50 years using the wrong model of TV advertising

Robert Heath, Bath University School of Management, and Paul Feldwick produce a crushing indictment of traditional information-processing models for how advertising works.

50 years using the wrong model of TV advertising

Robert Heath and Paul Feldwick

This article summarises a paper to be presented at the 50th Market Research Society Conference. It investigates the dominance of the information-processing model, which has been assumed to be correct since the first UK TV ad ran in 1955. We present evidence that the model is over-simplistic and contrary to learning from psychology, and examine why it has never been successfully challenged. Finally we present an outline for a new model, and summarise some implications.

SURREAL GIBBERISH

In 1999 a launch TV commercial for...

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