I just had this amusing insight - I theorize that the reason flashing or highly animate visuals (like the gimicks used advertising or entertainment, for example) work on humans is because somewhere in the back of our lizard brain we think that the motion just might be a tiger hiding behind a bush to rip-out our throats.

Of course now that we walk mostly upright this has translated into flashing "DISCOUNT!" signs, movies full of explosions and probably even those blingy hubcap thinggees that the kids are all putting on their cars now, where they keep spinning after they stop moving (btw: huh?).

Amusingly, I'm pretty sure the average modern human is much less equipped than their predecessors to respond to an actual tiger hiding behind a bush to rip-out our throats!

Case in point: Current state of American dictatorship! ;)