Rethinking Harlow Gale: The Psychical Influences on His Contributions to Advertising and Their Enduring Reverberations

Abstract

Harlow Gale is often depicted as the first experimentalist in advertising thought. This positioning elides influences which impacted upon his thinking. In this article, we outline Gale’s involvement with psychical research and its implications for advertising. These narratives are situated within a genealogy of subliminal processes across advertising and marketing theory from the late nineteenth century through to social cognition studies today. Gale’s connection with psychical research, in conjunction with early practitioner reflections on the unconscious, formed the enabling conditions for his major contributions to advertising. Psychical scholarship spotlighted the centrality of the “multiplex self” to human functioning. While psychical framings scaffolded Gale’s empirical, conceptual, and theoretical work, it also limited greater engagement with his insights. However, subsequent modifications of advertising theory and practice are underwritten by levels of continuity and discontinuity that facilitate the identification of psychically indebted bodies of thought from Gale’s time to the present day. Taken together, these analytic associations provide a substantive reorientation of historical and contemporary accounts of advertising theory and practice.

When reading about the development of marketing thought, a standard narrative is relayed. Until the middle of the twentieth century, the consumer is framed as “economic man,” “rational,” and consciously seeking out advertising to inform their buying decisions (Alderson 1952). Alderson (1952) appreciated that marketing needed to engage with psychology to ensure its view of the customer bore some resemblance to reality. Registering these issues, motivation research gained traction. It explored why people made buying decisions. Accompanying this was the increasing recognition of consumer irrationality (Dichter 1947a). They may not want to disclose or even know the subconscious or unconscious reasons for a purchase. Instead, rationalizations are offered. Such chronological narratives have started to be contested. In reviews of psychology’s relevance for marketing pedagogy, an alternative picture is sketched (Hackley 2013). It pinpoints the importance of psychology to marketing during its formative period as a university discipline.

Regularly cited is Strong’s (1925) “Theories of Selling.” It examines three perspectives outlining how advertisers can conceptualize the thinking process of the customer. The most prominent is the attention, interest, desire, and action (AIDA) model (developed circa 1898 and refined by Sheldon in 1902 into the AIDAS model). As Hackley (2013, 114) writes, this description is standard textbook fare, taught to thousands of students each year.

Harlow Gale (1862–1945) does not feature in Strong’s (1925) paper. Gale’s contributions remain “little known” (Eighmey and Sar 2007). Eighmey and Sar (2007) attempt to rectify this. They note that he published in journals associated with psychical research, but that is where their analysis stops. To rethink and expand Eighmey and Sar’s (2007) perspective on Gale, as well as those outlined by other contributors (e.g., Kuna 1976), we claim that psychical research is central to his axiology. Psychical scholarship studied phenomena including hypnosis, clairvoyance, telepathy, and whether people survived death. Yet, it is bypassed in readings of Gale’s oeuvre.

By accenting the centrality of psychical thought in Gale’s publications, we rethink the genealogy of mental stratification (i.e., the division of the mind into consciousness, subconscious, and unconscious streams) in our discipline. As we will show, the implications of Gale’s academic endeavors reverberate throughout advertising theory and practice in at least three ways. First, they were conceptually and theoretically innovative. Analytically, advertising research adopted a less nuanced depiction of human nature than Gale proposed when his (multiplex) stratification thesis was sidelined in preference for a (duplex) view that divided human nature along the pathways of reason and suggestion (i.e., with limited criticality and emotion-shaped decision making). Second, embedded within Gale’s thinking are the seeds of the post-1970s turn calling for the cultivation of long-term relationships with customers. Third, his psychically inflected underpinnings are being resurrected in social cognitive research. When reading across Gale’s scholarship and recent trends, they indicate the fruitfulness of multiple paradigm research, united around the notion of mental stratification.

Theory and Methodology

Our stance is inspired by Foucault’s (1982) recognition that what is obvious is sometimes passed over without due consideration. The importance of Gale’s preoccupation with psychical studies is readily appreciable. He (1900b) wrote about it in a volume that includes his advertising research. Gale’s exposure to psychical analytics informed every facet of his praxis. To investigate these issues, this account adopts a genealogical perspective. Genealogy involves discerning the historical conditions that enable theoretical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives to emerge (Foucault 1991a). Attention needs to focus on the development, refinement, and extension of theoretical arguments and related concepts.

Genealogical studies are underwritten by distinct power relations. The growth of an academic discipline, for example, is understood as the “haphazard” (Foucault 1991a) outcome of battles between groups (Foucault 1979a). It is haphazard in the sense of being contingent, refracting precarious “victories” and “unpalatable defeats” (Foucault 1991a). Adopting a genealogical strategy means focusing on the types of knowledge claims that are accepted or rejected as scholarly consensus takes shape. Consideration must be devoted to the factors that facilitate or delimit the development of advertising discourse (i.e., how to think about, reflect on, and theorize marketer–consumer power relations). In doing so, Foucault encourages scholars to avoid looking at history as a reflection of continuous progressive development. Nor should history be seen as discontinuous. History, for Foucault, exhibits transformations that can be continuous, discontinuous, and fall between these parameters. The point is to analyze pertinent transformations (Foucault 1996), identify appropriate connections (Foucault 2000), and pay due regard to fluctuations of power in source material (Foucault 1991a).

Acceptance and rejection of specific forms of contemplation are partly a function of the epistemological, institutional, and cultural climate (Foucault 1971). Importantly, rejection of a perspective does not necessarily mean the wholesale jettisoning of related ideas (e.g., psychical research and its findings). It might be the case that new schools of thought or streams of literature are overlaid on older ideas. As such, the similarities between past and current views can be discerned analogically (Foucault 1966/2002; Huffer 2017).

Epistemologically, genealogy positions the work of an individual within wider circuits of knowledge production that precede them (Foucault 1991b). Disciplines enable and constrain discourse (Foucault 1981, 59). This does not deny the role of the individual author (Foucault 1981). An author is “traversed” by the theoretical flows and currents of the period. The basis of thinking about advertising is, consequently, a “meta-individual phenomenon” (Foucault 1991b; Huffer 2017).

In unraveling how Gale’s ideas were produced, he is treated as an object for knowledge constituted by a plurality of forces (Foucault 1979b, 1991a). In this case, we situate Gale’s intellectual orientation against the backdrop of the growth of mesmerism, hypnotism, spiritualism, and psychical research. To do so requires engagement with a multidisciplinary range of scholarship to foreground the interpretation of self and subjectivity that emerge in Gale’s writing (Foucault 1991b, 111). But Gale does not always cite the influences on his scholarship. This is unsurprising. During this period, authors did not necessarily formally cite sources (Kuna 1976). Failing to flag material did not mean the absence of influence. To deal with this, Foucault (1991b) maintains that texts can be affiliated by their relationship back to the “founders” of a form of “discursivity.”

Examples of founders include Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud whose work “contains characteristic signs, … relationships, and structures which can be reused by others” (Foucault 1991b, 114). They create the potential for analogous and divergent thinking “for something other than their discourse, yet belonging to what they founded” (Foucault 1991b, 114). Consistent with our approach, we submit that Gale’s membership of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), along with immersion in its literature and empirical practice, places him in a relationship to two founders of this domain, namely, Henry Sidgwick and Frederic Myers. These can be discerned by explicit citation but equally by “characteristic signs,” “relationships,” and “structures” in their publications (Foucault 1991b). Without the theory, concepts, and empirical materials associated with psychical studies, it would not have been possible for Gale to have made the connections he did (Cramer 1896).

Biography, Cultural, and Epistemological Milieu

Born in 1862, Gale’s development was shaped by his educational experiences and cultural milieu. Long-standing worldviews were beginning to be challenged. Hermeneutic investigations of religious texts elicited internal inconsistencies, and natural science enabled juxtapositions with geology (Hamilton 2009). Where the relationship between religion and science could be fractious, the impacts of scientific knowledge were undeniable. The application of machinery to factory production, travel, and communication were enhancing industrial efficiency and quality of life. What these developments hailed, for some, was the role of the scientific method as the path to truth. At the same time that religious standpoints faltered, the triumph of Darwinism did not lead to the rejection of attention to spiritual and nonmaterial forms of existence.

It had long been postulated that consciousness extended beyond the boundaries of the individual. Franz Anton Mesmer proclaimed there was a fluid pervading the universe that could be manipulated by someone sufficiently skilled to facilitate therapeutic cures (Forrest 1999). Later thinkers avoided the mystical elements of Mesmer’s approach, positioning their practice as revealing the power of mind on mind (i.e., via suggestion) and matter (i.e., effecting bodily cures) (Myers 1903/1992). What these threads indicated were the complex relationships between physiology and psychology, manifested in public forums via the rise of “spiritualism” (i.e., an interest in communicating with the dead). The factors accelerating this movement included the activities surrounding the Fox sisters in 1848. The Fox family heard inexplicable noises in their house. Upon posing questions to the source regarding its status, it responded by making multiple “raps” to signify its discarnate nature (Gauld 1968).

