Cocks in the Coke

by

Krystal Mesmer

&

Goddess Marquesa

I had the good fortune to meet an interesting sub the other day. A genuine “Mad Man” whose advertising career dates back to when the hit TV show takes place.

I was telling him of our travails. The problems we have with credit card processors. And how we are being censored right out of our rights to use the words, “hypnosis,” “mind control” and “subliminal.”

At that, he gave me a piece of history that I’d like to share with you. Much of the problem, he said, probably has its roots in the Korean War.

It was the Red Chinese who first engaged in “mind control” and “brainwashing” to persuade a few American POWs to defect, he explained. There were never that many defectors, but the terms stuck, scaring the shit out of Americans. That was in the early ’50s, and the seeds of nefarious “mind control” methods had been planted.

A little later, somebody conducted some now discredited “experiments” in which movie audiences were flashed “subliminal” commercials messages such as “Buy Popcorn;” these were said to increase sales (which turned out to be bullshit).

But my Mad Man said the damage was done, and “subliminal” also became a dirty word, and which invited scrutiny by the federal government. Anything that smacked of “subliminal” persuasion was thereafter deemed illegal and subject to a priori censorship–an unusual measure in this country.

Things got even worse when Ernest Dichter, a crackpot psychologist who ran something called “The Institute for Motivational Research” on behalf of the McCann-Erickson ad agency as it sought new ways to sell more Coca-Cola. Dichter claimed that all successful advertising contained “subliminal” elements, and if you looked carefully enough, you could see peckers and pussies hidden in photography and art work.

This really sent the industry and the FTC off the deep end, my Mad Man said. The feds went looking for cocks in the Coke; advertisers promised never to put them there. The whole thing was stupid and unfounded, but, blessed by an academic like Dichter, the notion that there are genitalia hiding in the Jello, though greatly diminished, remains in force today.

Imagine that?  I’ll bet you all here on Inraptured can indeed imagine that!  🙂