We have a love-hate relationship with advertising. Adverts serve a purpose--they keep us in touch with new products and ideas, and at their best, ingenious campaigns provide entertainment. But we also worry that advertising can get 'under our radar' in some way and might affect us without our knowledge. For this reason, we ignore it: we think if we don't pay attention to it, we won't remember it, and it won't influence us.

But, paradoxically, ignoring advertising can actually lend it greater power. Dr. Robert Heath, a pioneering researcher in the field of brand communications, reveals that how we process advertising--both at a subconscious and semiconscious level--can actually increase the influence it has on our emotions, the underlying drivers of our decisions and relationships. Utilizing extensive psychological and neuroscientific research, Seducing the Subconscious reveals how this brave new advertising world works, using illustrative examples of advertising campaigns that have been hugely successful without anyone quite being able to recall what they were trying to communicate.

Knowledge, or perhaps awareness, Dr. Heath shows, truly is power. Whether advertising executives are trying to harness it, or average consumers are looking to defend themselves, one thing is certain: we cannot afford to ignore it.