I didn't see anything, but suddenly my arteries feel too hollow and empty.

I didn't see the "flash of red" but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. I thought that type of advertising was termed "subliminal" and is illegal?

You really didn't see it, LF? I thought it was amazingly long.

Does McDonald's advertise on the Food Network a lot? It's been a while since I watched it regularly.

Well, I saw it at the beginning when the guy was going through frame by frame but not when the thing was played at normal speed. Then again, I'm notorious for losing the ability to pay attention for any length of time with tv. University and TV have given me ADD.

Do you think it's real?

Just curious because no one has ever shown subliminal advertising to be effective, and it seems like it would be a waste of McDonald's money and possible breach of the Food Network's relationship with viewers.

I guess I'd just like to see this discussed and affirmed by someone I trust before I believe my eyes.

What is it? At this office I have no video capabilities.

That's what I was going to say, brina - I thought that it had been pretty widely concluded that, although we might be able to take in subliminal messages, they don't actually make us do much of anything. Skeptical Inquirer weighs in. Snopes has pages on this topic, but darn it, it's down right now.

On the other hand, I remember going to a talk in college where the author presented a number of common magazine ads with pretty clear images embedded in them - skulls, mostly, and sexual images. I'd be quick to dismiss that as 'seeing things,' except that I know how obsessively advertising artists labor over choosing their art, spending hours, for instance, choosing between two near-identical pictures of a show with slightly differing light reflection patterns on them. It's hard to imagine anything just coincidentally getting by. Still, even if the stuff is planted in there, does it make us buy anything? That seems debatable.

It's possible that it was a programming error, or that the video is faked. I haven't watched it, but there was a discussion over on Consumerist about it (I'm having problems accessing the site right now, or I'd like to it).

OmieWise - it's a sequence from an episode of the Iron Chef. There are a few different shots - judges drinking a green beverage, a pan on the fire - and in between the shots is a very quick flash of the McDonald's logo with the words 'I'm Lovin' It' below. The whole screen is red and the logo and words are yellow.

The video is someone's TiVo recording. He shows it first in frame-by-frame slow motion, so you can really see it; then he shows it at broadcast speed, in which it clicks by almost (but not quite) imperceptibly.

I agree with brina that it may not be real.

Was this lecture delivered by Wilson Bryan Key?

I don't remember, box. It would've been around 1991, if that helps.

I forget where else I saw discussion of this yesterday, but it was brought up in that thread that Food Network does this a lot. I can't say I've really noticed it, though.

I wouldn't put anything past the minds at the Food Network. It started out to be something wonderful, and at this point, it's one long commercial.

It probably was Wilson Bryan Key, box. I saw the same kind of talk with him in college, '91 sounds about right. Pretty fascinating stuff, although he does seem to quickly jump to the conclusion that it's a plague that's rotting our minds and wills.

I didn't really think about it being fake. It seems like a pretty easy thing to research.

I'm confident it's not fake. It's being discussed on several food message boards I read. Many people with DVRs have confirmed that it's there.

Also, just for the chance to be pedantic: The FCC doesn't have any formal rule on subliminal advertising. They've only stated that it's "contrary to the public interest." They also don't regulate advertising -- just broadcasters. Since this fell into a broadcast, they would conceivably have jurisdiction. But since they have no policy against (or definition of) "subliminal advertising," it's not something they would act on.

Admittedly, it's been a while since Ive watched, but I remember finding commercials on the Food Network just absolutely depressing. Some world-reknowned chef would be telling me how to combine fresh ingredients to prepare a delicious meal, and then it's the commercial break, and I'm looking at diet frozen yogurt, or Lunchables, or instant coffee, or a fast-food triple-bacon-burger-dog. It's like the Food Network's saying 'Yeah, here's what we really think of you.'