You Don’t Like What You Ignore

Huffington Post:

The world is a busy place. Driving down the highway, there are cars on the road you need to track. There are also other less essential things calling for your attention like bumper stickers, billboards and signs from roadside stores. The web is also dense with information. Reading the news on your browser creates a competition between the story you are reading and other advertising on the site.

When people advertise, they must be making one of two assumptions about why that advertisement will work.

One assumption is that when you put something in the world, eventually people will look at it. When they look at it, then that provides the advertiser a channel for persuasion. This view is the basis of that annoying billboard that says, “Does advertising work? Just did!”

Read more: Huffington Post