Subliminal Advertising Condemned By Methodists

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28984, 27 August 1959, Page 15

Subliminal Advertising Condemned By Methodists

“Subliminal advertising (the use of messages flashed on a screen for a split second to register in the subconscious mind) is a violation of the sacredness of the individual personality.” This was the opinion of the public questions committee when it submitted a recommendation against such advertising to the North Canterbury District Annual Methodist Synod last evening. “The need for growth in a competitive society seems almost inevitably to debase the human values.” the committee said. Expansion was maintained largely by advertising, which was valuable only when it presented a commodity fairly and gave details of place and price,” it said. Many methods relied on half

truths, false fears and the commercialisation of sex. However, the current standards of advertising in New Zealand were not obviously opposed to the principles of Christian conduct. The committee thought the greatest danger lay in future television and radio advertising. Any means deliberately employed to by-pass the conscious mind, such as subliminal advertising. had to be rejected as denying man the right to exercise his will, the committee said. On these grounds the Synod accepted a recommendation “that the Government be urged to legislate against possible use of subliminal advertising in media of mass communication in New Zealand.”