As it becomes increasingly customary for advertisers to analyze how consumers and customers are affected by advertising, it becomes correspondingly important to assess and understand how advertising works in the mind of the consumer.

The aim of this book is to define and provide valid explanations concerning how advertising works.

Morten Boeck lines up two schools of thought founded on models and theories; two contrasting points of view concerning how consumers mentally process advertising are presented.

The views are termed the traditional view and the contemporary view, respectively. While the traditional view focuses on the consumer's use of cognitive mental resources to process advertising the contemporary view argues that advertising has a subtle effect that influences the consumer subliminally.