Food Network: Subliminal or Screw Up?
We couldn’t believe this was for real, but some eagle-eyed blogger caught a one-second McDonald’s graphic during an Iron Chef America and suggested Food Network was going for subliminal advertising. Click here to view the video.
Food says it was a “slight technical problem,” with the episode. According to the network, a small McDonald’s logo, normally inserted on a stats chart as a paid sponsorship by the fast food chain, was inadvertently inserted to run full-screen. The network says the graphic appears as a mere red flash if viewed in real time and is only apparent as the Mickey D’s logo if viewed in slo-mo.
Still, it’s not totally implausible, in an age of rampant DVRing, that networks will soon resort to short subliminal ads to meet advertiser demands. Clear Channel has already begun running one-second radio ads called “Blinks.” The client whose jingle they used to demo the product? McDonalds.
By Anne Becker
just me commented:
It''''''''s a bit suspect. Of course "it was an accident" would be their best response. But I thought they made subliminal sub 1 second advertising illegal in the 70''''''''s or 80''''''''s?
I''''''''m surprised there were only two other links on a google news search for this query, your site and another local site in Alabama who no longer has the article posted.
mister b commented:
First of all, this is a flash frame, not a second. Thirty frames makes up one second. I'm a video editor and I know for a fact that this is a technical error that somehow slipped past the editor, the producer, and the usual quality check that happens at the station when a tape is submitted. It's rare that this happens, but it DOES happen. No doubt all this fuss over "subliminal advertising" (a theory disproved many years ago, by the way) has done is to have someone fired from Food Network...nice work!
mister b commented:
First of all, this is a flash frame, not a second. Thirty frames makes up one second. I''m a video editor and I know for a fact that this is a technical error that somehow slipped past the editor, the producer, and the usual quality check that happens at the station when a tape is submitted. It''s rare that this happens, but it DOES happen. No doubt all this fuss over "subliminal advertising" (a theory disproved many years ago, by the way) has done is to have someone fired from Food Network...nice work!
mediaRat commented:
I just watched an hour of programming on NBC, Scrubs and 30Roc 8pm-9pm 1/25/07, where I saw on four separate occasions the NBC logo pop up for one frame. Whats the deal? Thought this was illegle?? Anyhow, thanks for sharing the clip. If we don't keep an eye out they'll push as far as they can go.