This advertisement is a little more obvious in that it implies oral sex with the way the sandwich is shaped and placed directly in front of the woman’s open mouth. This image uses the phallicy of the rocket on the computer screen headed in the direction of the woman’s genitalia to imply sex in the advertisement. This advertisement is similar in that it uses common objects to reference the sexual imagery of a woman’s breasts. Likewise, this beer ad, which uses subtle placement of beer bottles to illustrate a woman’s behind and legs when turned upside-down. In this advertisement, the ketchup is being poured onto the hot dog in a way that is meant to appear similar to the image of a tongue on a penis. Pepsi follows suit by imbedding the word “sex” into the boy’s shorts in this advertisement. Similarly, Coke hid the implication of sex into their soda machine by modifying the ice on top of the can into the form of a woman’s curvy body.

In this shocking Coca Cola ad, there is an image of oral sex hidden in the ice. In this advertisement, not only the words used (“try our hard pack”) imply sexual themes, but the hidden phallic images do as well. This one is an example of how the Sunny Delight logo is strategically formed in a phallic shape. In this interactive banner from Subway’s official website, the animated sandwich steam rises from the sub, spelling out the word “sex”. This Gucci ad depicts a pretty obvious use of phallic images with the way the hand grips the belt and how it is positioned in relation to where his penis would be. Here, you can see the word sex hidden in the image of this couple on a boat. In the other following examples, sexual imagery or phallic objects appear in the visuals of the advertisement to allude to sexual themes. In many of the following examples, the word “sex” or other sexual profanities are hidden in the image. Sexual subliminal messages can appear in advertisements in a few different ways.

Subliminal messages in ads