Digg Allows Image Ads Embedded With Hidden Subliminal Messages

I was looking through Digg the other day, when this image ad caught my eye for some reason. Something about it caught my attention, and I wasn’t quite sure what it was, so I took a closer look at it. It was subtle, and hard to figure out at first. The copy on the ad itself was unremarkable, and went like this:

FLASH NEWS: Pam Scott, N.Y., made $1,000,000 on FOREX!

19 y.o. housewife, using $99 Autotrading program-robot, made $1 million in only 2 weeks! READ FULL STORY..

The copy itself was bad enough to make me simply ignore the ad, but still… something about it kept drawing my eyes to look again.

Finally after staring at the ad long enough, it almost jumped out at me:

 

Digg image ad with subliminal messages

 

I was like, whoa! How did I miss that the first time? Yeah, sure, they cleverly hid the subliminal message in the background to the ad, in the image itself, but I like to stay abreast of the marketing industry and am usually on the lookout for these kinds of messages.

For those of you who can’t see the message in the original screenshot, here is a zoomed in version, without the surrounding html:

 

Digg image ad with subliminal messages, zoomed in

 

Much more obvious now, isn’t it?

In case you didn’t know, subliminal advertising is actually illegal in the US and other countries. The FCC has this to say about subliminal messages in advertising:

The Commission sometimes receives complaints regarding the alleged use of subliminal perception techniques in broadcast programming. Subliminal programming is designed to be perceived on a subconscious level only. Regardless of whether it is effective, the broadcast of subliminal material is inconsistent with a station’s obligation to serve the public interest because it is designed to be deceptive.

Deceptive advertising itself is illegal under 15 U.S.C. Β§ 45.

If for some reason you can’t see what I am talking about in the above screenshots, here is an even further zoomed in version, with most of the ad copy cut out so you can see more of the background image itself:

 

Digg image ad with subliminal messages, zoomed in even more

 

Unbelievable, isn’t it? I mean, there it is, staring you right in the face. This is a big deal too. Very, very big.

Still don’t see what I am talking about? Here’s a copy of the zoomed in image, but with most of the pic grayed out, highlighting only the subliminal parts:

 

Digg image ad with subliminal messages, zoomed in and highlighted

 

Yup. That’s right. They modified the sign in the background to plant the word “money” in your subconscious mind. Obviously they wanted anyone looking at that ad to be thinking that they would be getting their hands on great… big… HUGE… piles of money just by buying their product. I know financial times are hard, but I just can’t believe what some people will do just to sell their software sometimes.

22 thoughts on “Digg Allows Image Ads Embedded With Hidden Subliminal Messages”

  1. Hay Michael,

    “but still… something about it kept drawing my eyes to look again” – it is not the hidden sign man! Put yourself together – It is because of the huge boobs of that chick my friend πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€

  2. “Pay no attention to the billboard behind the woman”

    I actually saw the money sign. I thought you were going to go with what looks like the space needle (buts not) in the background as a subliminal message for tourism to Seattle πŸ˜‰

  3. “””One of the breast and breastest posts. I nipple seen anything like it!

    But, I don’t see any subliminal breasts …””””

    holy shit dude, i just choked to death on my dinner after reading that! LOLLLL, your the king man! holy shit!! LOLL

    LOLLLLLLLLLLLL!!

  4. The mind tends to twist a bit when human features are freakish. Note the squeezed waist on the model compared to the huge shoulders/chest. The viewer’s eye is forced to work on making sense of the distortions and allows the (hidden) message(s) to nest deeper within the mind.

  5. Something else that is subtle are the father and son, two prominent figures in the background, appearing to be looking in the direction of the sign.

  6. “The mind tends to twist a bit when human features are freakish. Note the squeezed waist on the model compared to the huge shoulders/chest. The viewer’s eye is forced to work on making sense of the distortions and allows the (hidden) message(s) to nest deeper within the mind.”

    no actually, i was more busy thinking of the thing that will fit between those breasts

  7. Actually, I never saw any of it, just the two huge melons screaming at you! I think photoshop did wonders as well.

  8. Isn’t that just a picture of the CN Tower?

    I don’t see anything subliminal at all. I think you’re paranoid.

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