Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA19170 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 2 Apr 2001 15:45:36 +0100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: taboos X-Remote_Addr: 195.195.65.222 Message-Id: <E14k5Wm-0006gU-00@gaea.uk.clara.net> From: Douglas Brooker <dbrooker@clara.co.uk> Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2001 15:41:56 +0100 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Wade's right. It's an urban myth in the sense that even the best
known
> "examples", like the frames of coca-cola in films making people buy
more
> coke, are now highly suspect and weren't based on rigourous tests.
>
Is it relevant whether subliminal advertising is effective or not?
If its an urban myth it's because it is widely believed despite - and
maybe because of - evidence to the contrary.
Some societies, more than others, have difficulty understanding that
facts are prescriptive. Consider the different data right and left
wingers (if there are any) in the US use to support their positions on
carbon emissions. Facts are a commodity, bought and sold, and made to
order. It is not a contradiction to say facts can be mythic.
ALso, there are different senses of the term myth and some of them are
only conveyed effectively in the spoken word. Interesting that some
might write 'myth' meaning it in a pejorative sense, while others read
it in its more neutral anthropological sense. Maybe I haven't caught
on to that yet.
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