banner blindness

Definition

The phenomenon where users subconsciously ignore banner ads and anything that looks like advertising, developed through years of exposure to terrible ads. It's the internet's immune system response to marketing.

Example Usage

Our banner ad got zero clicks despite a million impressions, a textbook case of banner blindness or possibly just a really boring ad.

Origin

Term coined by Benway and Lane in a 1998 study documenting how users ignore banner-shaped content

Fun Fact

Users avoid looking at ads so instinctively that eye-tracking studies show they'll skip over useful information if it resembles an ad format.

Source: User experience research and web psychology

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