Spiritualist concerns were notable in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Civil War, with similar levels of growth witnessed during later periods of upheaval when large numbers of people sought contact with their deceased loved ones. The spiritualist community was extremely large, numbering between circa 5 million in 1860 (Morton 2022) and around 14 million believers in North America by the 1920s (Sandford 2012). Prominent figures included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories) and Sir Oliver Lodge (physicist, inventor, and allied with the SPR).

In 1850, a group associated with the University of Cambridge formed the Ghost Society, which examined “supernatural” phenomena (Bruce 1910a, 1910b). One of the members of this association, Henry Sidgwick, would later become a renowned philosopher, the first president of the SPR, and a major figure in the education of Harlow Gale (Bruce 1910b). This is the ontologically fraught world in which Gale underwent his formative years. Initially, he had intended to become a minister. However, during his undergraduate time at Yale (1881–1885), Gale was exposed to various strands of thought that led to greater involvement with psychology. As he told Lincoln Steffens, he “couldn’t hold to the faith” (qtd. in Werner 2013, 186).

In wanting to explore the nature of human thinking and the role of ethics in directing life, Gale moved to the United Kingdom. Studying under Sidgwick, his intellectual panorama expanded (Gale 1902b). Sidgwick was “the most influential man at Cambridge” and committed to his students, colleagues, and peers (Myers 1904, 108). His contributions to Gale’s growth are substantive. Firstly, Sidgwick’s (1883) writing about economics appear to feed into Gale’s distance from the idealizations of “economic man,” and appreciation of the role of advertising in cultivating goodwill, buying habits, and long-term relationships between firm and customer (see also Fowler 1889). For Sidgwick (1883), people often exhibited behaviors inconsistent with this conceptual archetype. Rather than weighing up each decision, they identified sellers who could be trusted.

A more sophisticated interpretation of “economic man” registered that education and experience are decisive influences, leading people to develop habits and routines for purchasing (Sidgwick 1874/1901, 1883). Economically, the latter have an essential role in terms of saving “time and trouble” in shopping practice (Sidgwick 1883). These habits were established through a company conducting itself to a “skilful” standard, offering excellent commodities, with relevant service, at competitive prices. When these factors were present, customers habitually frequented the firms. Generating and maintaining goodwill through service and advertising was central to habit formation (Sidgwick 1883).

Sidgwick underlines the importance of ethics and psychology for comprehending habits and reasoning. Knowledge, insight, and processing power were differentially distributed among the population, with class and educational level being important factors impacting the ability of people to secure advantageous marketplace terms (Sidgwick 1883). Adding further complexity, morality and sympathy “mingled” with economic motives when individuals navigated the market.

Secondly, Sidgwick was a founding member of the SPR, occupying its presidency for many years (1882–1884, 1888–1892). Founded in 1882, the SPR explored a range of issues including thought reading, mesmerism, perceptual sensitivity, apparitions, and spiritualism. In studying these, they emphasized their scientific intent in seeking to scrutinize spiritualism and psychical phenomena systematically (Myers 1903/1992).

From the beginning, the SPR was aware of the politics associated with knowledge production. Myers’s (1893a) experience with Wilhelm Wundt provides insight into them. For Myers, Wundt’s experimental focus and unwillingness to entertain new ways of exploring consciousness (e.g., via hypnosis) foreclosed any attempts to ontologically expand our comprehension of human nature and the world. The notion that we can exclude epistemologically fertile ways of understanding human nature is diametrically opposite to the vision of psychological studies that Myers and the SPR had in mind. Myers (1893a) wanted “to extend, the range of Experimentation. … We have but scratched the surface of a field which will repay the deepest ploughing of many a generation yet unborn” (100–101).

The growth of the SPR combined with the impressive nature of its membership emphasizes the prominence of these issues. Thouless (1952, 19) highlights the “intellectual distinction” of members, including Professor William Barrett (physicist), Professor Henry and Mrs. Eleanor Sidgwick (philosopher and educationalists), Professor Oliver Lodge (physicist), Frederic Myers (poet, experimentalist, theorist), Edmund Gurney (musical theorist, hypnotic experimenter), and Professor William James (psychologist), to name just a few. Gauld (1968) signals the elite credentials of its affiliates (i.e., multiple members of the Royal Society), representatives from the political class (a current and future U.K. prime minister), religious community (multiple bishops), and literary circles (e.g., Tennyson, Ruskin, Lewis Carroll) (Gauld 1968, 140).

Gale joined the SPR, participated in various empirical projects, sometimes at Sidgwick’s house, meeting and exchanging correspondence with core members. Sidgwick is hailed as the “Father of Psychical Research in England” (Baird 1949, 205) and acknowledged as forging a “tutorial relation” (Epperson 1997, 77) with associates. Gale, for instance, interacted with him regularly at Cambridge, and they exchanged letters until Sidgwick’s death (Gale 1904). As Gale explains, during the mid- to late 1880s, he cemented his interest in psychical studies that had been developing since his undergraduate years: “[A] chance copy of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research aroused a real interest during my sophomore year … [which] has ever grown deeper and more justified. The patient and thorough work done by the Society has done a vast deal … in connecting our conscious mental life with all degrees of sub-conscious or unconscious … action … making us more observant of real human nature” (Gale 1900d).

After his sojourn at Cambridge, Gale studied brain and body histology at Leipzig and Berlin. Wundt (at Leipzig) was profoundly dismissive of psychical research (Myers 1893a). Gale’s receptivity thereby differentiates his position from Wundt’s and Scripture’s (1897/1914, 1907). Possessing this background, Gale returned to the United States in 1894. In his role as instructor of physiological psychology at the University of Minnesota, Gale made waves. His tenure lasted from 1895 until 1903. Nonetheless, it was here that he launched an advanced course that defined his place in the history of advertising thought.

Gale’s interests revolved around the development, plasticity, and ossification of human personality from childhood through to adult involvement in business practice (Gale 1905; Gale and Gale 1900). Pursuant with Sidgwick (1883), he depicts human behavior as more complex than “economic man.” People are characterized by a “multiplex human nature” (Gale 1904, 13). We are emotional and intelligent beings (Gale 1905), with mind differentiated into consciousness and what he interchangeably calls “unconscious” and “subconscious” thought processes (Gale 1922). Notably, Gale’s use of “multiplex human nature” is contained in a document that expresses the value of psychical research for his students. Studying “psychical phenomena” can provide them with “analytic power” (Gale 1904, 15). To fully understand the development of Gale’s advertising studies and insights, we begin by exploring Myers’s foundational scholarship and the SPR activities that Gale participated in during the 1880s and 1890s.

Human Personality and The Manufactory

Myers (1886, 1903) penned his ideas in a stream of literature, often publishing them in the proceedings and journal associated with the SPR. By the time Myers uses the term the “multiplex self” or “multiplex personality” (Myers 1886), it is an encompassing concept that embraces prior and related terminology (i.e., the “subliminal” self).

Myers’s theory of consciousness is indebted to the neurological insights of Hughlings-Jackson (1884) and studies in hypnosis by Gurney (1887). There is conceptual overlap between Hughlings-Jackson and Myers. The former refers to “man” as a machine. The latter extends this metaphor, presenting the mind as more like an entire manufacturing plant than a single machine (Myers 1892). He outlines human nature as a “multiplex” “manufactory,” a view with which Gale (1904) agreed. In Myers’s (1886) words, “Let us picture the human brain as a vast manufactory, in which thousands of looms, of complex and differing patterns, are habitually at work. These looms are used in varying combinations” (503).

It is multiplex in that a personality is multifaceted, capable of development and disintegration, building on previous and ongoing experiences. As is the case with a production plant under the control of different specialists, there are many “looms” within the manufactory that escape attention (Myers 1886). Extending these points, Myers (1892) writes: “I suggest that each of us is … an abiding psychical entity far more extensive than he knows. … There is always some part of the Self unmanifested; and … there are still unexhausted reserves of instrumental capacity, as well as unexpressed treasures of informing thought. All of this psychical action, I hold, is conscious; all is included in an actual or potential memory below the threshold of our habitual consciousness” (305).

The individual is constituted by “various strata of consciousness” (Myers 1892, 353). A permeable limen divides them. The “currents” circulating up to it “often bring to the surface … a bubble from a stratum far below” (Myers 1892, 307). Processes of cognition and emotion below the limen are part of the subliminal self. They may be weaker, less impactful, but equally they can be “strong, definite and independent” and form their own memory chains (Myers 1903/1992, 13).

The “multiplex personality” thus refers to the idea that our current grasp of consciousness does not constitute our entire being (Myers 1904). The “spectrum of consciousness” is hallmarked by flows of consciousness below the level of the supraliminal self (i.e., the “everyday” self). The latter can cooperate with (theoretically) multiple “subliminal” selves who are elaborating ideas and thoughts that can present to the supraliminal self via motor (i.e., automatic writing) and sensory automatisms (i.e., dreams, reverie) (Myers 1903). When Myers refers to automatism, it signals that these processes are not necessarily stimulated by the supraliminal mind. What we must appreciate is that the notion of mental stratification was relatively uncontested (e.g., Hinman 1900, 183).

