In the modern movie industry, movie theaters across the nation earn billions of dollars solely from ticket sales. When you factor in the amount of funds spent on butter-soaked popcorn, soda, and handfuls of tooth-rotting candy, theater owners should be happy enough with the money they rake in. But even that said, no billionaire CEO will turn down an opportunity to make even more money. In the introduction to “The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion,” written by Anthony R. Pratkanis, he summarizes the infamous subliminal persuasion experiment conducted by James Vicary in 1957. Vicary, a market researcher, conducted an investigation involving popcorn, Coca Cola products and the big screen. During screenings of the 1955 film Picnic, Vicary rigged the movie projector to repeatedly flash the phrases "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coke" throughout the film so rapidly that it went unnoticed for quite a while. After running this experiment for six weeks, Vicary said sales of Coca-Cola products increased by 18.1 percent and popcorn sales by 57.8 percent. The media of the time spread the story like wildfire, and scientists rushed to replicate the procedure. America between the years of 1953 and 1962 was flooded with talk of Korean War brainwashing and communist mind control. Films from this period such as The Manchurian Candidate, which told the fictional story of a military platoon being brainwashed by the Soviet KGB, aided the fear surrounding these ideas and gave Americans more reason to believe that the Vicary's experiment was legitimate. In 1962, Vicary admitted in an interview with Advertising Age magazine that the original study he conducted was a hoax created with the intention of ...... middle of paper ......rch presented does not demonstrate that subliminal stimuli, even if perceived, could precipitate behavior of this magnitude." This case and its verdict have had a great impact on theories about subliminal messaging. The fascination surrounding the study of subliminal persuasion falls under the classification of “cargo cult science,” a term coined by physicist Richard Feynman, who describes a study that “has all the trappings of science” but lacks the sense of skepticism. Since there are no specific aspects of subliminal compliance acquisition that appear to be effective with small "tweaks", the entire pseudo-science has been demystified. Works Cited Pratkins, A. (n.d.). The cargo-cult science of subliminal persuasion. - Skeptical commission of inquiry. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from