By providing an insight into the marketing background of creating advertising messages with help of characteristics such as values, attitudes, motivation and lifestyle of potential consumers, this paper explains various forms of hidden messages and techniques that are used to influence consumers for marketing purposes in order to achieve the main goal of integrated marketing communication – consumption. Various creative strategies, types of messages and appeals, motives, rational and emotional decisions, denotative and connotative meanings, use of symbols, ambiguity, metaphors, allegories and comparisons of implicit marketing, forms of persuasion, classical conditioning of consumers, and many other related terms are listed and explained. The difference between hidden supraliminal and subliminal messages is also explained. Subliminal messages are all those that contain stimuli that are below the level of conscious observation, while supraliminal messages are consciously noticeable, but people often do not perceive them. The paper also mentions related terms such as subliminal perception, subliminal stimuli and subliminal techniques, amongst which are insertion, illumination, and low-intensity-level sound, separation of background and figure, tachistoscopic representation and illumination, and background sounds. These terms are presented and explained through numerous examples of media content with detailed analysis of symbols and meanings. In addition, the paper presents a review of relevant studies of subliminal impact on consumers and compares subliminal messages phenomenon to some of the communication theories. The paper examines possible impacts of hidden messages in the media on children and teenagers and the findings are backed up by research in that area.