Subliminal Audio In 53 Bank Ad On Hulu

About half an hour ago I was watching a show on Hulu while doing something in another window off to the side. An ad from 53 Bank began to play and, even though I wasn't really paying attention to it, I noticed immediately that the prominent audio track for the ad wasn't the only audio I was hearing. At first I though perhaps there was something else going on on my computer, such as another advertisement in the second Firefox window I had open. But as soon as I paused the Hulu video the second audio track stopped as well. I was able to then click on the video player to restart the ad, and sure enough, I could hear the second audio track.

Having spent some time in the past listening to audio that I knew contained very quiet subliminal audio tracks, I immediately recognized what I was hearing. There is definitely some subliminal audio in the 53 Bank ad. As soon as I made that conclusion I did a full screen video recording and played the ad again. Then I uploaded it here.

Now I'll be the first to state that the quiet audio may be nothing of significance. But the fact that it's part of a bank advertisement makes me a little bit wary to assume that there's nothing amiss. So I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Do we have any audio analysis experts who can take a look at the video?

I'm not sure if this matters or not, but I did reduce the height and width of the video prior to uploading it to ATS. That was only to cut down the size of the file. I do still have the full screen version. Whether or not shrinking the video size impacted the audio, I do not know. But if the audio on the version I uploaded lacks the quality needed to do a proper analysis, I'd be more than willing to upload the larger version as well. Just let me know.

As you watch the video you'll see the small video recording window come to the foreground. Everything else is just the Firefox window with Hulu displayed. The suspicious audio to listen for is going to sound like very quiet speech. I haven't been able to tell what is being said, but hopefully someone else will be able to.

Here's the video: media.abovetopsecret.com...

dude, i think its just the couple in the car talking to each other, i dont think its anything significant.

That's completely possible. Like I said, I'm keeping an open mind and not jumping to conclusions. It could be the radio in their vehicle too. Who knows? Chances are it's just something harmless. But there's only one way to find out for sure.

reply to post by John_Q_Llama



Seems like its just the audio from the people in the car talking so unless what they are saying is a subliminal message I don't think there is anything sinister here.

The main voice overlay is so freaking loud, it'd wake the dead and drown out a train. Then again... what better way to mask subliminal audio.... While your ears get assaulted, sneak something else in there.....

I wish I had a way to remove the voice over so I could hear what's going on underneath, because I do wonder myself... there's too much contrast in the voices, in my opinion.

[edit on 10-4-2010 by wylekat]

Commericals aren't just slapped together at the last minute, extensive planning usually occurs because air time can be really expensive so they make sure its well laid out so they generate the highest responses from the airing of it. These responses can be positive, like extra business or negative, like viewer complaints that a particular character was a complete and utter douchebag or something occured in the commerical that seemed offensive or odd to someone, like you said, subliminal advertising like two or more audio tracks.

To the advertisers, the negative reactions aren't bad,as negative publicity is good publicity, meaning people noticed the commerical, in some cases prompting free advertising as people post on forums pointing out something they liked or disliked about the commericals, spreading their company name.

Portrayals of men or fathers as dumb ingoramuses, for example are very popular cheap tactics because these commericals usually generate the greatest responses and are usually easier to remember just because its so offensive, and that's the purpose of commericals, to make people remember their useless crap products.

Its possible that a gem is contained within this message, like freaky illuminati quasi-warnings\declarations of world domination... So there might be something in the audio...

Indeed who knows.

I decided to try figuring this out and am beginning to think that it's nothing to worry about, although this is a fun exercise is trying to determine the nature of subliminal types of audio. By using a couple free programs, I was able to play just the parts where the loud voice was speaking, and then amplify the volume to hear the quiet voice better. There are two spots where I can make out words. In one spot I can't make out the first word, but then I hear what sounds like "in volleyball". The other spot sounds like "that we talked about".

When I first saw the advertisement and then listened to it several times I thought that the quiet voice sounded masculine. That was one reason I didn't think that the quiet track was the female. But now, after being able to hear it louder and more clearly, it does sound feminine, so it could certainly be that woman from the ad who sitting in the passenger seat and speaking.

If there is a way to isolate all of the quiet audio, I don't know how to do it. But it would be pretty cool to hear what is being said on that track.

If it's a flashplayer ad you can get programs that convert SWF flashplayer files to FLA flash editable files.. If it is a website ad, it's possible they used 2 separate audio files in flash so you can listen to the hidden audio separately.

If they were really sneaky they probably added the subliminal to one file before.. all the more reason to be suspicions

I would try myself but I can't edit flash files in ubuntu.

I know that this is a little old (6 months+) but I happened to be doing some audio analysis and I ran across your thread.

After some work, I managed to do a simple comparative subtraction of the audio channels, and It brings up that "Voice" you were talking about a lot more clearly, it's still masked somewhat by the foreground narration, but It IS a voice (Female), and upon comparison to the video, it clearly does not match the woman in the car.

I am trying to upload the Modified Audio.... but the media portal does not seem to be working.

Anyways, it is a Female voice, and I don't think that it is actually from the Video... however, I cannot make out most of what she is saying due to the loudness of the narrators voice.

I'll post an update later when I can figure out how to get this blasted media upload thing working.

-Edrick