Mass Media Advertising : Information or Wallpaper?

For most consumers, advertising is less important than ad- vertisers might think. Advertising appears to function as something in the background that is hardly noticed, as "wallpaper," But mass-mediated advertising should at least function as a reminder when people are making choices. Smit addresses these questions through in-depth interviews, a nation-wide telephone survey with follow-up mail and a face-to-face survey. Edith Smit is associate professor at the Department of Communication at the University of Amsterdam and at the Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ascor). She is also Deputy Director of swocc, the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Commercial Communication.