Vivid: Subliminal Message?

Author	Post
Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 6:02PM I received the Vivid Virtual Blowjobs: Down The Hatch disk today. While watching it, there was a flash on the screen during the Taylor St.Claire scene. Wondering what it was, I went back and to the flash and frame advanced until I found the flash. They had a single frame at 6:48 into Taylor's scene that had "BUY VIVID" in bold white letters taking up most of the screen. Can they possibly think that this is a good idea? Didn't movie theaters get sued (successfully) a few years back for doing somethin like this to get people to buy popcorn & soda? Opinions? [Link]
PrinceO Member 82 Posts 4/01	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 6:11PM This type of thing is always a bad idea. It may work for a short while but when people find out about it they will remember it negatively for much longer than it is worth. [Link]
bono-ONE All-Star Member SAMCRO 8570 Posts 8/00	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 6:15PM I got the Virtual Blowjob disc from Vivid and it has Cassidey and some others girls but I don't recall seeing Taylor St. Claire in it, must be a different one but anyway that is a bad thing to do. [Link]
dumblonde Senior Member 2352 Posts 7/00	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 7:46PM Unbelievably bad idea, and indicative of their attitude toward the consumer, I would think. Did they think they would get away with this? They obviously don't lurk here, lol! I have to wonder too, just how effective those subliminal messages are.........DB [Link]
Endorphin Luminary 1185 Posts 3/00	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 8:03PM Subl imina l ad verti sing is probably an amoral thing to do. If it works, it works be caus e i t wa s deceptive. If there is n ot l egitimacy to the beleif that it is effectiv e, then why bother doin g it? "I took a look inside your bedroom door, you looked so good lying on your bed"--From Rock N Roll Ain't Noise Pollution by ACDC Endorphin's Lair FREE THE WEED [Link]

dumblonde Senior Member 2352 Posts 7/00	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 8:13PM Why do I have this overwhelming urge all of a sudden to jump Endorphin's bones? Hey, what's goin on here? ;) Does his text look a little funny, or is it just me? Edited by - dumblonde on Apr 21 2001 [Link]
Endorphin Luminary 1185 Posts 3/00	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 8:25PM Blondie, I am not sure, but it is very flatering to know that I am somehow able to have that effect on you . W ow ! I must a dmit this is especially flatterin g coming from you. I am t otally am azede d b y this revela tion. It's too bad we don't live closer together. "I took a look inside your bedroom door, you looked so good lying on your bed"--From Rock N Roll Ain't Noise Pollution by ACDC Endorphin's Lair FREE THE WEED Edited by - Endorphin on Apr 21 2001 Edited by - Endorphin on Apr 21 2001 [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 8:32PM I wonder if Vivid has been doing this for a while and Bill's just the first person to notice. I wonder if they mentioned these 'proprietary marketing techniques' in their S1 filing? [Link]
dumblonde Senior Member 2352 Posts 7/00	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 8:52PM You w ould thi nk reall y be cause of m any l awsuits ove r time, thes e l owha nded, subversive tricks don't work! [Link]
Endorphin Luminary 1185 Posts 3/00	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 9:05PM Blondie, I am feely this over whe lm ing urge to tend to your eve ry need. Do you need a massage? A foot r ub? How about some p eeled gra pes? Your wish is my comman d. Your t rue pleasure i s my he arts des ire. Edited by - Endorphin on Apr 21 2001 [Link]
sonic Deactivated User 1178 Posts 12/99	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 9:11PM Blondie and Endorphin sitting on a tree..k-i-s-s-i-n-g. Blondie and Endorphin sitting on a tree..k-i-s-s-i-n-g.. Blondie and OH SHUT UP SONIC. YOU MAKE ME SICK. Edited by - sonic on Apr 21 2001 [Link]
dumblonde Senior Member 2352 Posts 7/00	Posted - Apr 21 2001 : 9:39PM sorry, just havin a little fun. never know where you'll end up, like lukeford.com lol! Edited by - dumblonde on Apr 24 2001 [Link]
Janitor Retired Porno movies, sexy videos, xxx. Adult DVD Talk at your service. 6409 Posts 11/99	Posted - Apr 22 2001 : 11:47AM Bill - good find! can you get a screenshot of it? yet another excellent example of poorly done subliminal advertising. if they really wanted to succeed without offending they should have concealed the Buy Vivid within a frame of the movie - instead of making it it's own frame. Or why not just use vivid promo products as props - isn't that enough? just doesn't make sense considering the pause and step feature of almost every DVD player. [Link]
Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00	Posted - Apr 22 2001 : 2:51PM Steph, "BUY VIVID" IS within a frame of the movie. But it is big enough that there was clearly a flicker in the picture when it occurred. I don't have the ability to get a screenshot of it.However, if you, or anybody else, have the ability to get a screenshot, I would be happy to loan the disc out for this purpose. Just send me an e-mail and we can exchange addresses. Like I said in the original post, it is Virtual Blowjobs: Down The Hatch (the brand new Virtual Blowjobs disc, not the one that has been out for a while), and the frame is at 6:48 of the Taylor St.Claire scene. [Link]
Diesel Member 516 Posts 3/00	Posted - Apr 22 2001 : 5:04PM Obviously Vivid is doing this as a publicity stunt to generate some sort of controversial response. I have no idea how effective subliminal messages are in real advertising (I have read conflicting reports), but it's clear that Vivid wants to draw some press. Then maybe they will issue a statement explaining that it was a mistake, or that it was put there by some disgruntled employee, or that it was a joke, and promise that future Vivid releases will no longer have these messages... Very clever...in a marketing/publicity sort of way... Diesel [Link]

