While the effectiveness of subliminal messages is often overstated in popular culture, its history in television shows, movies, music and novels have long led many cultural idioms that persist today.
Governments are often depicted as employing subliminal messages in propaganda:
The novel Freeze Frame by B. David Warner depicts the election of a corrupt president candidate using subliminal advertising to sway the votes in his favor. The 2001 movie Josie and the Pussycats described a long lasting plot whereby the US government was controlling trends by inserting subliminal messages in popular music. Furthermore, towards the end of the film, a government agent shuts down the operation, saying that subliminal advertising works better in films. The words "Josie and the Pussycats is the best movie ever" are then spoken rapidly in voice-over and displayed quickly on screen, with the words "Join the Army" in smaller letters below it. In the 2005 science fiction movie Serenity, the Alliance uses subliminal messages broadly disseminated in commercials and other video to cause River Tam to go berserk. It only works on River because she was subjected to Alliance training and conditioning. Programming the Nation? is a documentary that goes in-depth by interviewing experts on subliminal messaging and manipulation in the media.
Musicians have been associated with alleged incorporating subliminal messages via the use of backmasking, including rock bands Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.
Many references deal specifically with the military: