This may make us reconsider using overly sexed-up visuals in ads or putting ads within highly emotional contexts:
"When people see violent or erotic images, they fail to process whatever they see next, according to new research. Research subjects were handed a stack of pictures that included pleasant landscapes and architectural photos. They were told to search for a particular image. Negative images were placed anywhere from two to eight spots before the search target. The closer the negative image was to the target picture, the more frequently people failed to spot the target. In a follow-up study, negative images were replaced by erotic shots. The effect was the same."
--Live Science
