Diminishing returns for ads

I have to believe that the "law of diminishing returns" applies strongly to TV ads. The more often any given ad appears on TV the less people are willing to pay attention. A little observation will support this. Watching Monday Night Football in a sports bar, the number of people who got up to order food or drinks or visit the rest rooms was fairly constant until a commercial was replayed. Then people stopped watching the TV and found something else to do. Even when people didn't leave the table they turned to look at those at the table with them instead of the TV.

It was not just the transition from action to commercial, either. I thought it might be caused by the "here's a good time to release pressure" response, and in fact that was easily observed. But the people remaining at the table often talked while watching the screen until the first repeated commercial came on, then started looking at each other. The interesting thing about that is that watching the screen generally didn't resume until the action came back on, or a commercial featuring scantily clad models or fast cars. No surprise there.

I have two conclusions from this and a few similar observations. First, that every repetition of the same or very similar ad moves from vague interest to disinterest, then to dislike. Thinking about TV and groups, the MUTE button is likely to be used about the third time an ad comes in in a short time.

The second observation is that once people stop paying attention to the commercial, they tend to continue disinterest until the actual program comes on. So one repetitious ad can not only cause disinterest (and eventually actual hostility) but will render following commercials and public service announcements less effective. I wonder if one of those smart DVR boxes which drop commercials could be set to let (or make) you see each commercial once, then skip it every time it comes on from that point forward.