Gale’s SPR Empirical Work

In Gale’s opinion, SPR scholarship contained “important truths” regarding the subconscious, hypnotism, telepathy, and the power of suggestion (Gale 1902a, 11). He was not a spiritualist (Gale 1900a, 1920); he did not believe that human beings possessed souls (Gale 1904) or survived bodily death (Gale 1919); and he did not believe in the existence of a literal god (Gale 1902b). But the phenomena, including physical and mental mediumship, were perplexing. He wanted to make sense of them, weighing the evidence and providing an informed evaluation (Gale 1897). Reflecting this, Gale’s inquiries explored issues of clairvoyance, telepathy, spiritualism, and double consciousness. Initial projects were undertaken in the late 1880s.

Given the cultural interest in clairvoyance, telepathy, and the survival thesis, it is unsurprising that Gale was enrolled in related cases (see Sidgwick 1922). In “A Study of Spiritistic Hallucinations,” Gale (1900a) exhibits the open-mindedness that characterized his earlier investigations whilst displaying a greater level of critical analysis. One of the most detailed cases that Gale provides of séance attendance developed out of his involvement with a “Dr. E. S.” A physician by trade, Dr. S. underwent a profound conversion to spiritualism in 1894. He jettisoned his career, throwing himself into the promotion of his new ontology and accumulating acolytes with alacrity (Gale 1900a). What is apparent is that the power of suggestion suffuses the experiences of Dr. S. and is deployed frequently when interacting with his “converts.”

Gale visited Dr. S. to evaluate the latter’s experiences and personality. Throughout multiple séances, Gale questions the suggestions being made and offers counteranalyses. In his opinion, the séance represents a venue for the socialization of attendees into spiritualism. Neophytes are surrounded by devotees who continually express their desires for the novices to commit to seeing the clairvoyant visions others profess. Individuals are indoctrinated through suggestion (Gale 1900a). Obviously, the suggestion dynamics did not always function as expected. This isolates a gradation in Gale’s empirics that has been overlooked. Neither his psychical studies nor later advertising research hinges completely on ideomotor action (i.e., that our thoughts are translated into practical or cognitive action such as agreement). By not agreeing with the suggestions being made, the process can reflect “ideo-idea” action (Goddard 1899) whereby influence attempts are delimited or rejected by countervailing ideas that work against an intended influence.

In each of his SPR-related encounters, then, “empirical” consciousness is problematized. We shift from clairvoyance (Sidgwick 1891–1892) to telepathy (Sidgwick 1922) through to mental disturbances (Gale 1900a) and on to the possibility of survival (Podmore 1911). Gale presents his theorization process as trying to make sense of possible interconnections between what happened in these varied contexts and everyday life (Gale 1900a, 83). His emergent theory of suggestion bridges multiple psychical domains and Gale’s conception of human nature grows more intricate.

The Pedagogical Introduction of SPR Material

Gale is adamant about psychical research forming an important part of psychology which, in turn, is an input into his reflections on advertising. He presents a review of the interest in, and teaching of, psychical findings at institutions including Harvard, Columbia, and Pennsylvania (Gale 1900b). At Minnesota, Gale asserts that one of his courses provided students with nearly 40 hours of teaching devoted to these areas. In outlining his own reading, private book collection, and the library materials available for consultation, Gale encourages his cohorts to access studies by Gurney, Myers, Podmore, and William James—all of whom were SPR members. Phantasms of the Living (Gurney, Myers, and Podmore 1886/1918) and Podmore’s (1894) popular book Apparitions and Thought-Transference: An Analysis of the Evidence for Telepathy were core readings. These were supported with content from the Proceedings of the SPR, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, and other valuable materials (e.g., Goddard 1899; Myers 1894, 1895).

Gale on Advertising

Gale was motivated to study advertising due to its growing visibility (Gale 1900c). As well as writing to practitioners and sending out questionnaires (about 200 in total, with 20 responses), he cites luminaries of advertising and business practice, including Nathaniel Fowler Jr. (a former advertising practitioner who wrote about advertising, salesmanship, public speaking, and so forth). Fowler’s influence has been acknowledged in prior literature (Eighmey and Sar 2007). What has not been noted is a publication by Fowler (1889) that presages the themes empirically examined by Gale.

In Gale’s (1900c) study, the focus is on determining the interconnected processes that occur from the point when an advertisement is read through to actual purchase. His theorization mirrors Fowler’s (1889). Fowler claimed that advertising needed to attract interest. Gale concurred. While it was hoped that an ad would help sell a product, Fowler appreciated that the task was rarely simple. At face value, his interpretation is consistent with bullet theory (i.e., where messages are “fired” at a target customer, penetrating their mind without distortion). The point of difference being that one shot was not usually enough to influence the patron; multiple shots were needed (e.g., Fowler 1889, 8).

Concomitantly, Gale’s interest in connecting psychical research and advertising may have been influenced by the links Fowler made between advertising and unconsciousness. Fowler (1889) argues that advertisements target “the remotest recesses of the reader’s brain” (50). He says it “perhaps” influences the unconscious (77), without the consumer being aware (42). As an example, Fowler uses the experiences of bored travelers reading ads to pass the time. He speculates that they are more likely to “unconsciously absorb the advertising” that confronts them (Fowler 1889, 105). However, Fowler’s analysis is anecdotal; Gale’s is empirical. Relatedly, Gale provides a comparable listing to Fowler regarding available media (e.g., magazines, newspapers, posters, billboards, store windows, signage). It appears that Gale is trying to extend Fowler’s exposition by asking businesspeople about the accuracy of the listing. What he wanted to determine were the intentional methods, that is, those consciously selected by advertisers to sway clients.

To explore the attention-securing power of advertising, Gale conducted experiments with his junior students in 1896 and 1897, with further experimentation undertaken from 1897 to 1900 (with junior and senior students as well as their friends and family members). Methodologically, the experiments used various types of advertisements (with different levels of text and imagery). In a dark room, each ad was placed on a frame and lit. The light would flash periodically, with a new page of material shown each time. The rationale was to determine what material secured the attention of the reader (e.g., text or image).

Like Fowler (1889), Gale appreciates that advertising does not influence all consumers. This is a marked departure from textbook representations of theories of selling (Hackley 2013; Strong 1925), the most cited variant of which presented the power of advertising deterministically. By contrast, Gale’s (1900c) respondents questioned the merits of the ads, the products, and the claims being made (67), thereby undermining an “ideo-motor” theorization for advertising’s influence (compare Gale 1900c, 69). Nor does Gale assume that advertising impacts consciousness only. Strong’s (1925) paper took consciousness as axiomatic, thereby denying what psychologists believed to be the major “cleavage” in the mind between the supraliminal and subliminal (Hinman 1900). Gale (1900c) distinctly expounds on the importance of “subconscious attention and memory” (57).

Akin to Myers (1893b), Gale terminologically shifts between subconscious and unconscious. Irrespective of the language being used in Myers’s writing, the subconscious is a stream of consciousness (e.g., 1892, 301). Gale’s (1900c) subconscious “goes on” processing as well. Trying to distinguish between the conscious and subconscious effects of advertising, Gale (1900c) abridged his thinking: “in general, the results added more evidence to our increasing knowledge of the large part of our mental life which, paradoxical as it seems—goes on unconsciously” (57). Because he is conducting some of the earliest explorations on the influence of advertising, the attempt at determining a threshold where conscious influence shades into the subliminal, subconscious or unconscious is rudimentary. Myers admits that explicating such processing is difficult (e.g., Myers 1892, 313). Nevertheless, Gale tries to parse conscious from subconscious factors. Students were asked about a product category (e.g., soap), the brand they would purchase, and the reasons why they would do so. The “why” element was meant to elucidate the factors that molded decision making. When they could not express the reasons for their decisions, this became the fracture point for parsing subconscious influence (Gale 1900c). Consistent with Myers, Gale uses the terminology of the “threshold.” Gale (1900c) avers that “only about half our informants seemed to be influenced consciously by advertising; the females somewhat more than the males. … But a considerable amount of advertising acts upon people below the threshold of their conscious attention and memories” (68).

Gale posits that the unconscious is a seat of reasoning in which varied mental processes are undertaken. It constantly scans the environment, registering information and material that were picked up by sense organs yet escaped the notice of supraliminal consciousness. At the same time, these did not remain completely out of reach of the supraliminal mind. The “business” of the subliminal “is to keep the ideas which I need for common life within my reach” (Myers 1903/1992, 25). After all, what can be recalled is only a miniscule part of life experience. As the later motivation researchers realized, respondents are not always adept at tapping into the reasons circulating in their subconscious or unconscious (e.g., Gale 1900c, 66). Not only is much decision making sub- or unconscious but the factors impacting people are more complicated than assuming a conclusive role for advertising. For Gale, advertising is only one channel. His coparticipants turned to their friends, trusted word of mouth, and appreciated that “much” advertising reflected a desire to “hold” existing customers by reminding them about satisfactory products. Uniting the filaments, Gale (1900c) declares:

After getting the attention there is one effect … a most important one. … This is the unconscious effect of finally buying an article which has been continually reiterated before our half-conscious eyes. Having the simple name constantly forced before one’s indirect vision is enough to make many people react sufficiently to get the article. … Thus the final buying of the often-impressed article is very similar to all the forms of suggestion—within hypnotism or in the commoner forms about us every day—which are being recognized as forming a large part of our … life. (69; emphasis added)

Suggestion is the cord that binds literature from hypnotism through to advertising (Goddard 1899), with the latter shaping buying decisions consciously and subconsciously. People are differentially suggestible, exhibiting varying degrees of agency. But targeting customers and inspiring them to buy products are only initial steps in forging seller–customer relations. The company and product must satisfy (Gale 1900c, 69). In this depiction, Gale’s account reflects the themes from Sidgwick’s (1883) writing, reviewed above, which heralded the importance of goodwill, habit creation, and the long-term value derived from it. Gale pointedly remarks that consumer satisfaction produces habitual buying (Gale 1900c, 59). Commentators outside the discipline (Sidgwick 1874/1901, 1883), involved with business practice (Fowler 1889) or the provision of marketing education (Sheldon 1917), all explained this as the ideal of securing “goodwill” and the “permanency of patronage.”

