So I’m working my way through Lost* on Hulu, which means getting a lot of ads, each with the above question. Am I the only one who uses the question to game the system? That is, I say “yes” to the ads that are short and/or quiet, and “no” to the ones that are long and or gratingly loud.
So, anyone else figure this out? If you haven’t, it seems to work.
–> I’m up to Season 2 Ep. 8. I’ve been avoiding spoilers for 6 years now, figuring I’d go back and watch the series at some point. So, you know, please post no spoilers. Or else.
I just answer “NO” to all the ads, as no ads are relevant to me, I have never made any purchase that was influenced by a Hulu ad, and never will, so they’re wasting bandwidth with me
I also want to see how they respond or attempt to “tailor” ads to someone who rejects every single ad they serve to my computer, heck, if I could find the address/location the ads are being served from, I’d add it to my edited Hosts file and just be done with it, block them at the source as it were
I just assumed that pretty much everyone just clicked no if they bothered to click at all. Nobody likes their viewing interrupted by ads, so it’s like Hulu provided a small way to metaphorically give them the finger for it. I really don’t see how enough people could earnestly participate to make it a valuable system.
The way I see it, ads in general are annoying, but genuinely targeted ads are tolerable or even good. Given that they obviously need to show ads, I’m all for making them targeted.
Yeah, what Chronos said. I like targeted marketing - I do want to know if a new Ann Taylor opens up, and I don’t care if they found that out cause I’m on J.Crew’s mailing list and spend a bunch there. Our buying habits are laughably predictable - and I’d like advertising catered to me more, if I have to endure it at all. I have DVR, but sometimes I use Hulu, so I’d rather the ads not be for Lysol and instead for Jockey.
I’m absolutely in agreement with you guys about targeted ads, I imagine it will be the future of advertising in our technological age. I just can’t help but feel that asking someone during an advertisement if they want to see more advertisements like it is a good way to go about it, people being as cynical as they are.
I’d be more inclined to go with Facebook’s method of collecting preference data collected separately from an advertisement context. Of course privacy groups have pretty much gone nuts over that so go figure.
THANK GOD I am not the only person in the world who feels this way. I totally understand how ad-supported Television work, and I dont have a problem with it. IT has just been killing me though, that it took HULU this long to figure it out.
I work an evening shift Job and I have found HULU and my DVR allow me many more oprtion to stay up with the shows I love on my own time, but for the last year I have been bothered by the fact that everytime I watch “Brothers and Sister” I have to slog throught 3 Birth Control PIll ads and 2 Feminine Hygenie product ads. I am a 37 year old gay man…I have been willing to let HULU know that since i started. Vacation destination, automobile, high-end luxury goods ; These are what HULU should be showing me
I like it. Mostly because, when the ad for pap smears and cervical cancer comes up, I can vigorously click no. Because, really, I don’t want to hear about that. I’ve had the shot, I know I have to go to the OB/GYN. I don’t need to be reminded when I’m trying to watch Community, mkay?
I just adore this post. Talk about knowing your demographics! And I completely agree about targeted marketing being much better than random, scattershot ads. I’ve actually even emailed the Hulu support staff about ways they could make it easier for me to click through to their advertisers (namely, showing banners/ links at the end for all the advertisers I’ve seen a commercial for during a program, as it’s unlikely that a viewer will click a banner in the middle of a show). The way I look at it, Hulu is providing a service that I enjoy and appreciate. I believe companies should be fairly compensated for performing services that people value. If the way to do that is by giving some time & attention to other companies who make products or provide services that I need and want, then hey, win win, right?