Advertisements already have a bad rep for being a waste of time. With the ability to skip ads becoming more apparent in the age of the internet, it takes true creativity and the right amount of empathy to truly sway people away from pushing the dreaded ‘skip’ button, though tighter schedules and a faster corporate rat race are as much to blame. As people find less and less time to do the things they love, stealing their attention to advertise for a product they may or may not need has been honed into a mixture between a fine art form and a psychological exercise.

No longer are straightforward ads enough to hold a person’s attention. In order to succeed, today’s ads must be an amalgamation of clever marketing and the performing arts, delivering all the information relevant to the product and its audience while pushing the boundaries of its content medium. Empathy and the ability to create an emotional bond with the complete strangers in the crowd of listeners is also a major selling point. The contents should make them laugh, shed tears, criticize and believe in the facts being presented. The moment the audience begins to form an opinion about an ad, they have begun to think about it, accomplishing the task of the marketers.