Time Pressure and Time Planning in Explaining Advertising Avoidance Behavior

Watching television advertising can represent a significant decision in time allocation. Those who avoid advertising represent a threat to advertisers and to television companies who depend upon advertising revenue. Two factors central to time allocation theory are identified as relevant to an understanding of television advertising avoidance behavior: time pressure and time planning. Drawing from Reactance theory, their significance in predicting two different types of avoidance, mechanical and behavioral, is examined empirically. As attitudes to time allocation are culturally and contextually dependent, two studies are reported, one in the UNITED KINGDOM, the other in Chile. In the former, time planning is a significant predictor of mechanical avoidance, in the latter behavioral avoidance is predicted by time pressure. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.