Whereas later interpretations of advertising present it as a powerful force, capable of moving people from complete indifference to purchasing subjects (Strong 1925), Gale would partially disagree (Gale 1900c). Such “strong” accounts position the consumer as “but a little above the brute” (Goddard 1899, 481). The “ideo-idea” individual is the counterpoint with many gradients. Whether derived from Gale’s séance experience where people reacted contrarily to the suggestions being made or in terms of the varied responses to advertising stimuli, the point is that people will not always act exactly as desired. In short, he provides an “advertising-based theory of suggestion.”

Gale on Practitioners

Deepening the foregoing analysis, Gale’s (1905) study of the business world is informed by his interactions with and reading about practitioners. Affirming that customer satisfaction facilitated commercial longevity, Gale opines that the successful practitioner needed to avoid any perception that self interest motivated their actions (e.g., see Sidgwick 1883):

[In] … business … [the] necessity for friendly good nature seems to have acted evolutionally towards the elimination from the business world of unpleasant dispositions. … The typical business man is a wholesome, gentlemanly, friendly, and cheery creature, who sheds a deal of courage, hope and sunshine thru the world. (Gale 1905, 294)

Analytically, capitalist values shape the subjectivity of those enmeshed within them, with the constitution of the business person commensurate with a Myersian manufactory (compare Gale 1905, 295–299; Gale 1919, 30). Free will is somewhat dethroned but not eliminated (e.g., Myers 1896–1897, 170). Heredity, context, and expediency format the individual. In Gale’s investigation, the practitioner self-subjugates, transitioning into “a concentrated business machine … business habits engross him more and more” (Gale 1905, 289). As such, their ability to focus attention is impressive, reflecting the need to plan “complicated” activities for the medium and long term (Gale 1905, 284). In pursuing their objectives, owners are tenacious and controlled. However, the manufactory metaphor is stretched to include emotions and motives like the “joyous pleasure” provided by profitable exploits.

In line with his opinions on human suggestibility, practitioners were largely imitative, looking at what the competition was doing and mimicking best practice, including the adoption of new technologies. The role of imitation is suggestion in action. Treading carefully, Gale (1905) accepts that “American business men are by no means … blind followers of imitation” (285). Effectively, his stance reproduces earlier expositions of advertising and human nature, registering disparities in the community. Whatever their intellectual capabilities, all practitioners possessed an expansive subliminal stratum whose functioning served to increase personal efficiency. Gale is unequivocable about the impact of the subconscious in business decision making. The idea that the subconscious is operating inductively (Gale 1905) is developed to include a distinct ethical component that is absent from Gale’s prior research. Put differently, he reveals his socialist reservations about the structuring power of the business system to skew human practice in problematic directions:

The [businessperson] … does a vast deal of his mental perceptions and reasonings … below the clear level of consciousness, down in the more or less dark regions of his subconsciousness. These considerable mental workings [operate] in … [a] mysterious … way … [and] are being found to constitute a far larger part of all mental life than has ever been supposed. … Thus the “great captains of industry” are not usually by any means the frightful gorgons that they are usually pictured. … They are simply the extreme products of their strong heredity of activity and success, as developed in the … environment of business competition. (Gale 1905, 292–293)

Discussion

This article has demonstrated that Gale’s publications accent a much more conceptually, theoretically, and empirically erudite understanding of consumer reactions and managerial practice than are usually found in core studies (Strong 1925) or represented in popular textbooks (Hackley 2013). In their discussion of Gale’s writing, Eighmey and Sar (2007) outline his impact on subsequent turns in advertising theory. They indicate that Gale influenced Walter Dill Scott and E. K. Strong, identifying connections to contemporary bodies of literature (e.g., Eighmey and Sar 2007, 157). By contrast, we have focused on the preconditions that facilitated Gale’s thinking, looking at his extensive involvement with psychical research (see Table 1). None of this material has been examined previously, and it profoundly shaped Gale’s work (compare Kuna 1976).

Table 1. Central thinkers and concepts.

Theorist	Conceptual Apparatus	Core Argument	Consistency with Gale’s Viewpoint	Genealogical Connections to Wider Advertising and Marketing Discourse
Frederic W. H. Myers	Multiplex self and subliminal self	Consciousness does not define human personality (Myers 1892). We are constituted by our everyday consciousness and at least one subliminal self. The subliminal communicates with the supraliminal and vice versa. The subliminal is agentic. It is constantly monitoring any suggestions being made and general environmental trends. While Myers’s conceptual language oscillated in his earlier writings—including references to the unconscious—his later work was more consistent, focusing on the subliminal.	Myers’s conceptual and empirically based accounts are generally consistent with Gale’s thinking. Gale’s account differs from Myers’s in terms of the mystical tenor of the latter’s work (e.g., Myers 1903/1992, 21, 61–62). Where Myers tends to assume the existence of a soul (e.g., Myers 1892, 304–305, 318; Myers 1903/1992, 12–13), Gale does not.	Underwrites Gale’s interpretation of advertising, business practice, and human nature. Myers’s theorization and the literature associated with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) are major inputs into the psychical and selling related reflections of William Walker Atkinson (1907, 1909, 1912). It influenced his ideas on advertising, salesmanship, suggestion, and contagion theories. An analogous perspective to Myers on the power of the subliminal, the permeability of consciousness and subconsciousness, and the cultivation of creativity using all facets of the mind are a feature of the autobiographical reflections of advertising pioneer G. Lynn Sumner (1952). Sumner (1952) refers to examples cited by Myers, including R. L. Stevenson and his creative process, and underlines the “hidden powers” of the “subconscious” (Sumner 1952, 212). Sumner also explicates how advertising and marketing practitioners can operationalize the ideas of Myers, Stevenson, and, by extension (Pile 2022), Gale. Myers is cited by prominent authors associated with social cognition. Bargh’s (2018, 2019) work exhibits continuity with Myers’s innovative publications and shares some of Myers’s religious value system (i.e., commitment to a soul discourse) that Gale eschews.
Thomson J. Hudson	Objective and subjective minds (Hudson 1893/1916)	Parses the human “mental organization” into two elements, each with specific powers and limitations. The objective mind controls the self and the subjective mind. It is the ability to make self suggestions from the objective to the subjective mind that leads Hudson to posit that suggestion is a law of mental life. We are influenced from within and without. The subjective mind is highly suggestible and easily influenced. Hudson equated the subjective mind with the soul which will survive death (e.g., Hudson 1893/1916, 73–74).	Gale (1897, 1899) is highly critical of Hudson’s work, refusing to accept the idea that the subjective mind can leave the physical body or that it is the soul. The latter aspect of Hudson’s thought led Gale to argue there was no evidence that supported this position.	Hudson’s work influenced early marketing and sales scholars, teachers, and practitioners. Exemplars include E. Virgil Neal (hypnotist, correspondence educator, and owner of a major cosmetics company). Neal was well known for his hypnotic skills, stage shows, marketing, and advertising acumen (Conroy 2009). Arthur Frederick Sheldon (correspondence educator, notable contributor to advertising, sales education, and practice), engaged with the topics of hypnotism and telepathy, exploring whether these were applicable to business and marketing practice. The SPR and Hudson’s work undergirded aspects of Sheldon’s thinking. Sheldon’s reflections on advertising and sales stressed the importance of customer satisfaction in ensuring repeat business. His extension of the AIDA framework and interest in habit development places him in close genealogical connection to later thinkers, including Andrew Ehrenberg (2000).
Boris Sidis	Waking and subwaking self (Sidis 1898)	Subconscious processes escape conscious awareness (Sidis 1914). But messages can flow from the subconscious to consciousness (e.g., Sidis 1898, 162). Sidis was highly impressed by Myers but would not follow his path in postulating the potential existence of a “cosmic” self, the survival of death, and the metaphysical emphasis of Myers’s work (e.g., Sidis 1898, 3). He actively distanced himself from Freud (e.g., Sidis 1914, 335–336), emphasizing that those talking about unconscious processes “really assume the doctrine of the subconscious” (Sidis 1914, 339). Sidis devotes attention to the power of suggestion: man is a “suggestible animal” (1898, 17). Suggestions can be accepted uncritically and challenged (Sidis 1898, 10–16, 22–34). The key point of difference between Myers, Gale, and Sidis lies in Sidis’s oscillation between presenting the subwaking self as intelligent (e.g., Sidis 1914), unintelligent, or exhibiting a middle-ground status, whereby some groups can cultivate greater levels of criticality (Sidis 1919). The subwaking self is chiefly responsible for collecting information about the environment. Sometimes it is easily influenced, thereby needing to be controlled by the “guardian consciousness,” which rejects the suggestions coming from the external environment (Sidis 1898).	Some limited commensurability. Sidis engages with a comparable range of literature to Gale, pointing out the value of SPR studies (e.g., Sidis 1898, 138–139). Sidis is developing his insights from abnormal psychological experimentation and applying these to everyday life (e.g., Sidis 1914, 319). Gale follows a related trajectory. Sidis (1914) argues that physiological interpretations need to relate to psychological insight. Gale largely supports this stance. The subconscious is not “unconscious” for Sidis (hence Sidis’s distance from Freud). Gale agrees but views the subliminal in performative (i.e., agentic) terms, thereby being more consistent with Myers than Sidis. Like Gale, Sidis sometimes highlights the agency of the consumer to resist the influence of salespeople (e.g., Sidis 1898, 23) but also stresses how powerful suggestions can escape the censorship of the “guardian consciousness.”	Sidis’s work was impactful on the sales, marketing, and advertising educational material produced by Arthur Frederick Sheldon and circulated globally in the early twentieth century. Shryer’s 1912 book is indebted to Sidis’s influential research on human suggestibility. W. D. Scott (1903, 1911, 1921) draws heavily on themes closely identified with Sidis, including suggestion, mob, and contagion theories.
Joseph Jastrow	The subconscious	Jastrow (1906) has a largely positive, performative view of the subconscious. His 1906 book is a summary of prior literature. Our conscious ideas, emotions, and associations are only a small selection of those circulating. The subconscious is more expansive than consciousness. Consciousness and subconsciousness are connected, passing communications between each other (Jastrow 1906).	Gale does not engage with Jastrow’s work. There are, however, overlaps given that Jastrow was knowledgeable about the material produced by the SPR. Jastrow (1938, 52–54) critiques Hudson’s (1893/1916) “magical, mystical” interpretation of the mind. Gale (1897, 1899) was equally critical of Hudson’s use of the SPR literature in forwarding Hudson’s own “loose” arguments that he believed were not empirically substantiated regarding the existence of the soul and survival of death.	Specific aspects of Jastrow’s thought have been incorporated into social cognition research (e.g., Bargh and Ferguson 2000). Jastrow postulates that human beings are capable of reason but are highly emotional, complex psychological beings who exhibit positive (e.g., imagination) and negative characteristics (e.g., prejudice, superstition, and irrationality) (Jastrow 1906). These more negative aspects chime with the literature charting human prejudice and its unconscious influence upon human decision making (e.g., Bargh 2018). Jastrow’s (1906) perception of human activity being triggered by context and directed by often subconscious habits or “automatisms” informs social cognitive theoretics (Bargh and Ferguson 2000). Everyday life for social cognition theorists is suffused with attempts to prime human behavior. Advertising, billboards, television, and the people we speak to at work, home, or in the supermarket all influence our thinking and behavior (e.g., Bargh 1999).

