Investigating the Structural Evolution of Ad Design: Computational Analysis of Information Content and Interactivity in Ads
When watching ads from the 1980s versus ads from the 2010s, there is a glaring dichotomy. Whilst older ads tend to resemble a broadcast, directly communicating product features to the viewer, newer ads often have an air of informal-ness and casual energy. They incorporate humor, make internet refere...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/156952 http://orcid.org/0009-0006-2542-9219 |
| Summary: | When watching ads from the 1980s versus ads from the 2010s, there is a glaring dichotomy. Whilst older ads tend to resemble a broadcast, directly communicating product features to the viewer, newer ads often have an air of informal-ness and casual energy. They incorporate humor, make internet references, and, increasingly, have nothing to do with the thing they are supposed to advertise. In this research, I dissect this broader shift into changes in ad content and ad tone, specifically, changes in information content and interactivity levels. Using various methods, I collect data from Super Bowl advertisements from 1980-2023 and identify metrics that measure the information content and interactivity of the ads. I further introduce the information content-interactivity scale for ad classification, and show that ads have indeed become less informational and more interactive over time. |
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