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Is it More Effective to Hit Low-Attention Viewers?

If Robert Heath is right, a large part of every dollar spent on advertising-related marketing research is a waste of money.

There are few fence-sitters when it comes to the ideas of UK communications specialist and academic Robert Heath. Heath believes that television advertisements are more effective if they are processed with low attention; he calls this concept the ‘Low Attention Processing’ (LAP) theory.

This theory states that ads are more effective if they are largely processed unconsciously, which raises doubts about stated conscious awareness as a measure of effectiveness. On the tenth anniversary of Robert Heath’s LAP theories, it is timely to revisit his views.

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