If the television program bleeds, memory for the advertisement recedes

In public surveys, the most common complaint about television is the amount of violence depicted on the screen. More than half the programs shown on t elevision are violent, and hundreds of studies have shown that viewing TV v iolence causes an increase in societal violence. Nevertheless, advertisers continue to sponsor violent programs. For an advertisement to be effective, the brand advertised and the message in the advertisement. This article re views the effect of TV violence on memory for ads. A meta-analysis integrat ing the results from 12 studies involving more than 1,700 participants show s that TV violence impairs memory for ads. The impairment occurs for males and females, for children and adults, and for people who like and do not li ke to watch TV violence. These results suggest that sponsoring violent prog rams might not be a profitable venture for advertisers.