Remember those “Magic Eye” stereoscopic posters that were all the rage during the mid to late 90s? You know, those posters that looked like a jumbled mess until you crossed your eyes the right way and then the images jumped right out at you? Remember how hugely popular they were? You couldn’t walk through a mall without wading through a large crowd of cross-eyed people, trying to see the magic pictures. There’s a fad that dropped like a rock, huh.

Maybe the problem with the posters is just that: a large crowd of people would stare at them in the mall but never buy anything. It was enough to get someone to stop shopping for a few minutes but not long enough for them to want to take it home.

Maybe the posters’ creators should’ve hidden some subliminal messages in the jumbled images to jump-start the sales.