Look at the red letters "a d v e r t i s i n g" above. By scanning the letters from left to right, you recognize a word. If you scan from right to left, there's no word, just a bunch of meaningless letters: 'gnisitrevda.'

We scan lines, paragraphs and pages from left to right. You're doing it now. You started in the top left hand corner, moved left to right, then jumped back left to continue down the page.

That reading habit gets applied to looking at ads. Certain elements of a picture may be arranged to try to go against that pattern. But key manipulative elements of a picture are arranged to be picked up as the eye scans left to right and down.

So, try "reading backwards." Scan the picture in REVERSE, from the bottom RIGHT corner, going backwards to the left corner

It's easier to see subliminals if you don't try so hard. Relax. After all, the most subtle ad details are intended to be registered by a reader skimming magazine pages.

Look out of the corner of your eyes. Just glance. If you normally glance at an ad from the right, reverse it. Trying glancing from the left. Notice where your eyes want to go. Look more closely in those places for something that isn't quite right.

Instead of looking at the page rightside up, turn it sideways, or even upside down. That can help you notice because pages are designed to look a certain way from a certain angle (the usual reader's perspective)

In ads, notice things that are out of place or surrealistic. But remember that you tend to read from the upper left corner to the right and down. So what's in that position?

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