Attention Displacement. When exposed to communication, it is a natural tendency for people to pay more attention to visual content than to the spoken or printed word. If used knowingly, this tendency can be utilised in advertising to embed messages into the psyche of an audience. Attention displacement techniques are easy to create and highly effective, particularly in television. That's because the combination of colourful moving images and sound makes TV a perfect medium for this technique.

From the perspective of hypnosis, the objective is to distract the conscious mind with visual content so that the spoken word is accepted at an unconscious or deeper level. If the message is embedded using hypnotic structures, it will resurface at some time in the future - usually at the point of a buying decision.

Now imagine using this technique in a TV advertisement where the visual content is only there to distract the real message in the voice over. Because the viewer's attention is displaced during the advertisement, they can remain unaware of the real message.

To discover the power of this technique, try this simple test. This evening, put the TV on and at the first commercial break close your eyes, listen and consciously process, in isolation, the words that are spoken. You'll be amazed at how different the ads seem and how different they make you feel. You may realise that some of the ads have very different messages with your eyes closed than they appear to have with your eyes open.

Of course, from an advertiser's point of view, the problem is that most, if not all of this is achieved inconsistently, by chance, because they are the result of instinctive rather than knowing use. The ad shown here is a 30 second TV commercial made in 1979. It is a great example of attention displacement and has an interesting history. In its day, it was regarded by the advertising profession as “the worst commercial on television”. It's easy to understand why. From an advertising agency perspective the commercial is not very 'creative' and was considered crude and simplistic. But the “worst commercial on television” was a surprise hit with the general public, who took a brand new product to a 60% market lead in under 2 years. The Shake 'N Vac ad ran unchanged for 10 years and continued to strike a chord with the public who, 20 years later, voted it one of the greatest 20 ads of all time. Even now most people who saw it can still remember the words.

So, while you are smiling at the ludicrous visuals and tapping your feet to the repetitive tune, just pause and listen to the words. They are brutally plain and directive. Imagine your response to those commands and repetitions of the brand name without the fun visual and music.

TBWA Creative Director Trevor Beattie, mastermind behind the FCUK and Wonderbra campaigns summed it up best; “It's slagged off by the business…but name me two other famous carpet cleaners? It's fantastic branding. You call it the “Shake 'n Vac” ad, you don't call it “That ad where the woman goes around with the powdery stuff”.

The structure of visual distraction, combined with direct, simple verbal commands is a highly effective way to increase recall and change consumer behaviour. In fact, 11 of the top 20 greatest ads as voted by the British Public, use some form of Attention Displacement.