h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone share my view that the very brief captions shown at the start of some Channel 4 advertising breaks - the captions consist of a picture of one of the Big Brother housemates and the words "You Decide" - verge on the illegal practice of subliminal advertising.

This technique of insinuating a simple message into the mind of a mass audience is pernicious and dangerous.

In this case, the aim could be to shift the balance of a vote, or increase revenue by increasing the number of people paying Channel 4 for the "privilege" of voting.

I must say that I really couldn't give two hoots about Big Brother... until it starts behaving rather like Big Brother (as in the Orwell version).

Anybody out there have a view ? Where can I get some action to nip this evil little practice in the bud ? Or am I being paranoid ?

The fact that you are aware of the image at all means it's not subliminal by definition.

Is there in fact such a thing as subliminal advertising. We all know the story about Coca Cola using subliminal advertising during movies in the 50s or 60s, but it is a complete myth.

I think Ballynac pretty much hit the nail on the head there.

If you were to read my original posting to this thread, you would see I said "verging" on the subliminal.

So, having done the easy thing of saying "It can't be subliminal if you perceive it" does any of you want to use your obvious brainpower and address the question ?

Or is this a "we can't design a wheel until we can agree what colour it should be" sort of hairdresser's sub-committee?

If it does verge on the subliminal, then it is failing to have any effect on my subconscious.

I don't watch Big Brother and couldn't careless who gets voted out.

As we have just had the third instalment of Frontier House here in the UK (based on our own 1900s House and subsequent series), that would be much more interesting to vote on.

Sorry, topic drift!

Ok, reply to original question;

NO.

And as some around here seem to be unable to have a conversation without resorting to sarcasm and rudeness, I'm off to another thread.

They tape 24 hours of Big Brother, only to use a selected couple of minutes. If there are certain people they want voted out, they wouldn't need advertising. Just choose to show the right couple of minutes and you can easily shift people's opinion. How long is the clip anyway?

Also, reply to original question - No.

Was I being sarcastic? Apologies if you thought so, but BigEric had already said he didn't like the programme either.

Hi Xanatic

The length of the clip is about 0.8 seconds. It is a still caption frame, and was screened at the start of the advertising breaks during the "Six Feet Under" programme last night.

I suppose the thing that bothers me is that it was so short as to fall into the category of "Did I actually see that?". But my wife said she had seen the same sort of image. And by chance we had the video running - and this confirms that we weren't just seeing things!

Oh, and the loss of the Shark from this thread is no loss at all! In the past he has taken pride in his mindlessly agressive behaviour - obviously a very queer fish indeed! Maybe because of the Stock Market situation, he's feeling a bit tetchy?

One final question and then I'll go away and stop bothering you :

When you answer "No" - do you mean you have seen the caption or that you have not seen the caption?

I saw the caption.

Thankyou for telling me you saw it.

It wasn't as sinister as I thought, obviously. What a relief.

Just as a matter of record, I did catch a giant food firm "In the act" some 23 years ago, when things were technologically a lot less sophisticated. An ITV company was broadcasting the message "Food, glorious food - from the world of ******** *******".

At first, the action was denied. Then, when it was captured on videotape of a broadcast, it was put down to a regrettable "error", and we were treated to a VIP studio tour and many unctious assurances it could never happen again.

My past experience has doubtless left me as a cynical "twitcher"!

Two somewhat salient points:

1) A lot of recent research has virtually proved that the concept of subliminal messages doesn't work anyway. Although stuff is broadcast at 22 fps, apparently we only see about half that, due to blinking, general distraction, and brain tiredness. In addition, tests have been carried out on people with very fast reactions (100m sprinters), and they can actually detect the visual changes occurring in 1/22 of a second. Therefore, it's not subliminal anyway.

2) The Big Brother producers have much better ways of influencing who gets chucked out. Therefore the editing process is biased towards making some people seem nicer than they really are (Kate), and some more irritating than they really are. You don't think Jade can be that obtuse *all* the time, do you?

Exactly, the whole thing can be manipulated already. But it isn't much of a message they gave anyway. They simply said "You decide". They didn't say "Kick him out" or "Keep this one", so how much effect can it have. Even if subliminal advertising works, which I don't think anyone has ever shown that it does.

Aren't you both missing the point that the number of votes cast is very important to the programme in two ways: The more interest they can show being generated, the higher the price they can charge for advertising time. Also, each vote carries with it a little packet of money from the phone company: for every million votes cast, Channel4 will receive upwards of 160thousand pounds.

So the message "You decide" aims to increase the number of votes, and hence the programme's income.

Oh, and by the way, I'm pretty sure that the only fair portrayal we are seeing is that of Jade: Yes, many people really are that loud, stupid and insensitive - and what's more it's not their fault, just who they are. But to continue implies I could care who gets what votes - and I am trying very hard to not care a whit!

By the way, I just phoned a national newspaper's Newsdesk, who said that they "would not want to follow up" a story questioning the marketing of the BB programme.

"BB is a very popular topic with our readers". You bet. According to H2G2's own article, a BB headline boosts newspaper sales by a minimum of 15%. So why bite the hand that feeds you?

It's a long time since newspapers were useful for aything than wiping certain parts of your body. The whole capitalism thing means they have to tell people what they want to hear.

Newspapers are very good at soaking up cat pee......