The Movie Dunkirk Teaches Us Why Your Ad Isn't Working
Human Psychology Works the Same Way in Every Situation
Imagine soldiers on a war-torn beach, bombs exploding around them, yet they barely flinch. Now picture your carefully crafted ad disappearing into the digital void. The movie Dunkirk shows us why—because human psychology doesn’t change, no matter the setting.
The Dunkirk Evacuation
In May-June 1940, over 338,000 Allied soldiers were stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk, France, surrounded by advancing German forces. This crisis followed Germany’s blitzkrieg invasion of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands on May 10, which shattered Allied defenses and drove troops to the coast. German forces had breached the Ardennes and reached the English Channel by May 21, trapping the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) along with French and Belgian troops.
A controversial halt order from Adolf Hitler on May 24 paused the German panzer advance for three days—possibly due to terrain concerns or Hermann Göring’s promise that air power alone could finish the job. That pause gave the Allies time to mount defenses and organize an evacuation.
Christopher Nolan’s 2017 film Dunkirk throws us straight into that chaos. With its non-linear storytelling, the film switches between land, sea, and air, capturing the relentless tension. Luftwaffe air raids. Ships sinking. Soldiers scrambling for safety. What stands out is how quickly the soldiers adapt. Bombs fall. Bodies wash up. But after a while, no one flinches.
That’s not dramatic license. It’s real psychology at work. Survivors of Dunkirk described becoming emotionally numb, tuning out everything that wasn’t directly threatening their lives. Their brains, trying to conserve energy, filtered out the horror to stay focused on surviving.
This is a textbook case of hedonic adaptation: we reset our emotional baseline to cope with constant stress. When danger is everywhere, we get used to it. The brain saves energy for the truly urgent.
By June 4, 338,226 men were rescued during Operation Dynamo. That success came at a cost—nearly all equipment, tanks, and vehicles were left behind. Churchill called it a "miracle," and while it was a tactical retreat, it became a symbol of endurance under fire.
Why Your Ads Get Ignored
Just like the soldiers stopped reacting to bombs, your audience has stopped noticing your ads.
The term for this is "banner blindness." Coined in 1998, it describes how people learn to ignore ad-like content because it clutters their digital space. In a 2013 Infolinks study, 86% of users experienced banner blindness. The average click-through rate? Just 0.06%. That’s six clicks for every 1,000 impressions.1
A 2018 Nielsen Norman Group study confirmed this with eye-tracking data: people avoid anything that looks like a banner, whether on mobile or desktop.2
It’s not that they’re trying to ignore your ad. Their brains just don’t consider it worth noticing. Novelty, urgency, and relevance matter. Everything else? Background noise. Hedonic adaptation kicks in here too: show someone the same format over and over, and they stop seeing it.
Think about kids playing video games. "Dying" in the game becomes routine. It’s not emotional anymore. Their brain adapts based on what matters in that moment. And what matters isn’t the ad.
So in digital marketing, your banners might as well be far-off explosions on a battlefield—noticed once, then ignored forever. And that’s why performance drops. You get low CTRs, missed opportunities, and wasted budgets.
Even though people say they dislike ads, research shows they still influence behavior subconsciously. But the ones that interrupt the flow—without offering value—get filtered out instantly.34
Strategies to Make Your Ads Unignorable
To fight desensitization, use novelty bias. The brain pays attention to what feels new. This resets its filters and brings your ad back into focus.
During Dunkirk, any new threat cut through the noise. Online, it works the same way. Your ad has to be different enough to interrupt the scroll.
Example 1: Apple's 1984 Super Bowl ad
It broke every rule of the time. Instead of promoting features, it told a dystopian story. Directed by Ridley Scott, it introduced the Macintosh as a rebellion against conformity. That unexpected story grabbed attention—and helped Apple change how we think about computers.5
Example 2: Dove's Real Beauty Sketches
No models. No polish. Just real women, and real reactions to how they see themselves versus how others see them. It was raw, emotional, and hard to ignore. And it struck a nerve with millions who saw their own experiences in it.6
Example 3: Nike's Colin Kaepernick Ad
“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” That single line, paired with a polarizing figure, lit up the internet. Nike leaned into urgency and relevance. It was bold. And it worked—generating conversation and building deeper loyalty with their core audience.7
Want your ads to stand out?
Don’t just tweak the visuals or A/B test copy.
Break the pattern.
Use the science of human attention the same way Nolan used it in Dunkirk: to make people feel something again.