sonic Deactivated User 1178 Posts 12/99	Posted - Apr 22 2001 : 6:31PM "I HAVE COME HERE to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." -Roddy Piper -They Live! (Image/Universal) [Link]
Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00	Posted - Apr 22 2001 : 6:56PM quote: Then maybe they will issue a statement explaining that it was a mistake, or that it was put there by some disgruntled employee, or that it was a joke, and promise that future Vivid releases will no longer have these messages... Very clever...in a marketing/publicity sort of way... Diesel Click to expand Diesel, We're not talking about Coca-Cola putting out New Coke. How many people do you think would actually read a statement put out by Vivid? I think that the only people who would see something like this are the people who visit sites like ADT or read R.A.M.E or AVN. Many (if not most) of these people are already leery about buying Vivid titles because of things like editing of content for time, editing scenes to create artificial Multi Angles, and having a Multi Angle logo that can't be turned off (by the way, I have now seen a few Vivid titles that DO allow the viewer to turn off the multi angle indicator). I think that something like this can only make people have one more reason for avoiding Vivid titles. I don't necessarily believe that all publicity is good publicity. That may be the case when someone already has a good reputation, but when a reputation is not so good (as I believe that Vivid's is within the group of people that I previously described), then bad publicity just makes things worse. If you don't believe this, just ask O.J. Simpson how much he likes to see his name in the papers. If I missed sarcasm in your post, then I apologize. But I don't think I did. By the way, I have no idea whether this is the only time that this message appears on this disc. I only saw it in this one scene. However, this is the only scene that I have watched. When I get a chance I will try to watch the entire disc, and I will report back whether I find any more occurrences or not. [Link]
sonic Deactivated User 1178 Posts 12/99	Posted - Apr 22 2001 : 8:10PM The dudes/dudettes from Vivid, the ones resposible for the DVD releases, the ones who have authority on what the DVDs should have on them and what not.... ....man they give great head. Ooooohh yeah... [Link]
Diesel Member 516 Posts 3/00	Posted - Apr 22 2001 : 10:46PM Bill --- I wholeheartedly agree with you about Vivid's questionable products and business practices (specifically, releasing edited DVDs and loading up their discs with unwanted "extras"). My posting was, indeed, sarcastic in that I was expressing disbelief that Vivid would be so tacky or sink so low as to be placing subliminal messages on their discs. But I think that here, even "bad" publicity is good publicity in porn, because adult entertainment has a black eye to begin with. The less informed customer (the great unwashed masses of patrons who buy without the benefit of reviews or forums like Adult DVD Talk) would hardly care that subliminal messages are being placed on videos. Most porn product is so shoddy that a "Buy Vivid" statement would be no worse of a marketing tactic than those damn phone sex ads which are unskippable on Sin City discs. I still maintain its a publicity stunt that Vivid intended to be discovered, so as to draw more attention to this title. Nothing sells like controversy. Diesel Check into DIESEL'S DEN on Adult DVD Empire. [Link]
JiGGY Member 70 Posts 10/00	Posted - Apr 23 2001 : 1:21AM [Link]
2dvd Senior Member Trading DVDs 1447 Posts 12/00	Posted - Apr 23 2001 : 11:58PM games that Blondie and Endo are playing hurt my eyes. Wow, I didn't know Vivid could do such a thing if it is true. I just hope it is not the down fall of Vivid. [Link]
JiGGY Member 70 Posts 10/00	Posted - Apr 24 2001 : 1:08AM Can this be a desperate marketing gimmick to boost Vivid sales? I wouldn't be surprised if this were true, since there's no quality left in Vivid productions. [Link]
DeathIncarnate Member Luxembourg 54 Posts 11/99	Posted - Apr 24 2001 : 9:29AM Hi, actually, I remember from the Vivid CD-ROMs (a trend that luckily is no more..) where the trailers for other releases were played at say 15 fps, you could CLEARLY see the same sentence every three seconds or so. With DVDs playing at 25 fps one doesn't notice it that much but here it was extremely obvious. I've always waited for a topic like that to come up, because I was sure they would do something like that just to fuck with customers. I don't buy Vivid anymore, so.. [Link]
The Wanderer All-Star Member 192 Posts 6/00	Posted - Apr 24 2001 : 1:57PM Vivid would need to try something far more extreme to persuade me to buy any more of their shitty product. Maybe if they showed up in person, pointed a gun at my head and shouted "BUY VIVID OR DIE!" it might have some effect. Otherwise they are wasting their time [Link]
torris Senior Member Deep within Mila's anus 1827 Posts 1/00	Posted - Apr 24 2001 : 2:50PM Bill, Did you post this to RAME as well? I'm sure that the teeming millions will love to know of this charade over there. And it'll probably make its way onto Lukeford.com too [Link]

