Does clutter matter?

Kerry Jonas

This article establishes the level of television advertising clutter in Europe’s main media markets, reviews evidence of channel switching in the UK and U.S.

Does clutter matter?

Kerry Jonas evaluates the evidence for the impact of increasing television clutter on advertising effectiveness

Kerry Jonas
TELEVISION clutter refers to anything that is not television programming. On the basis of this definition, we can therefore identify several different types of clutter in addition to commercials: programme or sponsorship credits, programme promotions and production or station idents. There are obvious concerns for the advertiser, the most important being that clutter will negatively affect the television viewer and thus reduce the effectiveness of commercials. This could manifest itself either by viewing behaviour, notably channel switching ('zapping'), or by...

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