Effect of archetypal embeds on feelings: An indirect route to affecting attitudes?

Advertising practitioners have long been the target of charges of unethical conduct stemming from their supposed use of subliminal techniques, though very few studies have shown any value of subliminal embeds in an advertisin g setting. One way advertising professionals can contend with such charges is to understand as much as possible about subliminal persuasion, including the situations, if any, in which it occurs. Many studies of subliminal per suasion, have investigated the effect of subliminal stimuli on cognitive co nstructs. The authors add to that work by focusing on affect, specifically three types of feelings identified as important to advertising effectivenes s: warm, upbeat, and negative feelings. They found empirical support for th e hypothesis that unconscious processing of subliminal embeds has significa nt effects on the upbeat and negative feelings that subjects report in resp onse to ads. Those feelings in turn had a significant influence on ad and b rand attitudes, which suggests that subliminal embeds may have a small, but indirect effect on attitudes.