Zavier Dreze and Francois-Zavier Hussherr, (1999).

This article examines four questions regarding banners used in internet advertising: 1) why banner ads were ineffective, 2) what can be done to improve effectiveness, 3) are click-through rates a valid measure of banner ad effectiveness, and 4) are more traditional measures like recall more valid.  Dreze and Hussherr report the findings of two studies to address these questions.  The first is an eye-tracking study which found that banner ads do not appear to be effective because audiences actively avoid looking at them.  Even when audiences do look at the banner, they do not actively remember it later.  The second study varied message, color, repetition, animation, shape, and size of the banner ads and then tested brand awareness, aided and unaided recall, and brand recognition.  They found that content and message were the most important factors influecing banner ad effectiveness, and that banner ads can increase brand awareness.  Furthermore, they concluded that traditional measures of brand awareness, recall, and recognition are more appropriate measures of effectiveness than click-through rates alone.

This article provides a contrast to Wang et al. in that it looks specifically at goal-oriented, directed behavior that is not assisted (and may in fact be hampered) by advertising, rather than information-seeking or exploratory behavior which is more likely to align with advertising content.  While Wang et al. theorized that exploratory motives provide the best environment for internet advertising, and especially directional marketing, Dreze and Hussherr find that internet ads can still be effective to some degree, even when interrupting another task or when met with a negative attitude and avoidance.  This article is also useful because it documents that the usefulness of consumers' attitudes towards advertising is limited in predicting advertising effectiveness because brand awareness may still increase.  These findings may be seen as precursors to the recent work done by Yoo, who described the cognitive processes which may underly this result.