Commentary--When Is Less More, and How Much More? Thoughts on the Psychological and Economic Implications of Online Targeting and Obtrusiveness

In a very intriguing and groundbreaking study, Goldfarb and Tucker [Goldfarb, A., C. Tucker. 2011. Online display advertising: Targeting and obtrusiveness. Marketing Sci. 30(3) 389-404] show that online advertising targeting and obtrusiveness boost purchase intent independently, but not jointly. The authors rule out recall as an explanatory mechanism and provide preliminary evidence that the effect may be driven by privacy concerns. We comment on the substantive importance of this finding by discussing the psychological and economic implications of the effect.