Some months ago I was discussing the demise of long copy advertisements on a train journey with Rory Sutherland: I asked him if thought the amount of time we spend online had shortened our attention spans and if this had led to the demise of long copy ads?

“Oh no my dear boy!”  Boomed the reply. “The decline began long before that, you see the problem stems from when the industry started to place more emphasis on art and less on the copy, this happened at least ten years before the internet came into its own.”

I was encouraged by Rory’s response and wanted to test if people would still engage with long copy adverts. As good fortune would have it I found a I copy of Good Housekeeping from the late 90’s whilst on holiday in France. Whilst flicking through it I found an interesting long copy ad from BT. I ‘borrowed’ the magazine and included the BT advert as part of a ThinkPrint Advertising Effectiveness omnibus study. Continue reading →