It's a hard one, but I really do hate advertising and visual clutter that much, and if I remember that I have been advertised at, particularly intrusive ads, I will try to avoid that brand.

These days as I don't read paper news and don't watch broadcast tv (I subscribe to netflix, prime and nowtv instead), I actually find ads in the cinema most offensive, because I can't escape easily.

--edit--

I'm not going to try to claim I'm totally immune to brand awareness campaigns that would be silly, but I do genuinely find it that annoying now.

Unfortunately, most marketers that focus on brand awareness would say that eliciting any reaction to a brand is better than not eliciting the reaction at all.

I don't have any studies on hand, but it would be interesting to test whether, on average, the initial negative reaction is better for long term brand recognition than no reaction and whether the negative nature persists, or if it shifts into familiarity territory and eventually becomes more positive than negative, as something familiar usually feels safer.

If anyone has any studies to this effect, would love to read them.

I feel the same as Nursie and can give at least one concrete example - I purposefully avoided buying any Groupon ever only because once upon a time they spammed living shit out of the Internet with pink animated ads.

Are you sure it didn't also have to do with the slew of bad press they received for a while, especially here? Do you actually have a memory of avoiding groupon and at that time remembering the ads, or are you now remembering avoiding groupon because you disliked them and now remembering the ads? (I ask because I find perceptions of past actions interesting, not because I specifically doubt you).

I am aware that memory plays tricks over time, so I am not 100% sure, but I have a distinct memory of sitting at work and getting seriously pissed off at the astounding amount of same, ugly, pink Groupon adverts I've seen in the space of few hours. I recall how ridiculous a lightweight-layout site looked when all available ad boxes got filled with variants of the same animated pink ad at the same time.

I'm pretty sure (let's say ~80%) that it was before I started hearing the bad press about Groupon. I recall being initially biased against them because of ads, and then slowly learning more reasons to not participate.

It's really just perception of your brand. If you advertise to me I'll think less of you. Maybe that's enough for me to avoid you, maybe not, but it certainly didn't help your cause.