The Clam-Plate Orgy: And Other Subliminal Techniques for Manipulating Your Behavior [Paperback]

Wilson Bryan Key (Author)

Book Description

Series: Signet | Publication Date: April 1, 1981

Paperback

Product Details

• Paperback: 209 pages
• Publisher: Signet (April 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451153766
• ISBN-13: 978-0451153760
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,313,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fundamentally flawed, November 7, 2009

By 

Datan0de "Tech Freak" (Tampa, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Clam-Plate Orgy: And Other Subliminal Techniques for Manipulating Your Behavior (Paperback)

While it earned him some financial success and notoriety (I believe that this book was featured on 60 Minutes), from the perspective of educating the public this book is a pseudoscience disaster. Rather than investigating the existence of subliminal messages, Key clearly started with the conclusion that they're real & ubiquitous and then set about validating his conclusion, and in so doing created a whole new flavor of ignorance that was quite widespread in the `80's and persists today.

While it's true that images *have*, in fact, been surreptitiously and deliberately incorporated into advertising materials from time to time (the penis on the "Little Mermaid" poster added by a disgruntled Disney artist being a famous and verified example), such things are extremely rare and generally done more as an expression of the graphic artist's sense of humor than any dark, manipulative "psychological warfare" campaign on the part of the advertisers. However, in Key's world there are no coincidences and he clearly never heard of pareidolia, the brain's ability to find patterns and meaning where none actually exist. In fact, "pareidolia" is a one-word refutation of this entire book, along with a host of similar nonsense (like backward masking lyrics on record albums) that had people up in arms in the years following "Clam-Plate Orgy"'s release.

I would recommend this book only as a historical artifact of pseudoscience. Skeptics might get a laugh out of it, but they'll be more likely to find it frustrating.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More Subliminal Baloney, October 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Clam-Plate Orgy: And Other Subliminal Techniques for Manipulating Your Behavior (Paperback)

This book is just another example of Key's warped mind, looking for images of donkeys copulating in a picture of a clam-plate which appeared on a Howard Johnson's menu! Sure, every once in a while you can see things in ads, and sometimes they may have been placed there intentionally, but there is no evidence whatsoever that these subliminals have any effect on behavior. If Key had a doctorate in psychology rather than in journalism (or whatever) he would not write such malarkey. well, maybe he would since this has certainly been lucrative for him.

If you want to find out the truth about subliminal stimuli, read "In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance"which was written by the National Research Council (National Academy Press). Now, have you found the hidden message in this review? If not, I'll be blunt: DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Soap Opera of Subliminal, January 19, 1998

By 

News Nut (Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Clam-Plate Orgy: And Other Subliminal Techniques for Manipulating Your Behavior (Paperback)

This book is the most unique of all of Key's books. It follows Key around the world as he follows the beginning of his study into subliminals messages, and his up-hill battle into proving their exsistence. From US to Canada to Vietnam, this book is Key's best work. Highly recommended. Also has several pictorial examples of subliminal messages.