Wilson Bryan Key Explained

Wilson Bryan Key
Subject:	Media theory, propaganda
Alma Mater:	University of Denver
Birth Date:	January 31, 1925
Death Date:	October 8, 2008

Wilson Bryan Key (January 31, 1925 – October 8, 2008) was the author of several books about subliminal messages and subliminal advertising.

Career

Key obtained his doctorate in communications from the University of Denver and taught journalism for a short period of time at the University of Western Ontario. He was a colleague and friend of Marshall McLuhan.

A US court case in 1990 accused the English Heavy Metal Band Judas Priest of causing suicide through subliminal messaging. Key advised the plaintiffs lawyer to hire Bill Nickloff, an audio engineer, to find the subliminal messaging.^[1] The judge found that the defendant was not responsible for the deaths.^[2]

Death

Key died following complications resulting from surgery. He is interred at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, Nevada.

Criticism

His results and conclusions have been challenged, in books including the following:

• Book: Boese, Alex . 2006 . Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and Other B.S. . . 0156030837 . registration .
• Moore . Timothy E. . Spring 1992 . Subliminal Perception: Facts and Fallacies . Skeptical Inquirer . 16 . 3 . 273–281 . Reprinted in Encounters with the Paranormal: Science, Knowledge, and Belief, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, 1998, 253–263.
• Pratkanis . Anthony R. . Spring 1992 . Myths of Subliminal Persuasion: The Cargo-cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion . Skeptical Inquirer . 16 . 3 . 260–272 . Reprinted in Encounters with the Paranormal: Science, Knowledge, and Belief, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, 1998, 240–252.

Bibliography

• Subliminal Seduction: Are You Being Sexually Aroused By This Picture? a.k.a. Ad Media's Manipulation of a Not So Innocent America (1974). Introduction by Marshall McLuhan. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: .
• Media Sexploitation (1976). Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• The Clam-Plate Orgy: And Other Subliminal Techniques for Manipulating Your Behavior (1980). Signet.
  • reissued as Subliminal Ad-Ventures in Erotic Art (1992). Branden Books.
• The Age of Manipulation: The Con in Confidence, The Sin in Sincere (1989). H. Holt.

See also

• Programming the Nation?

Further reading

• The Secret Sales Pitch: An Overview of Subliminal Advertising (2004), by August Bullock. Norwich Publishers. .

External links

• The Straight Dope: "Are subliminal messages secretly embedded in advertisements?" (1987)
• Wilson Bryan Key's words? Or Joan Peyser's?
• Interview with Wilson Bryan Key. Source Material for Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control (by phone, March 27, 2005)

Notes and References

1. News: Solotaroff . Ivan . The Stacks: The Judas Priest Teen Suicide Trial . The Daily Beast . June 28, 2014 . 14 November 2018.
2. Web site: Grow . Korey . Judas Priest's Subliminal Message Trial: Rob Halford Looks Back . RollingStone.com .. August 24, 2015 . 14 November 2018.