We develop an empirical study of the information–persuasion trade-off in advertising using data on the information content of ads, which we measure with the number of information cues in ads within an entire industry. The data are from video files of all advertisements in the OTC analgesics...

Media industries are important drivers of popular culture. A large fraction of leisure time is devoted to radio, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and television (the illustrative example henceforth). Most advertising expenditures are incurred for these media. They are also mainly supported...