Missing the Mark

Currently, most work in advertising assumes neutral or positive effects of exposed ads that are physically present, but not actively attended to by consumers. The primary justification for this assumption is the mere exposure effect. Recent work suggests that when people avoid distracting stimuli while engaged in a search or focused activity, however, negative affect for the distractor can occur. This distractor devaluation hypothesis was applied to banner ads. Results show that participants developed more negative attitudes toward avoided brands that appeared as distractor ads on a Web page, particularly when the ads were visually similar and near the target content.