Subliminal Messages in Logos

Ahhh, one of my favorite topics: Subliminals! I am a psychology in advertising nut case… I try to integrate as much psychology as I possibly can into everything I design, from logos to high-end websites, because as a designer/marketer, I not only need my designs to look good, but also sell… So if I can figure out a way to get into somebody’s head, even if they aren’t fully aware of it, I damn sure will.

Now subliminal messages have been a topic of much debate in the advertising world, and I would like to state that this post is merely for educational purposes, as some may consider subliminals to be deceptive or misleading, as stated in the FTC.gov website: Notice- “It would be deceptive for marketers to embed ads with so-called subliminal messages that could affect consumer behavior. However, most consumer behavior experts have concluded that such methods aren’t effective.” In any case, I find subliminals to be very interesting, and even if “Most consumer behavior experts have concluded that such methods aren’t effective”, I believe they have the ability to send a strong message to consumers if done correctly.

In the above embeded video, Jay Leno from NBC’s Tonight Show gives a comical depiction of Subliminal Messages hidden within logos. I must say that even tho his creative team may be lacking some design skills and or actual subliminal messages, they touched on a topic that we as designers should aim for while creating brandable logos.

ACTUAL Subliminal Logo Examples:

Did you spot all the hidden messages? Here is a breakdown for you:

#1. Baskin Robins – This logo has a pretty obvious message as you probably seen seen Jay Leno use as an example. The old logo of Baskin Robbins had the number 31 with an arc above it. The new logo took this idea to the next level. The pink parts of the BR still form the number 31, a reference to the 31 flavors.

#2. FedEx – This Logo isn’t quite as obvious, and you may not even see it… Look at the white space between the letters E and X… It is an arrow that represents speed and precision, two major selling points of this company.

#3. Amazon – I really like this logo as it doesn’t seem to hide much at first sight, but it gives you a little insight in the philosophy behind the brand. First of all, the yellow swoosh looks like a smile: Amazon.com want to have the best customer satisfaction. The swoosh also connects the letters a and z, meaning that this store has everything from a to z.

#4. Milwaukee Brewers – The Milwaukee Brewers is a professional baseball team from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (well, duh…). Their logo is actually made up of the letters M (on top) and B (below the m). These two letters also form a baseball glove, which is the only thing most people recognize consciously.

#5. Big Ten – Another sports related logo, Big Ten is an academic union which was founded in the year 1896. Until 1990, this union consisted of 10 universities, but in June 1990 Pennsylvania State University was added. They didn’t want to change their name, so they added the number 11 to the logo… clever.

#6. Sun Microsystems – The Sun Microsystems logo is one of the most famous ambigrams in the world. You can actually read the brand name (sun) in every direction; both horizontally and vertically.

#7. Sony Vaio – Sony Vaio is a well known brand of laptops, but did you know that the name Vaio logo also had a hidden meaning? Well, the first two letters represent the basic analogue signal. The last two letters look like a 1 and 0, representing the digital signal. (It’s for all the geeks.)

#8. NBC – The NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is one of the biggest American television networks. I think most of you have already seen the peacock in this logo. The peacock has 6 different tail feathers, referring to the six divisions at the time that this logo was created. The peacock’s head is flipped to the right to suggest it was looking forward, not back.

#9. Toblerone Chocolates – Toblerone is a chocolate-company from Bern, Switzerland. Bern is sometimes called ‘The City Of Bears’. They have incorporated this idea in the Toblerone logo, because if you look closely, you’ll see the silhouette of a bear hidden in the white space.

#10. Northwest Airlines – This simple looking logo actually carries a whole lot of information. First of all you can see the letters N and W, the first two letters of the brand name. But what most people don’t see is the compass that points to the Northwest, another reference to the brand name.

So as you can see, all those big bad corporate companies your hippie friends warned you about actually did have a hidden agenda! lol

The purpose of this post – Let these examples motivate all of you to do step it up on your next logo design… If you have as much passion in design as myself, I hope you found this a very interesting post, and you may consider reading another post I wrote titled: Subliminal Messages in Internet Marketing. Thanks again for reading and please feel free to leave your comments below!

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