Thursday, January 3, 2008

Subliminal Messages in Daria

Some years ago I had a class in Mass Media and began to wonder about the use of subliminal advertising in TV, movies, magazines, and so on. Corporate marketing people have been very clever about slipping subtle messages into seeming innocent pictures, and recently I began to wonder if this had ever been done with our favorite show, Daria.

At first I just laughed the idea off, but after a while I began to investigate whether certain scenes were carefully altered to offer the viewer more than was expected, such as that famous Jessica Rabbit scene about which I am not going to say more, or various rumors about suggestive scenes in Disney's Aladdin. Could this have happened with Daria as well?

Take "I Loathe a Parade," a shot from which is shown here. Is there something about Daria's posture or look that has a certain prurient or risqué quality to it? Because for some reason I feel really hot and bothered looking at this shot, and I can't figure out why. I suspect there has been foul play here courtesy of the Daria animators, having included some subliminal obscenity to upset the audience, but the buried imagery or words are not evident to me. Further investigation is called for, and I shall report on my findings as they become clear. Stay tuned.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

. . . I thought I had something to say . . . but I do not . . . .

Anonymous said...

*Slaps TAG with an extra-large Northern Pike*

The Angst Guy said...

I have discovered more subliminal messages in Daria episodes! The whole world must know before it is too late! Stay tuned!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I was wondering if maybe you could share some of the subliminal messages! :)

I'm watching Daria right now and it seems okay, but then again I never actually see the messages :I