I'm looking for research, data, or experince and opinions about the effectiveness of ads based on use of black versus white background.

I think it's a matter of preference? black tends to make whatever that is in the middle stand out but also devours plenty of space, while white gives this very 'clean, stark, minimalistic' feeling.

i think its more 'trendy' to use white now. But of course it's just an opinion.

for example:
vs
white allows you to see details more clearly

I can’t speak with any authority about the effectiveness of the ads themselves… as marketing tools to influence the public, but I can offer a perspective as a print designer who has tried several things… some which have ‘worked’ as I intended and some which printed with, ummm… less than expected results… and I might consider those to have had a less pleasing effectiveness from a design standpoint. My comments will only apply to Print ads… and not to web design or lighted displays.

When designing on a white background, we’re really talking about designing on top of an absence of color… We expect the color of the paper (or other media) underneath to show through and to a slight degree affect the colors in our design. Because there is an absence of color being printed on top of, almost any addition on the page will be visible… down to a fine black hairline or a fairly light screen of any color (depending upon what screen range the printing press you’re working with can hold) Even a very light shade, a 3 to 5% screen of a color (away from the white background) will be easily visible and apparent. And very tiny type will be visible– consider a serif typeface that’s visible down to 4 points.

Printing with a black background is a trickier proposition… because we aren’t really talking about printing on black paper (and somehow adding lighter shades of inks) we’re talking about taking a page that has absence of color, virtually fully saturating it with ink, and then trying to create contrasts and details on the page. First you have to decide how you’re going to make “Black”. Are you going to use black ink at 100%… well, if you do you’ll get a nice consistent washed out gray… because most paper will absorb the ink and mute it slightly– remember, the paper does influence your color… but there are other ways of making black– from a color theory standpoint black isn’t one of the primary subtractive colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) and theoretically shouldn’t be needed in printing… a perfect black should be attainable by using 100%Cyan, 100%Magenta, 100%Yellow… except that in practice that’s a large amount of ink to put on a page– 300% coverage– the page absorbs some of the color and to obtain a true black the colors should be mixed, not applied in layers… so printers added black ink to the other 3 primary additive colors in order to easily insure some color purity into the process. you can create a visibly darker, better black by adding a slight undertone of the other 3 colors into the mix… We’d call this our “Rich Black” and there are many combinations, but lets pick one– say C30, M30, Y30, K100. Well, now you have a better black on the page, but what happens when you try to add the simplest of elements with the highest contrast– a line of big solid white type? First, the edges around the type start to fill in slightly because of ‘dot gain’– the normal spread that happens when liquid ink is absorbed into paper. And because you’ve used a Rich Black, you now have 190% ink coverage right next to a space that you wish to be white. The ink is going to spread. Second, you’ve just increased your chances that there will be a visible halo of one or more of the primary colors bleeding into the white letters because of printer mis-registration. If everything isn’t lined up perfectly (and it won’t always) you’ve got a problem that’s going to be noticed.

Let’s reverse the strengths of printing on a white background for a second– I said that a black hairline would be visible on a white page… will a white hairline be visible on a solid black page? Even if you ONLY use black ink to create your background, no… it’s not going to happen. A white hairline is going to be devoured by all the ink surrounding it. I also said that a screen 3 to 5% away from white would be visible… is the reverse true? On a 100% black background will a screen of 97 to 95% black be discernible? Unh-uh… no way! You’re asking both your printing press and your eye to see the difference between a whole lot of ink and… slightly less, but still a whole lot of ink. It turns out that your eye is actually much better at seeing the difference between absolutely nothing… and a little something. Remember our 4 point serif typeface… how it was visible on a white background? Forget it on black… you won’t be able to read a word and the letters won’t be distinguishable because all the serifs and the letters will fill in.

So… what I’d add to your discussion is this in summary: from a design and printing standpoint using a white background offers a practical wider range of flexibility with your design. If you use black– and you can… we’ve all seen it done beautifully… you have to be much more careful with the contrasts that you use, the size of elements that go on the page, the combination of inks that make up the black, trapping issues for key elements, typeface sizes… a whole range of things. From that standpoint, if it is essential that an ad be attractive in order to be effective, then working from a black page presents some challenges that aren’t very forgiving if you mess up or don’t take everything into account. It can look really elegant, but it can also fail to be attractive in ways that wouldn’t fail when working from a white background. That isn’t a reason to avoid black or always choose white… just a comment from print experience on what it takes to BE effective when using black.

i like people who put in effort into their answers.. in my ideal world there'll be super helpful people like ricster here! :D

@ricster Good one!