James Vicary
James McDonald Vicary ( born April 30, 1915 in Detroit, † November 7, 1977 ) was an American market researcher in 1957 with an experiment on the effectiveness of subliminal advertising (English subliminal advertising) known worldwide.
Life
Vicary studied at the University of Michigan, where he made his Artium 1940 Baccalaureatus 's degree (AB). Even at the university, he headed the Bureau of Student Opinion.
He then worked for various companies, so for the JL Hudson department store chain, the publisher Crowell - Collier, the market research firm Benson and Benson in Princeton and the advertising agency Benton and Bowles in New York. Finally, he founded the James M. Vicary Company own advertising and market research firm with which was successfully worked for private and public clients. In addition, he published from the 1940s in some prestigious journals, including Harvard Business Review, the appearing at Oxford University Public Opinion Quarterly and Printer's Ink He has published, inter alia, on topics like " word associations " and the use of scientific theories and knowledge in advertising and market research, for example, the Gestalt theory. He was also a member of numerous professional organizations, the American Psychological Association, American Sociological Society, American Statistical Association, Society for Applied Anthropology and the American Marketing Association. In the American Association for Public Opinion Research, he was Chairman of the Working Group on " projection technique " ( "Progress in Projective Techniques ").
Vicarys experiment
1957 Vicary claimed that he had detected in one experiment with moviegoers that repeated short and thus imperceptible impressions of advertising messages could affect the audience. After insertion of the message "Eat Popcorn, Drink Coke " is the Coke sales by 18%, which was increased from popcorn to about 58 %. His Eat Popcorn drinking -Cola study went around the world and led to some states questioned the use of subliminal advertising punishable. In Germany, the application is a " misdemeanor ". Even the CIA was concerned with the effectiveness of the method. However, Vicary was unable to provide documentation for the trial. Repetitions of the experiment in a modified form were carried out in the late 1950s and has since repeated several times without being able to verify the results described by Vicary.
In an interview published in 1962, Vicary finally admitted that there had never existed the experiment. The sole purpose was to attract new customers to be just founded, yet weak sales marketing company. The distribution of the alleged results of the study in the media made sure that on the issue is widespread today as a modern myth and a significant proportion of the U.S. population still believes in the effectiveness of subliminal advertising.
More life
The widespread opinion, the popcorn drinking -Cola study Vicary had brought great benefits, can not be substantiated. On the contrary: The fiasco of the fake study seems to have seriously harmed Vicary professionally. There were rumors that advertising agencies Vicary would have paid immediately after the announcement of his alleged experiment consulting fees of more than $ 4.5 million. But he founded specially for the marketing of the idea company Subliminal Projection Company was already in June 1958 in bankruptcy. And from the late 1950s are no publications in professional journals Vicarys longer detectable.
An estate inventory Vicarys is kept in the archives of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut. Vicarys date of death is not stated there. However, the records end with the year 1967.