Sex and Death Among the Ice Cubes:
Subliminal Messages in Advertising

Sex and Death are topics of universal human interest.  In western culture they are also taboo.  The gratuitous sex and violence on display in print, film and television correlates to human experience almost as much as the appearance of models in ads correlates to the appearance of the average man or woman on the street; which is to say close to zero.  We are usually encouraged to repress our questions and fears about both sex and death, often to the detriment of our mental health and personal relationships.  Key asserts that advertisers know this, and use it to manipulate us subconsciously.

If they are present, subliminal messages in ads are either symbolic (plainly visible, but with a meaning that producers believe from testing and research will be psychologically repressed by the target audience) or embedded (hidden from conscious perception artistically).  Embeds are the most controversial, the most expensive to create (requiring expensive talent and technology), and (from my observation) the least common.

Click on the link below for some visual examples.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/subliminal.php