NeuroRelay

Derren Brown is a British mentalist and hypnotist that uses a variety of methods to achieve his illusions including traditional magic techniques, memory techniques, hypnosis, body language reading, cognitive psychology, cold reading and psychological, subliminal suggestion.

Here’s a video of him that illustrates how subliminal suggestion works:

The taxi ride for the two marketing guys was purposely planned so that they were inundated with as many subliminal messages or visual clues as possible to lead them to this. There is the picture of the bear taped by the door as they are getting into the taxi; then once the ride has started, they pass a big sign that says ‘London Zoo’. They see a large group of girls all wearing sweatshirts with zoo gates on them, then they pass a building that has the phrase “Where the best dead animals go” taped to a window. One wall has a chalkboard with angel wings and the words “Creature Heaven” drawn on it, they pass a store that has a big harp in the window, and when they’re walking into the building a man is walking out of the revolving door with a picture of drawn wings under his arm. So before they even got to the supposed ‘meeting’ or were told what the supposed product would be, they already had these images subconsciously floating around in their heads.

Advertisers do not just throw in one symbol in a video, movie or advertisement. Doing something one time will not stick, and they know that. They constantly layer all of their symbols on top of each other and repeatedly use them over and over again and we all subconsciously carry their symbols and images around in our heads.

Even when we are not conscious aware, our brains are processing stimuli we are exposed to and advertisers take advantage of this, as they shape our behavior.