The Extraordinary Cost of Dull

What is the “Cost of Dull” in Advertising?

The Cost of Dull is the extra media spend a brand needs to invest to make a boring, emotionally flat ad perform as well as an interesting, emotionally engaging one. Research from System1, eatbigfish, and Peter Field found that dull ads don’t damage brands directly — they waste money, because it costs significantly more to get the same business results from a dull ad as from an interesting one.

How is “Dull” Defined and Measured?

Dullness is measured through Neutrality, the absence of any emotional response. System1’s Test Your Ad platform tracks seven core emotions (Happiness, Surprise, Anger, Fear, Sadness, Disgust, Contempt), but the most common response to advertising is actually Neutral: people feeling nothing at all. Ads were split into four quartiles based on how much Neutral response they generate, ranging from Non-Dull to Extremely Dull.

How Common is a “Neutral” or Dull Response to Advertising?

Very common. On average, 52% of responses to UK TV ads and 47% of responses to US TV ads are Neutral. For B2B advertising, it’s even higher, 60% in the UK and 54% in the US. In other words, Neutrality is typically the single largest response category to an ad, larger than all seven emotions combined.

How Much Does Dull Advertising Cost the Industry?

To bring all Moderately, Very, and Extremely Dull ads up to the effectiveness of Non-Dull ads would require an estimated $189bn in extra spend in the US and £13.29bn in the UK, roughly equivalent to the GDP of Greece.

Is Dull Advertising a Bigger Problem in B2B or Consumer Marketing?

B2B advertising has a worse dullness problem. In consumer categories, the most interesting (Non-Dull) ads actually attract the highest media spend, meaning marketers are backing their best work. In B2B, it’s reversed: in the UK, over half of all B2B media spend (£53m of £103m) goes to ads in the Extremely Dull quartile, while only £9m goes to Non-Dull ads.

Does Making an Ad “Safer” or More Neutral Reduce Negative Reactions?

No. The research found that negative emotions (Anger, Contempt, Disgust) stay roughly constant regardless of how dull or interesting an ad is. Higher Neutrality only suppresses positive emotions like Happiness and Surprise, it doesn’t protect a brand from negative reactions. Playing it safe doesn’t avoid criticism; it just makes the ad less effective.

What Causes Advertising to Become Dull?

eatbigfish’s Adam Morgan identifies four contributing trends, called “The Four Horsemen of the Dullocalypse”: Performance (short-term, transactional media channels), Optimization (simplifying assets to work across every touchpoint), Averaging (brands converging on the same look, tone, and style), and Procurement (budget and time pressures that squeeze out creative risk-taking).

Will AI Make Advertising More or Less Dull?

It could make dullness worse. Generative AI tools default to producing the statistical “average” of their training data, and since AI is making ad production faster and cheaper, the volume of average, forgettable advertising is likely to increase. The report argues this makes standing out from the crowd more valuable, not less — brands that avoid dullness will have a bigger relative advantage in an increasingly AI-generated, average-looking ad landscape.

How Can Brands Avoid Making Dull Advertising?

eatbigfish’s “Anti-Dull Dial” offers five diagnostic questions: Are we meeting the audience where they care, and speaking their language? Are we judging “interesting” against a real bar rather than an invented one? Are we showing real distinctiveness and character? Are we using emotion, drama, and storytelling? And are we challenging an audience assumption to surprise them? The more of these a campaign can answer “yes” to, the less likely it is to be dull.

Does Making an Ad More “Dynamic” Make it Less Dull?

Not necessarily, and it can backfire. Drawing on Orlando Wood’s research into left- and right-brain attention, the report notes that “left-brain” elements like freeze-frames, on-screen text, and heavily rhythmic soundtracks are actually associated with lower attention and less emotion. “Right-brain” elements like animals, strong characters, dialogue, storytelling and a real sense of place, drive both higher attention and stronger emotional response.

Are Some Product Categories Inherently More Boring Than Others?

No, the report’s position is that there are no dull categories, only dull ads. Examples cited include Specsavers (opticians), Lloyds Bank, Mint Mobile, and Adobe, all of which used humor, storytelling, distinctive characters, or emotional payoff to score highly in traditionally “boring” categories like insurance-adjacent services, banking, telecoms, and software.

Who Produced “The Extraordinary Cost of Dull” report?

The report is a collaboration between eatbigfish (Adam Morgan), Peter Field, and System1, drawing on IPA effectiveness data and System1’s Test Your Ad Competitive Edge database of over 100,000 ads. It also features insight from Jon Evans, host of the Uncensored CMO podcast and former Chief Customer Officer at System1.