Media Guardian: TV ads 'a waste of money'

Advertainment rocks, everything else sucks To be fair this study is far from conclusive given the limited sample, however even the possibility that it is accurate should send shockwaves through adland.

The study found people who watched television with family or friends were far more likely to talk to each other during the commercial breaks than to focus on the ads.

This, it claimed, meant advertisers were misguidedly spending money on placing their commercials in popular programmes rather than in less-watched shows, where lone viewers were likely to be concentrating on the ads. [..]

The study claimed advertisers were being misled by Barb figures, which only measure how many people have their television sets on, rather than the number of people actively watching.

"This is important because most countries, including the UK and US, use "peoplemeters" to measure advertising audiences. The problem is that the peoplemeter assumes that people in living rooms during commercial breaks are watching the advertising if they are present in the room," it said.