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Art:
Regarding the ad you posted, I don't really care about the intentionality of the advertisers either. I wouldn't be surprised if advertisers manipulate images in such ways. I would be surprised if such subtle stimuli impacted consumer behavior. I've seen studies suggesting that priming people with images just below the level of conscious perception (very briefly) can affect people's conscious judgments of the valence (positive or negative) of following ambiguous image (Murphy & Zajonc, 1993). Such effects don't typically last much longer than the experimental session. I haven't seen convincing research that suggests that you can actually affect consumer behavior with such types of information. (I haven't read through this entire thread in a long time. So, someone might have cited something. I would welcome such references). The fact that the images are pored over by people who get paid a lot of money to influence consumer behavior doesn't convince me.
That said, I don't doubt the impact of mass media on our psychologies. For example, Kenrick & Gutierres (1980) demonstrated empirically that viewing images of attractive women affected men's judgments of their commitment to their long-term mates. Other studies have found that looking at pictures of attractive women changed men's reported career interests - biasing them toward higher earning careers (I don't recall the reference off the top of my head). Other studies I'm familiar with (and I'm sure others are as well) have suggested that unrealistic body images presented in the media affect women's perceptions of their own attractiveness. If brief exposure to such images has effects, what kind of effects can we expect from constant exposure throughout our daily lives? So, I do agree that mass media can have rather insidious effects on our lives. Generally, I also think that media education by parents might help to inoculate kids against some of the effects.
A little off topic, but regarding your interest in what occurs in our lives that can be termed "conscious," "unconscious," or "subconscious" activity. Have you ever read The Illusion of Conscious Will by Dan Wegner. He has a done a lot of interesting research on the effects of thought suppression - making a decision to avoid thinking about something actually increases the frequency that people think about the suppressed topic. His book covers conscious will more generally. I especially like the research he cites that suggests that when you reach for a can of soda on a table the areas of the brain responsible for controlling the motor movements involved are activated before the areas of the brain responsible for making the conscious decision to grab the soda. How that relates to the coke ad, I'm not sure.
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