Question: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders alerted the public to the psychoanalytical techniques used by the advertising industry. Its premise was that advertising agencies were using depth interviews to identify hidden consumer motivations, which were then used to entice consumers to buy goods. Critics and reporters often wrongly assumed that Packard was writing mainly about subliminal advertising. Packard never mentioned the word subliminal, however, and devoted very little space to discussions of “subthreshold” effects. Instead, his views largely aligned with the notion that individuals do not always have access to their conscious thoughts and can be persuaded by supraliminal messages without their knowledge.
In Options 2 and 4, the word ‘subliminal’ is used, which is not used anywhere in the passage, hence these two options can be considered as out of context. The premise of the passage lies on the fact that people aren’t aware that they are being targeted, hence Option 3 is also incorrect. This makes Option 1 the correct answer because it summarizes the passage well without any discrepancies.