I noticed that the ads the article portrayed as great appeard to be full-page magazine ads. So you flip through a magazine, read an article, turn a page and the

I noticed that the ads the article portrayed as great appeard to be full-page magazine ads. So you flip through a magazine, read an article, turn a page and there's a full-page ad on the facing page of your article. You glance at it, read the article some more, then go back to the ad at your leisure when your eyes are tired or whatnot. Or you flip through the magazine, something interesting catches your eye, and it's one of those ads so you check it out. That mode doesn't exist on web pages that I know of. We don't flip a page and see an ad that is out of the way until we want to look at it. There are plugins that do this but really who's going to install one of those? I think ads can be compelling without artificially creating an urge to consume but I don't think it happens much anymore. The VW and Absolut ads are good examples. The VW ads build awareness of the cars' quirkiness and set a relationship up in your mind. Not until you decide you need a car does the personality kick in. Maybe the same with Absolut. These days though I agree. I work for an advertising company and one of the purposes of campaigns can be "awareness." But it's not used much. Most times it's like you say: trying to get somebody to buy a thing that previously they didn't want to buy.