Diesel Member 516 Posts 3/00	Posted - Apr 24 2001 : 3:01PM It got posted on Luke's site yesterday... Diesel Check into Diesel's Den on Boxcover Art . [Link]
Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00	Posted - Apr 24 2001 : 7:27PM quote: Bill, Did you post this to RAME as well? Click to expand Torris, I didn't bother. The last 5 or 6 posts that I have made to RAME never made it (nor was there a reply from a moderator stating that any of the posts were rejected). With the small number of posts that have been showing up on RAME lately, it seems like I'm not the only one with this problem. [Link]
Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00	Posted - Apr 24 2001 : 8:55PM There is supposed to be an article on this topic tomorrow at Wireless Flash News Service . I spoke to the writer this evening. He told me that he has spoken with Vivid and that the article will have their comments on this issue. He said that he would send me a copy of the article. Hopefully the author will post a link here when the article is put out, if not I will. Edited by - Bill Broderick on Apr 24 2001 [Link]
Jeff @ IAFD Webmaster IAFD.COM 931 Posts 6/00	Posted - Apr 25 2001 : 2:07AM quote: There is supposed to be an article on this topic tomorrow at Wireless Flash News Service . Click to expand It was there as well as Luke's site and AVN.com had it on the front page. As far as RAME posting issues, have you tried e-mailing your article to rame@linux-shell.net? That removes any potentially interfering barriers between your news server and our moderation queue, and should inject your article right into the queue. [Link]
dumblonde Senior Member 2352 Posts 7/00	Posted - Apr 25 2001 : 2:32AM Thanks Bill, for the link to that news site, I'll look forward to the story. I just took a quick look around, and saw a lot of interesting articles. Is it kind of a tongue-in-cheek online enquirer? Some funny stuff about how roadkill can predict your future, and more than one about farts. Know how you guys love those! ...DB [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Apr 25 2001 : 2:32AM It looks like the article is posted but you need to sign up for a trial subscription or soemthing to be able to access it. I'm going to sign up to see what's involved. [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Apr 25 2001 : 2:40AM It looks like it will take them a while to approve my trial request. In the mean time here's a link to AVN's piece on the subject. Edited by - Drew Black on Apr 25 2001 [Link]
Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00	Posted - Apr 25 2001 : 8:29PM Last night the author told me that he would e-mail me the article, but he hasn't done so yet. When he does, I will ask his permission, and post it here (unless Drew already gets it through his trial membership. This morning I browsed through this disk and found these additional messages all within the blowjob scenes and all on Angle 1 (I didn't have the time to watch the tease scenes or any of the other two angles): In Stevie's scene at 5:22 and at 5:19 of Charlie's scene, it said "BUY VIVID". At 6:15 of Toni's scene, 5:37 of Ava's scene and 5:06 of Sky's scene it said "GO VIVID", and at 6:10 of Amber and Kaylin's scene it said "VIVID RULES". I didn't see any message on Dasha's scene. Personally, I really wouldn't care that Vivid was doing this if it didn't create such an obvious glitch in the picture. I thought that the whole purpose of something like this was to insert some type of a message so that someone sees or hears it but doesn't realize that anything happened. Once again, Vivid has proved that quality takes that back seat to trying to do something new "because they can". I constantly see bad computer programmers doing the exact same thing. They learn something new, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they will use what they learned in the next program that they write whether it belongs there or not. Vivid just seems to be a company that only hires "bad programmers" [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Apr 25 2001 : 8:48PM I saw the full text of the article posted on Luke Ford's site earlier today. [Link]
sonic Deactivated User 1178 Posts 12/99	Posted - Apr 25 2001 : 9:03PM HA!HA!HA!HA!!! Steph you kick ass! I love it! At homepage at full force. Fucking jabroni Vivid. Vivid fucking sucks. God they even know it. HA!HA!HA!HHA!!! -The Violator [Link]

Magnet12 Member 488 Posts 1/01	Posted - Apr 25 2001 : 9:06PM Thanks Drew for the cool link Magnet12 [Link]
torris Senior Member Deep within Mila's anus 1827 Posts 1/00	Posted - Apr 30 2001 : 12:58PM quote: It looks like it will take them a while to approve my trial request. ========== You have to only laugh at AVN's fawning take on this "innovative" new service. I thought subliminal messages were illegal? Maybe in advertising, not in a "movie"? Either way I think it's indicative of Vivid's contempt for the consumer. Plus "Down the Hatch"? Are you kidding me? Taking one of Anabolic's most heavily followed series and stealing the title for their own? Pathetic And saying that shoplifters will be prosecuted at the grocery store is a far cry from saying "buy Doritos". Click to expand [Link]
2dvd Senior Member Trading DVDs 1447 Posts 12/00	Posted - May 2 2001 : 1:23AM thanks for the link. [Link]