Recent advertising aesthetics have been focusing on the wrong kind of attention, argues Orlando Wood, with profound implications for the effectiveness of creative campaigns.

Why it matters

Aesthetic trends in advertising have hewed toward narrow-beam focus – the kind of attention that helps us remember facts, figures, and details but not the kind that notices, enjoys, and remembers messaging. By playing to a narrow, more inward-looking attention, brands are leaving a lot of creative power on the table.

Takeaways

• There are two types of attention – broad-beam and narrow-beam – which work in that order with broad attention narrowing to...