Two Thirds of Consumers are Avoiding Ads, But They’re Not Anti-Brand
The advertising industry has a problem, but it might not be the one marketers think. Two-thirds of consumers actively dodge ads in some form, yet the same research reveals they remain surprisingly receptive to brands—when those brands show up in the right way.
New research combining self-reported surveys with behavioral measurement – tracking faces, eyes, and physical responses – found that ad avoidance exists on a spectrum far more nuanced than a simple “ad blocker” cohort. Beyond the obvious tactics like paying for premium subscriptions or muting commercials, consumers engage in passive behaviors that achieve the same result: second-screening, non-conscious filtering, and, well, simply tuning out.
“What people will say is that they are avoiding ads to some degree, to some varying degree,” said Joanna O’Connell, chief intelligence officer, Omnicom Media, in this video interview with Beet.TV. “But underneath that is a lot more depth.”
The spectrum of tuning out
The research, published by Omnicom in October 2026, found that 25% of U.S. consumers describe themselves as very or extremely active in avoiding ads, while 40% are somewhat active. Roughly 41% pay for subscriptions specifically to avoid advertising. The reasons are familiar: clutter, repetition, irrelevance, and interruption.
“Repetition of the same ad over and over, particularly at one sitting, we saw in our ‘Why Frequency Matters’ research, really, really frustrates people,” O’Connell said. “Interruptions can be frustrating to them. Even just being irrelevant, the ad just feeling irrelevant and interruptive – these are all reasons that ad avoidance is I think becoming more varied and pervasive.”
CTV presents a particularly acute challenge. Most households mix ad-supported and ad-free subscriptions because paying to eliminate ads across every major streamer would be prohibitively expensive. That creates an environment where ad-supported experiences compete directly against ad-free alternatives in the same living room.
Consumers want value, not interruption
The data suggests consumers are not fundamentally opposed to advertising or brands. In content research cited by O’Connell, 76% of respondents said they feel favorable toward ads that are relevant to the content or context, and an equal percentage said they respond positively to ads that feel like they belong in the environment.
“They want things that are augmentative. They want to interact with brands,” O’Connell said. “What they don’t like is interruption without value, repetition, which again in CTV is a major problem and creates a huge amount of frustration.”
For her, the behavioral research validated what self-reported data suggested: product placement and sponsored content – formats often dismissed as legacy tactics – produced measurably better outcomes than standard advertising baselines. Researchers observed higher joy scores on participants’ faces and greater attention directed toward logos in product placement scenarios.
The $42 billion bet on integration
PQ Media forecasts global product placement spending will grow 12.8% in 2026 to $41.92 billion, following 12.7% growth in 2025. Television remains the largest category at $26.16 billion globally, according to PQ Media’s October 2026 forecast.
Omnicom itself announced a partnership with Rembrand in October 2026 to scale in-content advertising across premium streaming. The company cited research showing that in-content advertising paired with traditional video ads drove 5.5 times the impact on message recall and four times the increase in purchase intent compared to standard approaches.
“The data is there, and I think that’s really valuable because I think it may be that these kinds of things get taken for granted a little bit, like, ‘oh, you know, sponsored content,’ but it really truly works and it’s a great supercharger for advertising,” O’Connell said.
The advertising industry has a problem, but it might not be the one marketers think. Two-thirds of consumers actively dodge ads in some form, yet the same research reveals they remain surprisingly receptive to brands—when those brands show up in the right way.
New research combining self-reported surveys with behavioral measurement – tracking faces, eyes, and physical responses – found that ad avoidance exists on a spectrum far more nuanced than a simple “ad blocker” cohort. Beyond the obvious tactics like paying for premium subscriptions or muting commercials, consumers engage in passive behaviors that achieve the same result: second-screening, non-conscious filtering, and, well, simply tuning out.
“What people will say is that they are avoiding ads to some degree, to some varying degree,” said Joanna O’Connell, chief intelligence officer, Omnicom Media, in this video interview with Beet.TV. “But underneath that is a lot more depth.”
The spectrum of tuning out
The research, published by Omnicom in October 2026, found that 25% of U.S. consumers describe themselves as very or extremely active in avoiding ads, while 40% are somewhat active. Roughly 41% pay for subscriptions specifically to avoid advertising. The reasons are familiar: clutter, repetition, irrelevance, and interruption.
“Repetition of the same ad over and over, particularly at one sitting, we saw in our ‘Why Frequency Matters’ research, really, really frustrates people,” O’Connell said. “Interruptions can be frustrating to them. Even just being irrelevant, the ad just feeling irrelevant and interruptive – these are all reasons that ad avoidance is I think becoming more varied and pervasive.”
CTV presents a particularly acute challenge. Most households mix ad-supported and ad-free subscriptions because paying to eliminate ads across every major streamer would be prohibitively expensive. That creates an environment where ad-supported experiences compete directly against ad-free alternatives in the same living room.
Consumers want value, not interruption
The data suggests consumers are not fundamentally opposed to advertising or brands. In content research cited by O’Connell, 76% of respondents said they feel favorable toward ads that are relevant to the content or context, and an equal percentage said they respond positively to ads that feel like they belong in the environment.
“They want things that are augmentative. They want to interact with brands,” O’Connell said. “What they don’t like is interruption without value, repetition, which again in CTV is a major problem and creates a huge amount of frustration.”
For her, the behavioral research validated what self-reported data suggested: product placement and sponsored content – formats often dismissed as legacy tactics – produced measurably better outcomes than standard advertising baselines. Researchers observed higher joy scores on participants’ faces and greater attention directed toward logos in product placement scenarios.
The $42 billion bet on integration
PQ Media forecasts global product placement spending will grow 12.8% in 2026 to $41.92 billion, following 12.7% growth in 2025. Television remains the largest category at $26.16 billion globally, according to PQ Media’s October 2026 forecast.
Omnicom itself announced a partnership with Rembrand in October 2026 to scale in-content advertising across premium streaming. The company cited research showing that in-content advertising paired with traditional video ads drove 5.5 times the impact on message recall and four times the increase in purchase intent compared to standard approaches.
“The data is there, and I think that’s really valuable because I think it may be that these kinds of things get taken for granted a little bit, like, ‘oh, you know, sponsored content,’ but it really truly works and it’s a great supercharger for advertising,” O’Connell said.
