Subliminal Advertising

Subliminal persuasion refers to the use of hidden or otherwise imperceptible or masked stimuli to manipulate viewers or listeners to behave in ways they otherwise would not. The term "subliminal" is derived from the construct of a limen of conscicousness, a threshold or line separating conscious from unconscious. The concept dates back to literal beginning of psycology as an empirical science separate from philosophy in the seminal writings of Johan Friedrich Herbart.