HOW WE WATCH. Over at Vegacura, John makes a good point: Were I running a political campaign, I'd call some of these researchers examining how individuals actually watch ads. Focus grouping seems to assume too much attention to the screen, which may be why you get fairly boring, but pretty data-heavy, ads out of it. If everyone were being paid to think through your commercial, that may be the way to go. But given that folks are actually zoning out before the television, figuring out what's most likely to pique their interest is probably a wiser strategy. --Ezra Klein