Avoidance of Sex and Violence in Programming Increases Ad Recall

Here's an interesting twist. Ads placed in programming that is not predominantly filled with sex or violence deliver a 17 to 21% higher rate of advertising recall. This is the finding of a study done by the University of Michigan's Institute for Higher Learning.

"In our labs we have never found that people remember more if the ad is embedded in a violent or sexual program," says Brad Bushman, a psychologist at the university who conducted the research. "It doesn't matter whether the viewer is male or female. It doesn't matter how old they are, and it doesn't matter whether they like violence or sexual content."

These findings are in line with past findings and show a trend. Violence and sex are just too distracting to allow advertising messaging to get through. Sex and violence in the ads, however, are another story. Recall is very high as proved by the notoriety of the Miller Lite Catfight campaign.
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