Repetition, recall, and advertising

Advertising is typically repetitive, yet standard models provide limited guidance on why repetition persists in equilibrium. This paper models advertising as cumulative knowledge production: repeated exposures increase consumer recall and activation at diminishing returns. A monopolist jointly chooses price and advertising repetition, with recall scaling demand multiplicatively. The model rationalizes persistent advertising expenditures without relying on persuasion or asymmetric information and is consistent with empirical evidence on diminishing returns and wearout. Extensions illustrate how the same mechanism applies to political agenda setting and advertising competition.