Epistemologically, the Foucauldian approach taken here necessitates a more critical stance to issues of continuity in advertising theory and practice. Where Eighmey and Sar (2007) point out continuity between Gale’s, Scott’s, and Strong’s reflections on advertising, the politics of knowledge surrounding psychical research should make us more cautious (Foucault 1996). We need to carefully examine the “specific transformations” of advertising discourse from Gale to Scott (Foucault 1972, 223). Scott (1903, 1911, 1921) cites Gale in abbreviated form with regard to attention value, order of merit experiments, and his status as an experimental pioneer. With respect to Foucault’s interpretation of power/knowledge relations, Gale’s treatment reflects wider changes in the institutional landscape (Foucault 1991a, 1991b). These are not necessarily progressive and can involve regression and reductionism.

Rethinking Gale–Scott Connections

Where Gale supported the notion of “theory as a headlight” (Cramer 1896), helping illuminate scientific experimentation, Scott refers to his theoretics as “glasses” (Scott 1903). His glasses frame all aspects of his thinking, changing his interpretation of the “objects” he examines (Scott 1903, 188). Through his “red glasses,” objects which are “green” simply will not appear green. Without the relevant background knowledge or training, it is easy to foreclose interpretive dynamics. Scott fully appreciated this fact (e.g., Scott 1903, 152–153). Even so, his own experience discouraged greater engagement with psychical research. This is a nodal point in the “transformation” (Foucault 1979a) of the direction that advertising theorizing could have taken.

In Scott’s case, peer ridicule led him to demarcate psychology from psychical topics (Jacobson 1951). Negative appraisals of the former were due to ongoing associations with “occult” subjects (Atkinson 1912; Scott 1907). Psychical scholarship was thus dismissed as “unscientific” and “repellent mysticism” (Scripture 1897/1914, 69). Its adherents were amateurs, not “true” scientists (Scripture 1897/1914). They were “dabbling,” possessing only superficial levels of knowledge (Scripture 1894). Echoing Scripture (1897/1914, 69), psychology, Scott (1903) writes, has “nothing to do with telepathy, spiritism, clairvoyance, animal magnetism, mesmerism, fortune telling, crystal gazing, palmistry, astrology, witchcraft, or any of the other relics of medieval superstition” (116–117). This puts epistemological distance between his writing, the SPR, and, by implication, accounts such as Gale’s. Scientists adopt his view; “charlatans” articulate psychical worldviews (Scott 1903; Scripture 1897/1914, 1907).

To support his stance, Scott tells the reader to consult Moll’s (1890) text on hypnotism. Scott (1903) and Moll (1890) are lukewarm about the intellectual outputs of the SPR. In this they were not alone (Fuller 1986; Scripture 1897/1914, 1899, 1907). There was “fraud” and “chicanery” in the areas explored by psychical researchers (Epperson 1997, 107, 140). Yet the SPR was well-known for its commitment to objectivity, use of qualitative and quantitative approaches, exposure of fraud, and elimination of suspect or contaminated evidence (e.g., Myers 1890). The SPR used its considerable scholastic skills to take criticism seriously. Its responses were charitable, conservative, and incisive (compare Scripture 1897/1914, 63–69; Sidgwick 1897–1898, 298–313). Sidgwick (1896-1897), for instance, closely read the original sources that were later reprinted by Scripture (1897/1914) as condemnatory of psychical research and refutations of proffered evidence. His response drew attention to the “palpable inaccuracies” in reporting (Sidgwick 1896–1897, 311).

Scott (1903, 117), like Scripture, is quite dismissive of the research generated by the psychical community. Moll (1890) cannot identify “sources of error” in the SPR publications he references but expresses the questionable view that “I am subjectively convinced that some sources of error were overlooked” (375). Being “scientific” for certain thinkers meant cursory exploration of psychical scholarship, as well as inattention to their findings and explanations (Slaughter 1900).

Still, in 1912, debates about conscious and subconscious creativity were ongoing (Chase 1912). By 1916, demands for precise definitions of these paradigmatically varied terms had increased (Chase 1916). Processes of professionalization in psychology displaced discussion of the subconscious or unconscious due to the ostensible difficulty of producing “objective” research in the laboratory (Fuller 1986). Likewise, high-profile journals were steadily questioning the merits of using the terminology, especially as behaviorism rose in status.

In advertising scholarship, behaviorism was only one perspective among multiple offerings (Strong 1925) and received limited application (Kreshel 1990), so concepts like consciousness were not abruptly expelled from the field. Strong’s (1925) discipline-shaping article emphasized the importance of consciousness-focused and behaviorist perspectives. Notwithstanding this pluralism, Gale’s psychically inflected contribution is absent. Scott’s interpretation of advertising, psychology, and consumer engagement defined the domain (Lynch 1968). E. K. Strong (1922) supported his views regarding psychical research and promoted a version of the discipline that failed to incorporate Gale’s theoretics.

Scott did not offer a “multiplex view” of the consumer. He does not hypothesize any “mental processes” beyond supraliminal consciousness (e.g., Scott 1903, 147–148), although he admits that perceptual skills shade considerably so that there are “advertisements” (25) and “things” which “catch our attention so slightly” (150). His strategy, rather, is to frame “man” as a duplex—a view which was picked up by other writers of the period (e.g., Brisco 1916, 215) and continued to bifurcate the history of consumer behavior throughout most of the twentieth century (e.g., Hirschman 1985, 223). In Scott’s ruminations, it means he focuses on conscious decision making (compare Scott 1903, 68), parsing it along the lines of judgments made via reason or influenced through suggestion (e.g., Scott 1903, 60). People like to think they engage in acts of reason, Scott says. The reality is that they are a “creature of suggestion” (Scott 1903, 59). Central to this view, Scott exhibits a commitment to ideomotor action and less interest in the possibility of resistance to suggestibility and advertising’s effects (compare Scott 1903, 47–48, 115). Where Gale draws upon a version of Goddard’s (1899) agentic interpretation of human nature (i.e., ideo-idea), Scott’s argument turns on a view called “man as brute” (Goddard 1899), whereby little agency is assumed for most people (compare Scott 1903, 64–65, 67–68, 74, 204): “We do things that we don’t want to, simply because the thought of it has been suggested to us, and we feel compelled to carry it out” (Scott 1903, 57).

