The International Herald Tribune reports that American broadcaster NBC has been conducting experiments on watching advertisements that are being played on fast-forward. It seems the public may still be taking the ads in.
Many people record TV shows for watching later and will skip the commercials by running the tape forward. NBC wanted to know how engaged viewers were with the ads when they were being fast-forwarded.
It seems that people are still engaged, despite the popular assumption that the ads would not be noticed the same way, if at all. Levels of engagement were high, even though the commercials were over in a fraction of the time they would at normal speed. And without any sound.
When trying to get to the next part of the show you are watching, you have to keep an eye open for it to show on screen again. I don't know anyone who presses the fast-forward button and then guesses when to press play again without watching the screen and the adverts whizzing past at high speed. The brain must be engaged to be actively focusing on finding the end of the commercial break and the start of the programme, so it's perhaps understandable that people registered highly when working through this.
The results of the experiments have so far uncovered even more brain engagement. On a scale of 1 to 100, anything registering above 60 is deemed as engaged. When viewing the advertisements at normal speed, engagement was a positive 66 score. Surprisingly, when viewed on fast-forward, the score was even higher at 68.
Perhaps the brain is more relaxed in the knowledge that the individual has the power to banish the ads and, unconsciously, takes in more through the relaxed state. After all, many people who watch a show straight off live TV will move away to make a drink or fix some food while the break is on, or get annoyed that there are commercials showing and actively distance themselves from them in protest.
Maybe the advertisers will have the last laugh. It is never precisely known what parts of advertising works, nor who the advertising works best on. Far from losing out, maybe this is the beginning of a whole new subliminal uprising.
