Paying attention to attention: A tension in advertising
In the recent general election debates between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn they both commented on the other one finding a magic money tree. But research suggests that even if someone did find a magic money tree, they wouldn’t notice the money.
In 2010, film makers left 100 dollars in a tree on a relatively busy street expecting to quickly create a scene that they could film. The two most common responses to the stunt were that people didn’t look at the tree, or people did look at the tree but didn’t notice the money in it.
