Concerns have long been raised about the potential influence of demand characteristics in evaluative conditioning procedures. Demand accounts of evaluative conditioning effects were dismissed early on due to findings that purportedly supported the existence of unconscious conditioning effects. Over the past two decades, however, unconscious conditioning effects have struggled to withstand rigorous empirical scrutiny (for a recent discussion, see Gawronski and Corneille, 2024). Consequently, the original question has resurfaced: should evaluative conditioning effects be considered demand artifacts? In this presentation, I will critically examine new evidence addressing this question. While acknowledging these recent empirical efforts, I ultimately argue that the evidence ranges from unimpressive to entirely nonsensical.