RE: virus: MEME UPDATE #7: Subliminal Meming

Richard Brodie (RBrodie@brodietech.com)
Fri, 16 May 1997 15:56:44 -0700


Nate, and Nate's friend, wrote:

>I read this paranoid nutcase's book SUBLIMINAL SEDUCTION back in the
>late
>70's. This deluded, myopic retard needs to be forced to write, 10,000
>times...

So we see the anger that comes when people's Level-2 world views are
challenged. Your friend sounds like someone has just taken the name of
his God in vain!

>Yes, yes...naughty, naughty big business is, once again, preying on the
>
>poor,
>witless public.

Am I to understand that you believe this is NOT the case? Have you ever
worked in marketing? Do you know what "FUD" means?

> The "vulnerable nature of their minds" is clearly pointed
>out by
>this being Key's fourth repackaging of tired and shopworn premise. Of
>course, I
>DO think that there SHOULD be genitalia, nude bodies, depictions of sex
>
>acts,
>et cetera in ads. They just shouldn't be obscured as reflections in ice
>
>cubes,
>images in pouring beverages, or other obfuscations. They should just be
>
>there...
>clear and unmistakable. Tony the Tiger would have just cause to shoot,
>"Theeeeeey're GREAT".

The trick to subliminal meming is to get past people's defenses.
>
>Brodie points out that our reptilian brains really have just three
>hooks
>... FOOD, SEX, DANGER.

Not JUST three, but those are the big three. There are important other
ones: authority, status, trust, and so on.

>1. Do you think "Hidden Persuaders" are memes ... or just hooks for
>infection. I think of them as the protein shells that get the cell to
>
>accept the viral DNA...

Memes are in your mind. Hidden persuaders are a technique.

>3. Most people are not going to care about memetics one way or the
>other.

We'll change that! Keep spreading the meme!

Richard Brodie RBrodie@brodietech.com +1.425.688.8600
CEO, Brodie Technology Group, Inc., Bellevue, WA, USA
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie
Do you know what a "meme" is?
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
>