Scott thereby distinguishes his theories of advertising, human nature, and business practice from the psychical literature (e.g., Scott 1903, 1909). By his own argument on the role of apperception in sense making and his failure to read salient scholarship, Scott’s theoretical “glasses” render him unable to make the kinds of connections that Gale delineates. For Gale (1901, 1904, 1919, 1920), this failure to engage with novel literature and empirical research is the opposite of his idealization of scientific practice and pedagogic virtue. Human apperceptive skill, however, means that when certain ideas are derived from domains outside of personal experience and education, people will find it difficult to generate new insights (Gale 1902b, 1904, 1905, 1920). The analogy he uses treats cognition like new product development. Radical innovations may struggle because they necessitate an overhaul of our mental worlds (Gale 1922) and everyday lives (Gale 1904, 1905). Novel theory suffers by its disconnection from prior experience and thus finds it difficult to gain a foothold in the intellectual marketplace (Gale 1904, 1920).

Scott, on the other hand, appreciated that scientific developments gain purchase because they offer usable “solutions to everyday problems” (Fuller 1986, 40). Where Gale failed to translate his findings into applicable insights for business people, Scott pursued this avenue with avidity, presenting his ideas to relevant groups. He published easily digestible content in practitioner journals, revising this material in book form with additional sections that illuminated how advertisers had tested his theories and found them eminently useful for attracting customers (Scott 1903).

Where Kuna (1976) sees continuity between Gale and Scott, we have maintained that their views on psychical research are diametrical. Scott’s managerially usable insights and vaunted position within academic and business circles made his contributions of such importance that they defined advertising theory (Lynch 1968). They were later incorporated into related bodies of literature such as salesmanship (Brisco 1916; Strong 1922) and focused attention on consciousness (Strong 1925). The latter remained—notwithstanding the important contributions of Sheldon (1911, 1917), Shryer (1912), the motivation researchers (Dichter 1947a, 1971), and influential advertising practitioners like G. Lynn Sumner (1952) (see Table 2)—the axis of mainstream advertising theory (Hackley 2013) and consumer research (Bargh 2002) as it was methodologically convenient to study, at low cost, and translatable into actionable knowledge (Baumeister et al. 2017).

Table 2. Marketing and advertising contributors after Gale.

Thinker/School	Core Views and Assumptions	Intellectual Influence(s)
William A. Shryer	Shryer’s (1912) analysis of advertising theory and practice is replete with references to the “unconscious” (1912, 54) and “sub-conscious” (1912, 217). He highlights the emotional, suggestible, habitual, and cognitively lazy nature of human beings (1912, 45, 46, 48), drawing upon a modified AIDA framing to explain his interpretation of advertising. Shryer diverges from traditional theories of selling by arguing that advertising impacts the sub- or unconscious. The subconscious is not solely a domain of reflex action. Subconscious cognitive processing is undertaken. It exhibits “rational and logical common sense” (1912, 217). Theorizing advertising, Shryer proposes that the steps of AIDA initially influence us at a conscious level. The relevant brand names and associations subsequently permeate the subconscious. He links the AIDA model with Sheldon’s revision to include satisfaction. He also underscores satisfaction as important for forming habits, with habits eventually becoming unconsciously affirmed. Shryer’s analysis exhibits commensurability with a relationship marketing logic.	Shryer’s influences are derived from business experience, combined with engagement in the psychical and psychopathological literatures. He references the work of Sidis (1898) and Jastrow (1906). Shryer’s worldview has been interpreted as a forerunner of motivation research (McMahon 1972). The point of difference is that Shryer does not view the consumer with the level of suspicion that is associated with motivation research. The latter tended to assume that consumer responses to questioning could not be trusted (i.e., they would rationalize their decision making). Shryer does not assume that respondents will necessarily mislead him. What he does reveal is a distinct series of personal biases against certain populations (e.g., people from Greece) and professions (e.g., circus workers) who should, in his opinion, always be denied credit (Shryer 1913).
Motivation research	Motivation research sought to explore “why” people consume the products, services, and experiences they purchased (Dichter 1947a, 1961). The consumer was assumed to be less rational (Dichter 1960) and more emotional, influenced by their cultural environment and marketing communications (Dichter 1947a). In reaction to behaviorism, motivation research stressed the necessity of examining the internal (i.e., conscious and unconscious influences) and external contextual factors that pattern consumer behavior (Dichter 1947a). Theoretically, it is frequently claimed that motivation research was indebted to Freud. This is not accurate (Frederick 1958). There were some elements of Freudian theory used, but Dichter (1971) maintained that he was essentially undertaking a form of cultural anthropology (i.e., studying people in context, looking at their values, routines, and consumption rituals). Conscious and unconscious influences on decision making were a focus (i.e., hidden attitudes, associations, and ideas) (Frederick 1958). Across the different thinkers, practitioners, and scholars aligned with motivation research, various concepts were used to indicate the mental locus that was the focus of attention. Some wanted insight into “pre-conscious” (Frederick 1958), subconscious (Dichter 1947b; Klass 1958), and unconscious mechanisms (Dichter 1947a, 1947b).	Motivation research is praised for having introduced marketing and advertising researchers to the necessity of going beyond quantitative indicators of how many people were consuming a particular product or service (Dichter 1960) to examine in more contextual detail the complex reasons why they bought, used, or rejected offerings (Fullerton 1990; Stern 1990). Dichter’s work is hailed as influencing the trajectory of advertising theory and practice in the post–World War II era (Stern 2004). His reflections (Dichter 1966) are underwritten by a conception of the consumer as a pluralistic user of marketing communications (e.g., Dichter 1947b). The potential customer is not a passive or uncritical interpreter of marketing and advertising messaging (e.g., Dichter 1961). This links back to Gale’s (1900c) recognition that advertising was one means to influence the consumer, but that it could be read critically, with people seeking out other sources of information. It telescopes forward to the interpretive, experiential approach of Holbrook and Hirschman (1982, 136) who focused, like Dichter (1949), on phenomenological perspectives and the subconsciously held symbolic associations of consumers. Holbrook and Hirschman’s scholarship typically depicted the individual as an agentic, creative, marketplace actor. Analogous themes are a general feature of interpretive perspectives on advertising (e.g., Coulter, Zaltman, and Coulter 2001; Zaltman 1996). There is continuity between motivation research, Zaltman’s studies on metaphor elicitation (Coulter, Zaltman and Coulter 2001; Zaltman 1996), and social cognitive theory with regard to the differentiation of the influences impacting upon human thinking into (1) nonconscious; (2) preconscious/subconscious; and (3) unconscious factors (Smith 1954). The nonconscious relates to those motives that we cannot identify; the preconscious/subconscious relates to those motives which are not overtly in play in processes of cognition, which are largely unverbalized, or which a respondent refuses to discuss; and the unconscious references the repressed motives that are capable of exploration via psychoanalytic methods. Zaltman’s ZMET research engages with “hidden thoughts” and the interplay of “reason, emotion, and experience” but argues that these can be elicited via multiple qualitative research methods (Zaltman 1996, 14). Epistemologically, ZMET can be connected to motivation research in terms of its interpretive, qualitative approach. Methodologically, it ties back to Dichter with respect to the use of tools like depth interviews and psychodrama (Coulter, Zaltman, and Coulter 2001). There is an emphasis on the subconscious and probing respondent articulations (Coulter, Zaltman, and Coulter 2001). However, Zaltman and colleagues tend to assume that people can and will reveal hidden motivations once these have been prompted via the ZMET methodology (Zaltman 1996). Social cognition research appears to engage with the first and second factors but generally—like motivation research (Smith 1954)—sideline the third (compare Eliasberg 1954). Equally, motivation researchers drew attention to examples of subconscious mental processing that reflected past experiences (i.e., driving to work) that were often undertaken in highly automatic ways without much conscious reflection (e.g., Klass 1958). Such examples are consistent with Jastrow’s (1906) and Bargh and Ferguson’s (2000) publications. Relatedly, social cognitive scholars see registering and modifying unconscious biases as a means to ensure greater levels of personal agency. Dichter (1947b, 1960, 1971) largely concurs with this perspective.
Social cognitive theoretics	There is one mind, parsed into conscious and unconscious components, cooperating as a team (Bargh 2018, 258, 260). The conscious and unconscious shape thinking and behavior. The unconscious is more expansive and powerful than previously suspected. Both conscious and unconscious strata are intelligent. But the intelligence of the former is de-emphasized; the latter emphasized (Bargh 2018), notably in terms of problem-solving capabilities when consciousness is in abeyance (i.e., during sleep, periods of relaxation and distraction). It divides the unconscious into preconscious (cultural values and socialization that format thinking patterns) and postconscious (i.e., mental influences that affect sequential experiences) (Bargh and Hassin 2022). Three key unconscious influences are hypothesized: motivational (conscious and unconscious), preconscious (socialization or previous thought that affects decision making), and those influencing us postconsciously (e.g., “priming” effects) (Bargh 2022). Recent moves away from a focus on subliminal influences as weak stimuli below the threshold of consciousness. Slight shift in meaning of subliminal to connote those factors which are potentially present to consciousness but which are not registered. Advertising represents a “supraliminal” and/or “subliminal” prime that we can see but not necessarily appreciate how it affects us (Bargh 2002). Supraliminal influences can be more powerful than subliminal influences. Exceptions are made for the infamous Facebook experiment involving mass contagion via the modification of newsfeeds on social media (Bargh 2018).	Bargh (2018, 2019) has cited material which should sensitize him to the connections between mesmerism, hypnosis, and psychical research. Thematically, conceptually, and empirically, there are clear analogies with the literature associated with the SPR. Stronger theories of advertising’s influence (e.g., Bargh 2002) and contagion theories (e.g., Bargh 2018) have shared roots in terms of psychical, psychopathological, and the occult literatures of the late nineteenth century (e.g., Atkinson 1903, 1907 1909; Sidis 1898).

