Columbo, the 1970s TV detective, fought the psycho taste. There’s an episode Paul Pairet likes to use as an example of the psycho taste’s power, called Double Exposure. It’s about a marketing genius who used subliminal messages in commercials to boost sales at his company. Eventually, he gets greedy and starts blackmailing people. When his boss finds out, Dr. Bart Keppel, the self-styled “motivation research specialist,” uses his subliminal messages to cover his tracks.
Keppel invites the boss to a screening of a new promotional film, but not before plying him with salty caviar first. While watching the film, which Keppel has interspersed with subliminal frames of hot deserts and cool water, the psycho kicks in: the boss needs a drink of water. Fast. He plays right into Keppel’s hands, who by now is laying in wait at the water fountain. When the boss leaves the theater, suddenly thirsty but not sure why, Keppel kills him, and Columbo has a psycho taste murder case on his hands.
