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Show Rep. Vm. Dawson 1 Favors Study of TV Experiment Rep. William A. Dawson (R-Utah) today asked the Federal Fed-eral Communications Commission Commis-sion to set the public's mind at ease concerning subliminal advertising by definitely prohibiting pro-hibiting the experimental process pro-cess on television until it has been fully studied. He asked FCC chairman, John C. Doerfer to invoke the available protections because of "widespread concern" over premature pre-mature use of the subliminal technique which impresses the split-second commercials on the viewer's subconscious mind without being visible to the eye. "In the present limbo", the Congressman wrote Chairman Doerfer, "television stations are not sure whether they could use subliminal advertising but the public is not sure they could not. I see no reason for extending this ambiguous situation situ-ation when most of the television tele-vision industry itself agrees that the process should not be used until it has been fully evaluated." Since the FCC initiated its investigation of subliminal perception per-ception at Rep. Dawson's request, re-quest, the major television networks net-works and the Television Code Board of the National Association Assoc-iation of Radio and Television Broadcasters have voluntarily disclaimed interest in the technique tech-nique pending the study. But, said the Congressman, there are indications that this policy is not industry-wide. He pointed to a Wall Street Journal article quoting Richard Rich-ard E. Forrest, vice-president of Subliminal Projection Co., Inc., as saying that "we've still got plenty of interested independent inde-pendent stations." Rep. Dawson said his mail still reflects anxiety on the part of the public over "this method of manipulating minds" and for that reason called upon the Commission to remove the uncertainty. The FCC has not issued any official caveats, but Mr. Doerfer Doer-fer recently indicated to the Congressman that "reasonable protections may be available to the public" under the present Communications Act although it does not deal specifically with subliminal perception. Among those controls he listed sections giving the FCC control over station apparatus and requiring sponsor identification. identifi-cation. - "Since the Commission does have this authority, I recommend recom-mend that subliminal advertising advertis-ing be specifically prohibited for the duration of your present study," Rep. Dawson said in his letter. |