Our analysis thus extends that of Eighmey and Sar (2007) by its psychical emphasis and has unraveled Gale’s ontological, epistemological, and methodological values. His exposition of human nature and its implications for the psychology of advertising have been unpacked. Where Eighmey and Sar (2007) reference Gale’s (1900c) personal engagement with practitioners, we have unearthed a prior text published by Nathaniel Fowler Jr. (1889) that could have been a stimulus for the empirical research undertaken by Gale. We cannot demonstrate a causal link between Fowler’s text and Gale’s academic labor. Foucault (1971) underscores that the genealogist will not always find these connections. In studying Fowler’s book and relating it to Gale’s scholarship, their acumen does have further implications. They problematize assumptions about the emergence of relationship marketing—a topic explored next.

Fowler, Gale, and Patronage Relations

Eighmey and Sar (2007, 149) have speculated that practitioners originally expressed and enacted ideas that scholars later explored. We agree. This examination of Fowler’s work calls into question the periodization of relationship marketing. It has been claimed that this perspective emerged in services and industrial contexts, making an appearance in the literature in the 1970s (O’Malley, 2014). Relationship marketing is founded upon the notion that fomenting relationships with customers is mutually beneficial and profitable (Grönroos 1994). Developing such relationships takes time and multiple interactions (Gummesson 1994a, 1994b), and it leads to satisfied, loyal clients, increased revenue, and positive word of mouth. Cultivating relationships is intended to foster habitual customer behavior (Gummesson 1994b).

Both Fowler (1889) and Gale (1900c) flag the importance of stimulating long-term contacts with consumers. Fowler (1889) refers to creating “permanent patronage” and the profitability of this strategy (15, 18, 27, 33). Gale (1900c) points out that his respondents appreciate that “much advertising is not for gaining new customers, but to hold … old customers” (59; emphasis added). Holding patrons is largely dependent on satisfactory initial exchanges (e.g., Fowler 1913, 67, 76, 83, 86, 106, 132, 218). Satisfaction led to repeat purchase and the production and affirmation of habitual behavior (Fowler 1889, 1913; Gale 1900c). Eighmey and Sar (2007) are, therefore, correct in sustaining a linkage between Gale’s reflections and contemporary turns in advertising and marketing theory, but our narrative follows alternative branches to those they excavate. Fowler (1889) and Gale (1900c) gesture to advertising’s utility in generating relational connections between firms and their clients. These ideas were further pursued after Gale’s academic career had concluded.

For example, DeBower (1917), Scott (1903, 1921), and Starch (1914) maintain that the repetition of advertising and delivery of satisfactory product and service offerings are central to habit formation. Shryer (1912) takes this one step further and uses the psychical and psychopathological literature (Jastrow 1906; Sidis 1898) combined with business experience and personal experimentation to support his case. In Shryer’s (1912) reflections, the subconscious embedding of brand associations and purchasing routines is framed in relational terms, saving the consumer time and cognitive processing while assisting the manufacturer or retailer to establish their position (see also Ehrenberg 2000).

Psychical Research Revisited

The SPR, Frederic Myers’s writing, and commentators who used this material have shaped advertising and marketing theory. In some cases, the influence is overt. Examples include Sheldon’s (1917) popular correspondence courses in sales and business practice, which had a large subscriber base around the world. Sheldon’s impact on advertising is widely praised (Strong 1925). What is less well appreciated is that he drew on the SPR literature when outlining ways salespeople could influence the consumer (Sheldon 1911, 1917). He was highly critical of the use of hypnotism in commercial contexts because it deflated the will of the customer but tentatively hoped that telepathy might have value.

Atkinson extensively outlined how telepathy could be mobilized by practitioners, providing techniques to assist in the development of telepathic sensitivity (e.g., Atkinson 1907). Hypnotic assumptions and interest in telepathy did not, thus, totally disappear from advertising or marketing discourse. For instance, Brisco (1916) downplays the importance of hypnotism in commerce but applauds attention to the centrality of human suggestibility in the selling process. Correlatively, Russell (1910) presents hypnosis as a bad long-term business strategy but did signal that practitioners were trying to get patrons to undertake voluntarily what the hypnotist tried to force (i.e., for people to accept their views).

Corresponding with Foucault’s references to the historical interplay of continuity and discontinuity, advertising and marketing theory has been punctuated with psychical discourse in ways remarkably consistent with Gale’s ideas and theoretical sources. Perhaps the most notable is social cognitive theory. The latter has provided contributions to advertising and consumer behavior (Bargh 2002, 2018).

Genealogically, social cognitive research claims to recognize the merits and limitations of all three major schools that preceded it (i.e., behaviorism, Freudianism, the cognitive turn) (Bargh 2002, 2018, 2019, 2022; Bargh and Hassin 2022). From Freud, it was appreciated that the mind is stratified so that there may be processes which we do not register but which are influential in decision making. From behaviorism, inspiration came via acknowledgment of the external environment as a stimulus mechanism. The cognitive school, by contrast, brought together an interest in the internal mental processing of the individual with attention to socialization and the cultural environment as important for subjectivity formation. For social cognitive adherents, these traditions failed to register that higher mental processes might have some degree of automaticity. Where mental processes were traditionally viewed by the cognitive school as deliberative and a function of choice, Bargh and colleagues contend that they are triggered without conscious choice or decision (Bargh and Ferguson 2000). This differentiates their assumption base from what they proffer are core models in advertising and consumer behavior predicated upon reasoned action (Bargh 2002).

Bringing us into connection with Gale’s theoretics, Bargh (2019) cites literature that explicates psychical research (e.g., Crabtree 1993). He references Myers’s article “The Subliminal Consciousness” (e.g., Bargh 2018, 319). Moreover, Bargh mentions publications that use material published by the SPR (e.g., Jastrow 1906) and presents this content as resonating with his views on unconscious mental processing (Bargh and Ferguson 2000). When Bargh (2018) frames his personal contributions, Myers is a theoretical support for the position he is outlining, rather than someone who had developed, refined, and published a considerable amount of material that preexists Bargh’s stance. The latter literally links the subliminal in Myers’s writing to Bargh’s own interpretation of the unconscious (e.g., Bargh 2018, 245).

Where psychical research was critiqued for going beyond currently acceptable boundaries of knowledge (Slaughter 1900), social cognitive scholars aver that scientific investigation has the duty of exceeding the “obvious” (Bargh and Hassin 2022). They invoke the electromagnetic spectrum (i.e., those frequencies of radio and optical radiation that we can and cannot “see” unassisted) to flesh out their viewpoint (Bargh 2018; Bargh and Hassin 2022). It follows this trajectory.

Historically, human beings have registered only a small facet of reality. With new technology, innovative research approaches, and methods, fresh aspects of human subjectivity and ontology have been and continue to be discerned. In stronger terms, the notion that conscious reflection might be a smaller component of mental processing, with unconscious influences a much larger constituent, is claimed as “a radical premise” of social cognitive theory (Bargh 2018, 26). These are ideas that Myers and Gale would have recognized. In outlining the contours of mental functioning, Myers draws parallels to the electromagnetic spectrum (Hamilton 2009; Myers 1893b). Reframed as a psychical spectrum, it extends all the way from ultra-red to ultra-violet (James 1892/1986). The ultra-red encompasses physiological functions that are automatic, outside of human modification, and supraliminal memory (Myers 1892, 306). The higher end of the spectrum (i.e., ultra-violet) is the locus of genius and “supernormal” skills (i.e., the powers of mediums, telepaths, and clairvoyants; e.g., Myers 1892, 328).

The inspiration for the social cognitive cartography of the unconscious and its variants (e.g., Williams and Poehlman 2017) therefore moves firmly into psychical territory. There is still a long way to travel, however. After years of reading widely, especially in evolutionary and child psychology, Bargh (2018) reflected on how people come into the world with unconscious skills that are not the product of extensive experience (see Bargh 2018, 238). His inspiration came via a dream of an alligator. The reptile swam up to Bargh, turning over to reveal its white belly: “Mr. White Belly was saying that unconscious processes come first, not the other way around” (Bargh 2018, 33). Intriguingly, where Bargh (2018) illumes the possession of skills that young children have not learned through conscious action, reflection, and habituation to substantiate this line of reasoning, Myers (1903/1992) provides analogous examples from arithmetical prodigies. These were young children with impressive mathematical talents. They were untutored but capable of very complex calculations in their heads. Notably, some were able to continue normal conversations at the same time (e.g., Myers 1903/1992, 50). This ability indexed an ongoing subliminal stream engaged in calculus while the supraliminal mind handled the routine dialogue.

