25th frame

The idea is that a person’s vision ^{[4] is} capable of distinguishing no more than 24 frames per second (although this border depends on the sharpness of the edges and the speed of objects on the screen). Therefore, a foreign frame, shown in less than 1/24 of a second, supposedly bypassing consciousness , immediately affects the subconscious . In fact, all the information entering the brain passes through the subconscious, and then the consciousness is connected to process the information that will be perceived as the most important. Thus, a huge amount of information is sifted out, which, by the duration of perception, can significantly exceed 1/25 of a second (for example, regular television advertising), and therefore, “hidden” advertising is already in any case less productive than regular.

Actually, the 25th frame is not hidden ^[4] : each frame is marked by the eye of the observer, but due to inertia of the vision merges with the like and is not distinguished by a person. However, thanks to the same effect, it is not difficult to notice the "extra" frame. You can even read a short word if it is typed in large print and familiar to the viewer - you can easily verify this yourself using a home computer and video editing program (in this case, the frame rate can be set significantly higher than the standard 25 frames / sec, but still far from “25 -th "frame will be striking).

As for the psychological effect, its presence back in 1958 was officially refuted by the American Psychological Association ^[1] .

James Vickery's experiences

In 1957, James Vickery announced that he had conducted the following experiment in New Jersey movie theaters. During the screening of the film “ Picnic ” at the moments of the frame change using an additional projector, the frames of hidden advertising were shown, such as “Coca-Cola”, “Eat Popcorn”. Films were shown throughout the summer of 1957. Coca-Cola sales at the cinema’s canteen, according to Vickery, increased by 17%, and popcorn by 50%. Then James Vickery patented this technology and opened a company for subliminal advertising in films.

The idea of ​​this deceptive technology was suggested to him by the newly invented tachistoscope , a device that gives short flashes of light up to 1/60000 of a second. Human consciousness does not record such short impulses, that is, they are below the threshold of perception. With their help, Kodak received unique photographs of a bullet in flight. Vickery came up with a different use for these impulses.

Media reports drew the attention of scientists, advertising agents, and government officials to Vickery’s methodology, which required another experiment. Vickery staged several demonstrations, which, however, did not lead to the desired result. The subjects did not feel much desire to fulfill the commands he suggested.

In 1958, the Advertising Research Foundation required Vickery to provide data and a description of an experiment conducted in 1957, but was refused.

Stuart Rogers , a student from New York, came to Fort Lee to write an essay on Vickery's research. He found that the cinema, which, according to Vickery, was an experiment, could not receive 50 thousand spectators in 6 weeks, in addition, the director of this cinema said that he heard for the first time about any experiments conducted in his institution.

Many scientists have tried to repeat the Vickery experiment. So, in 1958, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation advertising agency, during the popular Close-Up television program, broadcast inserts with the text “Call now!”, But the number of calls from this did not increase. When the viewers were informed about this and asked to guess the content of the message, then no letter contained the correct answer. But almost half of the subjects claimed that during the viewing they wanted to eat and drink.

And in 1962, Vickery himself admitted ^{[1] [2] [3]} that the 1957 experiment, along with all the sales statistics, was simply fabricated.

Late Studies

The international scientist-popular magazine New Scientist wrote that in some cases subliminal advertising works ^[5] . To do this, the message should be masked in the flow of jumping letters and numbers and should appear for a time an order of magnitude greater than 1/25 s (approximately 0.3-0.4 s). The subjects did not just observe a meaningless video sequence, but had to count the number of letters in flickering words.

A group of scientists from the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, led by Johan Carremans, conducted an experiment confirming the effectiveness of subliminal exposure under certain conditions. The results were published in the journal Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. ^[6]

BBC also conducted an experiment to test this phenomenon. Experts confirmed that the differences between the control group and the group receiving the “subliminal advertising” were not statistically significant. ^[7]

Vickery’s experiment generated many myths in the media and caused a wave of indignation in society. In 1957, Norman Cazinis published an article on The Spotted Subconscious in Saturday Review , which concluded that frame 25 can be used not only in popcorn advertising, but also in propaganda ^[8] .

In the 1990s, with a delay of almost 40 years, the efforts of the "yellow press" in Russia increased interest in the 25th cadre. Newspapers publish articles on “zombie the population”, advertising video tapes for learning English, treating various diseases (for example, alcoholism ) using the 25th frame. Newspaper articles have been reprinted so many times that few have doubts about their truth ^[1] . Moreover, relevant laws were even passed. At the same time, with the development and popularization of smartphones, digital cameras and action cameras, it was easy to find in their settings that the minimum, however, in most cases the maximum, shooting speed is not 24, but 30 frames per second . The speed of medium and high-end action cameras, such as GoPro or Sony, significantly exceeds this indicator and reaches 120 or more frames per second.

