDonalds denied
that they had colluded on a subliminal ad campaign, saying that it was a technical error
and nothing more. 1. Comedy Central, UK – Back in 2013 a particularly
eagle-eyed viewer was watching Comedy Central at his home in Britain when during a commercial
break for Mr. Bean, he noticed a weird flash that briefly appeared on-screen. Luckily the viewer had been running his DVR
at the time, and after rewinding back and forth and going over frame by frame he discovered
a huge block of text that appeared for mere fractions of a second on his screen. Even more strange, the block of text seems
to be an ode of sorts to a record store named HMV, located somewhere called “High Street”. The giant block of text which filled the screen
tells about a shared experience of visiting the record store with your 'tribe', and laments
the loss of these experiences, asking at the end if “you can't fight progress, can you?”. The block of text also had several words highlighted,
though put together seemed to have no special meaning. After posting his discovery to Reddit, some
forum members commented that the message may be part of a modern day “numbers station”
broadcast, an updated version of radio broadcasts made up of random bits of dialogue, poetry,
or series of numbers that were coded messages to undercover spies. Whatever its origin, it was discovered that
this has happened before on the same station in the UK, with different messages, each replete
with highlighted words. Does subliminal messaging work to advertise
a product? Ever feel strange cravings for McDonalds after
watching The Food Network? Have you spotted any cool details in the background
of your favorite shows? Let us know in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video
Why You Don’t Want To Win The Lottery. Thanks for watching, and as always, please
don’t forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time!
