Subliminal Messages: Truly A Psychological Battle
             Imagine a typical day. You wake up, run to class, hurry to another stressful day of work, waiting for the clock to reach that glorious hour, only to become engulfed in the congested traffic. The hum of the radio attempts to calm you, but only makes you more anxious with the messages of sales and blowouts. After such a hectic day, you open the door to your house, and lunge into the comfort of your couch, turning on the television to ease the stress of your day. As you sit there in a completely relaxed state, letting the flashing images of the screen enter you mind, you don't comprehend that you are perhaps being persuaded. Could it be that advertising companies actually try to infiltrate your mind to get you to buy things you may not want or even need? What is subliminal advertising, how does it work, and is it even legal? These are questions that are difficult to answer since subliminal messages are messages that essentially can't even be seen, felt, or heard.
             Subliminal messages are something that are difficult to grasp and understand since they enter our mind beneath our perception. In fact, the word subliminal comes from the joining of two Latin words: "sub" and "limen." The word "Sub" means "beneath" and "limen" means entrance. Therefore, subliminal advertising is an advertisement intended to enter our minds just below our level of conscious discernment, "under the line" of conscious perception (Haberstroh 1).
             Personally, I find it downright scary. I envision an evil man sitting inside the television beaming these nasty images into my brain. Perhaps that is a little crude, but it almost violates ones privacy, or freedom of decision-making. Would advertising companies actually try to go below people's perception to get them to purchase their product?
             The reason I first began to...