In Russian law, the use of the 25th frame, as well as other methods of hidden advertising, is prohibited. Paragraph 9 of Art. 5 (“Hidden Advertising”) of the Federal Law “On Advertising” No. 38-ФЗ dated 03.13.2006 (entered into force on July 1, 2006) reads:

The use of radio advertising, television, video, audio and film products or other products and the distribution of hidden advertising, that is, advertising that has an unconscious effect by advertising consumers on their consciousness, including such effects through the use of special video inserts, are not allowed (double sound recording) and in other ways.

Specialists of the All-Russian Research Institute of TV and Radio (VNIITR) have developed a device that detects, among other things, “extraneous and unauthorized information” in a television signal ^[9] . With the help of this device, in particular, a violation of the requirements of the Federal Law “On Advertising” was discovered by the Yekaterinburg television company ATN ^{[10] [11]} .

The Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting” ^[12] prohibits “the use of hidden inserts in programs and broadcasts on television and radio that act on the human subconscious and / or have a harmful effect on their state of health”.

Accusations of using the 25th frame

• During the parliamentary elections in Ukraine in 2006, the head of the Party of Regions election campaign, Yevgeny Kushnaryov, announced the use of the so-called “25th frame” in the Our Ukraine block in the campaign film “Zagroza. The truth is terrible ”, demonstrated on March 10 on the First National Channel . According to him, the image of the skull appears five times in three frames throughout the tape. The Our Ukraine block, in turn, denied the accusations through its press service, calling the skull a special effect, reproaching the Party of Regions for inflating pseudo-sensations to distract attention from the incriminating facts presented in the film ^[13] . In slow motion, it can be seen that the image of the skull manifested itself as a flash when changing scenes and occupied more than one frame in each case, that is, it was not the 25th frame as such.
• After the incident with epileptic seizures in Japanese children, the popular anime series Pokémon was accused of using the 25th frame. ^[14]

• The plot of the movie “ Fight Club ” mentions the use of 25 frames by Tyler Durden : while working in the cinema, he inserted a frame with the image of the penis into the films, which caused subconscious embarrassment in the audience, who did not notice vulgarity at the level of consciousness; also a frame with the image of the male genital organ is inserted at the end of the film. At the beginning of the film there are inserts of images of Tyler Durden himself before his meeting with the main character.
• In one episode of the television series “ Colombo, ” the killer uses frame 25 to force the victim to be in the place where the offender was waiting for her. Later, Lieutenant Colombo, familiarizing himself with this technology, used it to influence the suspect: the lieutenant knew only the area of ​​the cache with the crime instrument (caliber changer), but did not know the specific location, and therefore inserted 25 frames in the film with the image of the area of ​​the alleged cache. When watching this film, the killer became nervous for an unknown reason, left the cinema hall and checked the cache near which the police were waiting for him.
• In the Babylon 5 series, the telepathic organization Psi Corps uses 25 frame technology to increase the confidence of advertising viewers on it. In the 15th episode 2 episode, “And now - a word” (“ And now for a word ”), made in the form of a news broadcast, there are advertising inserts. In the Psi Corps ad, the words “The Psi Corps is your friend. Trust the Corps ”(Psi Corps is your friend. Trust the Corps). During the installation of the series, the duration of these frames was deliberately increased 2.5 times to comply with American legal acts in the field of television ^[15] , so the text can be read without even waiting for its appearance. However, in France, in accordance with the law, these frames were generally cut from broadcast ^[16] .

• Product Placement

• Vinogradova E.P. , Volovikova M.L. , Kanishchev K.A. , Kupriyanov A.S. , Kovaltsov G.A. , Tikhonova S.V. , Chubur A.A. A quick reference to the concepts of pseudoscience // Pseudoscience in modern world: media sphere, higher education, school: Collection of materials of the International Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to the memory of Academician E.P. Kruglyakov, held at St. Petersburg State University June 21-22, 2013 / [editor: S. V. Tikhonova ( ed.) and others]. - SPb. : VVM Publishing House, 2013 .-- 291 p. - 100 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9651-0742-1 . Archived August 26, 2014.

• Repev A.P. Myth about the 25th frame
• Subliminal advertising may work after all An article in New Scientist alleging that in some cases subliminal messages work.
• The 25th frame still affects the subconscious mind a similar article in Russian.
• Subconscious bomb
• Artemy Lebedev . Dreamskamtru