Just as Bargh vivifies the importance of dreaming, Myers (1903/1992) makes the argument that dreaming is the state whereby any assumption of the “unity of consciousness disappears” (34). When we sleep, the dreamer gains a glimpse of the “multiplicity” of self. With the supraliminal in abeyance, the subliminal can reveal its visualizing and problem-solving powers (Myers 1892). These can be leveraged (compare Williams and Poehlman 2017, 235). Thus, Bargh’s (2018) recent references to the interplay of consciousness and unconsciousness are consistent with the explanation of subliminal processes that Myers unpacked using the case of Robert Louis Stevenson (the author of the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, among others). Stevenson dreamed the material that formed content for his books. Characters performed these narratives on a stage. Stevenson awoke, wrote, and polished the stories for publication.

So, social cognitive accounts assume that the unconscious is a substantive force in human life. It exists prior to conscious reflection and is continuously operative, intelligent, capable of creativity, and influences conscious decision making (Bargh 2018; Bargh and Hassin 2022). The evidence base is derived from evolutionary theory, with early organisms hypothesized as unconscious, only later developing consciousness. Our mind is the product of evolution. There is one mind (Bargh 2022), but it functions in two “modes” (Bargh 2018), namely, consciously and unconsciously (Bargh and Hassin 2022).

Social cognitive thinkers are largely treading the same ground as Myers and Gale (e.g., Myers 1893b, 19, 22–24). Myers questioned whether the empirical self was anything more than a “superficial self.” It is an artifact of evolution, culture, marketplace dynamics, and individual differences. Myers (1892) asserts that humans began as simple-celled organisms. These grow steadily more complex as the external environment changes. In this way, human beings have developed consciousness and physiological and psychological traits that helped them to survive.

Myers (1892) rejects the notion that we should a priori assert that the empirical, conscious self deserves “primacy.” There may be different contexts, time periods, and so forth when the self will undergo some radical alteration. All we can currently say is that our conscious self is our habitual form of consciousness. It represents a sample of the thoughts, sensations, and experiences retained in memory (Myers 1892). Our conscious reflections do not necessarily provide an accurate record of our life experiences (compare Bargh 2005, 52). We may attribute agency to our actions when they are suggested by external sources (i.e., hypnosis or posthypnotic suggestion) (e.g., Myers 1892, 302–303). These are arguments that social cognitive theorists support (e.g., Bargh and Ferguson 2000, 940).

Initially Bargh (1999) maintained that subliminal advertising could shape customer reactions. Empirical examinations, however, “showed weak effects at best” (Bargh 2002, 282) and had limited practicable applicability (Rogers and Smith 1993). Ironically, the analysis that underwires why subliminal advertising might not affect the consumer in a strong manner (i.e., with the marketer having power over the client) is consistent with the theorization of why some people were not hypnotizable (compare Bargh 2005). Gale (1900e), we might recall, was a skilled hypnotist and did face at least one case where his hypnotic skills were unsuccessful. In Bargh’s (2002, 12) terms, subliminal messaging does not necessarily influence customers as it is difficult to encourage people to act inconsistently with their personal goals, interests, and belief systems. Core values prevent influence attempts (Bargh 2002). This is comparable logic to that witnessed in the debates in the late nineteenth century on the possibility of people being hypnotized to commit crime (see Hudson 1893/1916, 126–131, 135). The overwhelming majority of scholars did not consider it feasible.

Clearly, the influences that Gale used to develop his understanding of the multiplex mind and a suggestion-based theory of advertising continue to undergird a school of thought in advertising, marketing, and psychology. What does seem to unite the various perspectives explored in this article is a belief in what can be called the stratification of the mind. Myers, Gale, Shryer, the motivation theorists, and social cognitive thinkers in their own different ways return to this type of framing. It would seem a productive direction for theoretical and empirical research to learn from the persistence of these ideas, registering the role of evolutionary developments, human genetics, cultural influences, socialization, and individual differences to try to work toward more holistic, integrative models of advertising engagement and consumer experience (e.g., Bargh 2008; Coulter, Zaltman, and Coulter 2001; Nelson 2008).

Such a project would require the talents of multiple paradigm teams who work across the different views, values, and assumption bases they have adopted (e.g., Gioia and Pitre 1990). From the start, Gale exhibited a multi-perspectival approach to understanding all forms of consumer behavior and advertising processing. Gale (1900f) referenced the importance of the brain and nervous system in shaping our reactions to the world. Gale and Gale (1900) referred to the formative nature of family relations, socialization, and cultural environment in child development. Gale (1900c) paid attention to the centrality of psychology in advertising interpretation. He (1900e) emphasized the role of hypnosis, suggestion theory, and high-level interpretive skills when studying alternative psychological and symbolically rich phenomena (Gale 1900a)—arguments which are basically consistent with current opinion on visual and symbolic interpretation in advertising.

Advertising and marketing researchers principally concur with Gale’s views on evolution (Bargh 2018), biology (Williams and Poehlman 2017), the brain and nervous system (Plassman and Mormann 2017), and integrative analytics (i.e., combining conscious and unconscious influences) (Baumeister et al. 2017) as vehicles for orienting future scholarship. Historical reflection from psychical studies and various streams of advertising theory add further distinction to these recommendations. Salter (1945), for instance, called for the use of psychoanalytically skilled individuals in research teams, a view supported by motivation researchers (e.g., Eliasberg 1954). These ideas can be taken in more radical directions via the proposals of thinkers who aver that altered states (Hirschman 1985; McDonald 1998) and hypnotic theoretics (Gould 1992) have the potential to energize our understanding of advertising, consumer behavior, and the influence of marketing on the individual and society more broadly.

Conclusion

This article has examined Harlow Gale’s highly novel interpretations of advertising and business practice. Educated in an era when spiritualism and psychical topics were widely discussed, Gale’s intellectual development reflected an abiding interest in the investigation of currently anomalous phenomena, as well as culturally significant factors that shaped human lived experience. He engaged in psychical research, published on related topics, and recommended allied literature to students. Drawing on the ideas produced by Frederic Myers, he subscribed to a multiplex conception of self.

Gale explored the impact of advertising via experimental methods with his students, their friends, and family members, making sense of his data with psychical theoretics. In doing so, advertising functioned as a window into human mental processing. By differentiating advertising’s influence into conscious and subconscious components, Gale depicted consumer reactions in much more refined ways than were presented in the earliest accounts of “theories of selling” (Strong 1925).

We have demonstrated that Gale’s psychically informed research is an important part of the genealogy of mental stratification in our discipline. His publications and theoretical views have been connected with and differentiated from historical as well as contemporary thinkers and schools of thought. Despite the fact that Gale’s psychical commitments have been largely excised from the development of advertising thought (Eighmey and Sar 2007), they never truly disappeared (Foucault 1980). Rather, they reverberated throughout the history of advertising theory and practice, and they are being resurrected today in the form of social cognitive theory.

By being willing to question received wisdom, educational practice, or a belief in God, Gale ultimately placed himself on a collision course with powerful figures which culminated in three “academic trials” that challenged his credibility, teaching, and personal conduct. After surviving multiple attempts to fire him, the third “trial” ended his university career in 1903. Gale’s usage of psychical research and ejection from academia thus prevented the wider dissemination of his contributions. Furthermore, he self-funded and privately circulated his important 1900 book. Contemporaries remarked upon the “inconspicuous way” Gale promoted “his pioneer experiments with advertisements” (Hollingworth 1938, 308). As one student observed:

[H]e [Gale] is far too modest. And I believe it is this very modesty of his which lead people outside the circle of his influence to undervalue his worth. Mr. G. is in one respect not of this age; he does not appreciate the value of advertising. … Mr. G. has been so unwise as to neglect his share of trumpet-blowing. … [His] … work is … substantial, real, and stimulating to the student. (Reprinted in Gale 1904, 56–57; emphasis added)

Gale believed that we need more “academic rebels.” These were independently minded, well versed in their subject matter, and explored “subjects … not considered sage or in good form” (Gale 1920, 157). Controversially, he suggests that department heads may prefer scholarly “imposters” as they maintain the status quo. Still, the rebel “forms … an advanced guard of education. How seldom do we hear of a university dismissal for ignorance or being behind the times” (Gale 1920, 162). Tolerance, as Gale found out, is often circumscribed. His traumatic experience of dismissal serves to remind us of the necessity for radical thinking in combination with an awareness of changing institutional dynamics and precarity.

Within the pages of this journal, there have been recent signals that movements beyond managerial agendas are being welcomed for their potential to improve life, contribute to social justice, and enable advertising research to figure prominently in social change activities (e.g., Gurrieri, Zayer, and Coleman 2022). It is safe to say that Gale would applaud this intellectual pluralism and commitment to social impact (Gurrieri, Zayer, and Coleman 2022). Yet, he might also remind us of the power relations that continue to operate in all institutions, academia included.

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No potential conflict of interests were reported by the author.

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Notes on contributors

Mark Tadajewski

Mark Tadajewski (PhD, University of Leicester) is an honorary visiting professor, University of York, and a visiting professor, Royal Holloway, University of London.