A Recent Subliminal Ad in the KFC Snacker

So today I have an interesting subliminal message in a recent ad. In the KFC ads about the new Snacker sandwich there is a one dollar bill embedded in the lettuce of the sandwich. Here, instead of showing you a picture like I usually do, I think I will give you the link to the commercial on youtube that shows the dollar bill in the lettuce.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MunPARnI0dE

So let's talk about why KFC would so blatantly put a dollar bill in the lettuce of the Snacker. Now according to a blog on the Chicago Tribune website, KFC actually put the dollar bill there for one of their recent marketing campaigns. They said that the first 1,000 customers to find the secret image in their commercial would get one dollar coupon for one of the Snackers. Now, although KFC did this little scheme as part of a marketing campaign, it doesn't necessarily mean that it still cannot be considered a subliminal message.

KFC was smart with doing something like this. For one, KFC kept in mind those people who saw the commercial but didn't know about the contest. So in that way, the dollar bill sign in the lettuce is still considered a subliminal message because for those viewers who were not looking for the dollar bill, their subconscious more than likely still registered it. So now people can associate a dollar with a KFC Snacker even though they didn't see the hidden image. So if they do that, they are more likely to go to KFC to try a Snacker because they remember that it is only a dollar.

Now, another reason why I think that the dollar bill in the lettuce can still be considered a subliminal message is because if KFC didn't intend for it to be, then why didn't they pick another symbol for their little contest they had going on? By using a dollar bill, the symbol serves two purposes: to get people to find the dollar bill in the lettuce to boost sales, and also for people who weren't looking for the dollar bill, it serves as a subliminal message to get them to KFC to buy the Snacker for only a dollar.

Although many could argue that this publicity stunt that KFC pulled to introduce its Snacker is not subliminal advertising, some of the points that I have brought up in this blog suggest otherwise. KFC was very smart with the way that they went about it, and it was no coincidence that they chose a dollar bill to be the symbol that viewers were trying to find.

The next blog post that I post will also be my last one. I think that for that one, I am going to try and analyze an ad myself that is known to have a subliminal message in it. I am going to do that without looking at what the answers are, and then after I analyze it myself, I will look at some evidence about that ad and compare my answer to some other answers that I find.