The effectiveness of understated TV ads

Slate has an interesting article this week analyzing why certain understated TV ads may be effective. It looks at commercials that either have no dialogue or very little dialogue, so that the only sounds heard are ambient noise.  This goes against the common thinking that the more whistles and bells in an ad, the better, especially in a media environment where people are fast forwarding through commercials with their Tivos and multitasking while watching TV (surfing the net or texting).  In order to compete in this environment, the thinking goes, you get people’s attention by turning the volume down.  It would be very interesting to see not only if this theory bears fruit for television commercials, but in the online realm as well.  Can digital ads be more effective if they turn down the volume and are less image-heavy?  This certainly remains to be seen.