Banner ads work subliminally

A study in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that although web-readers may not click through the banner ads on the pages we browse, we do submilinally register the products advertised there. What's more, the subliminal impression we gather is positive:

To test this, they asked students to read a multipage essay under the assumption that they'd be answering questions on the essay's content. Instead, the students were ultimately quizzed about a fictitious brand of camera, Pretec, that had appeared in banner ads on the pages that contained the essay. Different pools of students were exposed to Pretec ads zero, five, or 20 times.

Afterwards, when asked about their negative feelings towards the brand, the number of exposures made absolutely no difference. In contrast, those students asked about their positive feelings towards the brand saw those feelings increase in a linear fashion based on the number of exposures. In fact, the authors noted that the positive vibes still appeared to be going up after 20 exposures, leading them to wonder where this effect might start leveling off.

Link (via Digg)