When I watch television or read a newspaper the advertising and programming mesh relatively well 99% of the time. I think it's a function of competent media planners and buyers making placements based on the viewers/readers. You don't see a "feminine hygiene" commercial running during sports or a beard trimmer running during the soaps because that would be a waste. Florists run ads in the obituaries, pediatricians don't. There is a continuum of congruence when it comes to advertising media. So, on the congruent end of the spectrum would be TV and newspaper. Billboards are trying to stick out... so I guess it makes sense that you'd see a billboard advertising a strip club between a daycare and a church. That puts billboards are on the other end of this continuum.
There are a couple of advertising media that are even less congruent than billboards, in my opinion: online display and cinema advertising.
I've had to install an ad blocker on the family computer to keep racy ads from displaying alongside flash games on a kid oriented site. Incongruent. To be specific one popular site is currently running the "controversial" Teleflora Superbowl ad featuring Adriana Lima alongside an ad for cupcakes. The Teleflora ad is out of place.... the cupcake ad isn't.
Finally, cinema advertising is right beside online display on the incongruent side of the continuum. I took my daughter to the rerelease of Star Wars in 3D. This movie is PG rated and the majority of viewers were parents with kids. We have a neighborhood dine-in theater that, while nice, doesn't benefit from the consistency of a large corporate operation. The pre-show advertisements included 30 second ads for a church and a men's barbershop featuring a "beautiful female" staff. Were the appropriate targets for each of the ads in the theater? Of course there were. Was I the only one explaining that I don't get my hair cut by a Hooter waitress... probably not.
