A review of advertising and forgetting

This report attempts to review the psychological and marketing literature relevent to consideration of the remembering and forgetting of advertising. Theoretical and empirical studies are described and implications for advertising research and practice are drawn. Of the two theories of forgetting, one is dominent in the psychological literature. This fact is not reflected in current advertising research and practice, which appears to be based more on the less satisfactory of the two theories. A change in the foundations of both literature reviewed provides a staring point for such a change. The empirical studies reviewed demonstrate the importance of motivation and selective perception in determining the subsequent degree of forget¬ting. A shift in emphasis from forgetting per se to conditions affecting these variables seems desirable. The effects of competitive advertising emerge as possible major considerations in the forgetting of advertising. The implications for advertising style and content, media scheduling, re¬petition and frequency are discussed. The dual nature (desirable/undesi¬rable) of repetition and frequency is stressed and the importance of the particular situation revealed. General rules applicable to all situations do not exist. An imaginative approach to the particular situation is required.