It is a fine summer day and the new James Bond movie that Jim has been waiting for all year has been released at his local theater. Jim and his friends have been enjoying movies at this particular theater for the past five years but today the theater has decided to implement a new and controversial technique. This was a good break for Jim because he was having a very stressful day at work. Jim passed up popcorn and candy at the theater's concession stand because of the outrageous prices. Jim watches the previews without a second thought and realizes that he feels extremely relaxed. About five minutes into the movie, Jim realizes how hungry he is and decides to pay the $5.99 for popcorn and $4.99 for a snickers bar. Without Jim's knowledge, he has just been a subject in a new psychological persuasive technique and that his feelings and actions were manipulated. The fact that Jim suddenly got the urge to have popcorn and candy was not a random occurrence. During the previews, the theater distorted pictures of popcorn and candy and placed them into their previews along with the phrases "YOU ARE HUNGRY" and "YOU WANT CANDY AND POPCORN". These frames were shown so that Jim could not consciously see the distorted messages and pictures. However, Jim's subconscious picked up on the images and triggered his sensation of hunger. The theater also released the scent of popcorn throughout the room in an extremely small dose to stimulate Jim subconsciously. In addition, Jim recollects being extremely stressed out upon entering the theaters, however within the first 15 minutes, he is at ease. The commercials during the previews contained hidden images of relaxing scenes. Once again, these signals were only picked up by Jim's subconscious senses.
Sudden impulses, such as the ones described above, are not coincidences; the sudden urges felt by consumers are often times linked to subliminal messages that are present in much of the media we are exposed to everyday.
