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Researchers from Duke University and the University of Waterloo have published the results of a study that suggests that brief exposure to Apple's brand logo drives higher levels of creativity than exposure to IBM's logo. In fact, the researchers suggest that subliminal advertising is actually more effective than regular advertising, because people don't have time to raise their anti-ad defenses.

The researchers tested 341 students, who were told they were taking a "visual acuity test." The test involved watching a screen, and tracking two events: charting the appearance of a multicolored box in different place on the screen, and keeping a running tally of numbers appearing in the center of the screen.

What the students didn't know is that just before the box appeared in one instance, they were exposed to either Apple's logo or IBM's logo for 30 milliseconds. After completing the test, the students were given a second task to think of all the possible ways they could use a brick. The people who had seen the Apple logo came up with more ways of using the brick, and were judged to have come up with the more creative uses, according to the researchers.