Project: The Dangers of Subconscious Advertising

Role: Student

Study on the effects of subconscious advertising. As part of a class on graphic systems, we were given a list of questions regarding the future of society and asked to create two visual representations. I chose the question: “What is consciousness?” with the intention of exploring ethic principles in advertising. As our society is becoming increasingly digitalized, the definition of advertisements is rapidly shifting. Oftentimes, marketers are searching for ways to advertise their products without consumers knowing as many people become distrustful of traditional advertising methods. For my project, I challenged myself to see if I could advertise my project to my class before critique without anyone realizing. I create a webpage optimized for mobile viewing that walks viewers through the idea of subconscious advertising and warns them about the dangers of being unable to recognize an advertisement when they see one. Then I place a QR code, with a link to this page, around the art school in the week before our critique. During critique, my classmates were able to scan the same QR code embedded in my poster which led them to the same webpage which they had previously seen, linking the two aspects together.