- 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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