Never make the mistake of thinking that you are normal. If you work in advertising, you’re more likely than a typical Brit to live in an urban area, to work long hours, to commute to work and — for some reason — to live in shared housing without a living room.
In fact, you’re more likely to do or not do lots of things that make you and your media consumption habits different from the average Jo/Joe.
So, when it comes to making media planning decisions, you must not let your own behaviours guide you.
That’s lesson number one of Thinkbox’s TV Masters, a free and accredited online course to help you understand the UK’s TV marketplace.
It’s a simple message but a hard one for people to assimilate because we’re wired to assume that we’re typical. As Professor Lee Ross, who discovered the so-called ‘false consensus effect’, once proclaimed: ‘The person who feeds squirrels, votes Republican or drinks Drambuie for breakfast will see such behaviour as relatively common.’
If that’s persuaded you, you can enrol for the autumn 2025 TV Masters course here.
If not, we’ve made a quiz so you can test your ‘normality’ in an objective fashion. Don’t try to beat the system by guessing the ‘normal’ answers. Just be honest. Don’t you want to know how much of a weirdo you really are?
