Swift Viewing tells the story of the super–soft sell, the phantom spot, and the psychic hucksters who promoted it. Since the late 1950s, the idea that hidden, imperceptible messages could influence mass behavior has been debated, feared, and ridiculed. The “subliminal thesis,” remains a familiar notion about how media might affect our thought and actions without our awareness. Charles R. Acland chronicles the enduring popularity of the dubious claims about subliminal influence, revealing their nineteenth-century origins and exposing their links to twentieth-century educational technology. His lively account shows how the idea of “hidden persuaders” became a form of vernacular media criticism, one reflecting anxiety about a rapidly expanding media environment. In this expansive history of popular concern about subliminal messages, Acland analyzes works of nonfiction, including Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders, Wilson Bryan Key’s Subliminal Seduction, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink; mind-control tropes in fictional works from George Orwell’s novel 1984 to the film The Matrix; the “Subliminal Man” skit on Saturday Night Live; allegations of the use subliminal ads in the 2000 presidential campaign; and contemporary worries about information overload.

Charles R. Acland is Associate Professor of Communications Studies at Concordia University, Montreal. He is the author of Youth, Murder, Spectacle: The Cultural Politics of “Youth in Crisis” and coeditor of Harold Innis in the New Century: Reflections and Refractions.