February 22, 2007

Tummy-wipe TV is bad for advertisers

Sweaty psychologists from University College London have determined that ads shown during programmes with high sexual content suffer from poor recall.
An ad break during a particular arousing dramatic point is as bad as coitus interruptus. You wouldn't want some salesman phoning you mid-stroke now, would you?
The study needn’t worry champions of smutty advertising. A secondary finding was that men were more likely to recall sexy ads. “Sex is only a useful advertising tool when selling to men”, said one of the researchers.
The story reminds me of a prank that almost went badly wrong on British TV many years ago. One of Noel Edmonds’ TV stunts involved hiding secret cameras in a victim’s house and then rigging their TV so that Noel would appear mid-programme, delivering a message tailored to that unsuspecting viewer. Yes, it really was as crap as it sounds.
One day he picked on ginger DJ Chris Evans who was sitting on his sofa, in his dressing gown. Evans looked suitably shocked, which is understandable seeing as he was watching Baywatch at the time. While wanking.

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