Digital Journal — Subliminal advertising is alive and well…on Iron Chef America? A viewer noticed a McDonald’s TV spot as a quick flashing frame in a recent episode on the Food Network, raising the possibility of an ugly marketing technique.
A YouTube member by the name of Eli8Bit posted a 52-second clip of a recent Iron Chef America episode, slowing down the video on his DVR to show a frame of a McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” ad. When played at normal speed, a flash of red quickly interrupts the cooking competition, but it’s too fast to discern any writing or graphics.
“Sure enough, the Food Network is allowing McDonald’s to run subliminal advertisements in the middle of their programming!” Eli8Bit wrote on his YouTube post.
This member might be a bit too hasty in that judgment. After all, while this has all the making of subliminal advertising, perhaps the McCompany wants to entice the TiVo crowd to slow down their recordings to catch this sneakily-placed ad.
Yeah, right.
And here’s the funny part: a McDonald’s ad on Iron Chef America. The series promotes creative cooking and gourmet cuisine, which flies in the face of what fast-food restaurants stand for. What would attract budding chefs and ardent foodies to a low-brow slop-shop like McDonald’s?
Maybe it’s just me, but I hope this type of advertising doesn’t infect television, no matter the purpose. It’s annoying enough to see 80-foot billboards clog the city skyline, and to be forced to look at ads above men’s urinals. But when mega-corporations want to pollute our programming with insidious advertising, they’ve gone too far.
