What better way to kick off Ad Week than with a study showing that a percentage of Canadians do enjoy ads?

The Institute of Communications Agencies today released a study indicating that 36% of Canadians 18 to 34 will share ads they find humorous or clever – 13% more than the national average of 23%. That same demo is also more likely to search online for ads that they like, and twice as likely as the national average to say they are excited to see ads from brands they like.

The study of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted between Dec. 17 and 30, 2010 by Ipsos Reid via the company’s proprietary Ipsos Opinions Online Panel.

Twenty-six percent of respondents also indicated that they viewed TV as the most influential medium on their purchases, with in-store advertising coming in second place at 19%. Low pricing was the most-often cited inspiration for purchase intent (32% of respondents) with eye-catching imagery right behind it at 24%.

Interestingly, 27% of respondents to the poll said that they strongly agree that ads in newspapers, radio and TV subsidize the cost of delivering media to consumers. The topic of ads subsidizing content for consumers has been a hot-button issue in the trade press of late, as the New York Times gets set to put its content behind a pay wall in February.

And as the ad world prepares for the annual creative blitz that is the Super Bowl commercial break, the poll also found that 17% of 18- to 34-year-old respondents said they share at least one Super Bowl ad within their personal network.