# I keep hearing ads play, in Spanish

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [December 12, 2011, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901 "2011-12-12T13:33:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/21 "2012-01-20T00:01:52Z")

</div>

> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> Just use Adblock or other similar program already.

The voices in my head also told me to use Adblock, and for once, they were right.

That and No Script.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/22 "2012-01-20T00:16:14Z")

</div>

> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> Just use Adblock or other similar program already.

Either you do as **Oakminster** suggests or gather the log files **Tuba** is asking for (in other words, do the admins’ job for them).

ETA: There’s a third option to leave and not come back, but that probably goes without saying.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/23 "2012-01-20T13:18:55Z")

</div>

> [@TubaDiva](#):
>
> But who is it … what is it for?
> 
> Did it start playing immediately upon your viewing or did you touch the ad in any way – mouse over it or click on it?
> 
> Just reporting that you saw/heard this is not sufficient for us to be able to track it down.

I think it was a car ad with skydivers. The sound was the wind. I heard it within seconds of my going to the list of GQ threads.

Do you contract with every single advertiser such that you need that info to find the culprit?

If so, do you have limitations against audio coming up?

I’m familiar with pop-up blockers but didn’t know you could block ads that are part of the web page itself. Its not that big of a deal to me really. If you simply stated that we have no problem including annoying ads that play audio on our website I’ll deal with it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/24 "2012-01-20T15:39:51Z")

</div>

> [@What\_the](#):
>
> I think it was a car ad with skydivers. The sound was the wind. I heard it within seconds of my going to the list of GQ threads.
> 
> Do you contract with every single advertiser such that you need that info to find the culprit?
> 
> If so, do you have limitations against audio coming up?
> 
> I’m familiar with pop-up blockers but didn’t know you could block ads that are part of the web page itself. Its not that big of a deal to me really. If you simply stated that we have no problem including annoying ads that play audio on our website I’ll deal with it.

We deal with a network of ad brokers – the Straight Dope does not contract with any one company. That’s why we’re asking for more information because without knowing useful information (like, say, the name of the company the ad is for) we have no way of tracking it down.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/25 "2012-01-20T15:42:10Z")

</div>

Did someone flip the Spanish-mode switch on Cecil again?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/26 "2012-01-20T17:40:37Z")

</div>

> [@Lord\_Ashtar](#):
>
> Either you do as **Oakminster** suggests or gather the log files **Tuba** is asking for (in other words, do the admins’ job for them).

Oh please. It’s like trying to identify an actor in a movie when the person your talking to says

“Hey, who’s that actor? You know, the guy who did that movie? The one about the guy who did the thing with the thing?”

You’re gonna have to be a _little_ more specific.

Ads aren’t static, so they always appear the same to every person each time they load a page. They’re fed by servers and rotating, and are geographically and sometimes zip code based. What you see and what I see may be very different. When Jerry goes and looks at the page, all he will see is the code for “insert google ad here”, not what ad was showing when **Irishman** opened the page at 9:47 a.m. CST in Houston.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/27 "2012-01-21T14:05:53Z")

</div>

> [@TubaDiva](#):
>
> We deal with a network of ad brokers – the Straight Dope does not contract with any one company. That’s why we’re asking for more information because without knowing useful information (like, say, the name of the company the ad is for) we have no way of tracking it down.

OK. Is there something I should look for to help you figure out which ad broker is supplying ads that have annoying audio automatically come up.

After all this time, can I assume that you don’t want ads that have annoying audio automatically come up ???

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/28 "2012-01-21T14:12:51Z")

</div>

> [@What\_the](#):
>
> OK. Is there something I should look for to help you figure out which ad broker is supplying ads that have annoying audio automatically come up.
> 
> After all this time, can I assume that you don’t want ads that have annoying audio automatically come up ???

Just had a culprit show up in this thread…

> **[Bitches and their sex drives](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=639188)**
>
> That got your attention, huh? We’ve just adopted a female dog, a spayed miniature poodle (probably mixed) of unknown age. One of her favorite activities of the past couple of days has been to drag the cushion out of her bed, grab it in her teeth,...

It was a Mucinex commercial and appeared between the OP and the first reply.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/29 "2012-01-21T22:26:29Z")

</div>

> [@What\_the](#):
>
> Just had a culprit show up in this thread…
> 
> [Bitches and their sex drives - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=639188)
> 
> It was a Mucinex commercial and appeared between the OP and the first reply.

Thank you. This is the kind of information we need to try to figure out what’s going on.

Now, did the audio start to play automatically, without you doing anything? Or did you touch the ad or mouse over it?

My understanding is that they’re not supposed to just start playing automatically.

If you hit the ad or mouse over it and it starts, you’re supposed to be able to clearly see a way to stop it/close the ad.

We appreciate your cooperation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/30 "2012-01-22T12:36:42Z")

</div>

Never did anything to or near any of them…they always start right away and before I ever get down to where they are appearing.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/31 "2012-01-22T19:31:31Z")

</div>

I have reported this situation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/32 "2012-01-24T05:28:18Z")

</div>

I think you’ve discovered the boards “spanish mode”, kind of like Buzz Lightyear’s spanish mode discovered in Toy Story 3.

Ole!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/33 "2012-01-24T15:02:41Z")

</div>

I just had a very loud video ad for Reel Steel on one of the pages, with absolutely no way to pause it. If it is one thing I absolutely can’t tolerate it’s audio on a webpage that plays without me telling it specifically to play. I’ve had it wake up my daughter before if I’m in my study at night and I had my speakers up earlier in the day and never turned them down.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/34 "2012-01-24T15:09:45Z")

</div>

> [@What\_the](#):
>
> Just had a culprit show up in this thread…
> 
> [Bitches and their sex drives - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=639188)
> 
> It was a Mucinex commercial and appeared between the OP and the first reply.

To clarify:

1. You saw an ad for Mucinex and you heard audio in Spanish? If not, what did you hear?

2. Did happen to notice if there was a small triangle in the upper right corner of the Mucinex ad? This indicates a Google ad.

3. What is your location?

4. What browser and operating system are you using?

By default, audio in ads is supposed to be off. Moving the cursor over an ad (mouseover) may invoke audio. If you didn’t do this but hear audio anyway, something is goofed up with a particular ad and we are happy to submit a beef to the appropriate ad provider. However, we need to know:

- The name of the advertiser. There are thousands of ads, and in the absence of identifying info it’s impossible to track down a bad one.

- What exactly you saw/heard that was objectionable.

- Whether you see a triangle in the upper right corner of the ad. This is a relatively new thing. We have three ad providers, one of which is Google. If you see a triangle, we know the ad came from Google. If you don’t, we know the ad came from one of the other two providers.

- Your location - many ads are geotargeted based on IP number.

- Your browser and OS - sometimes ads misbehave because of a browser idiosyncrasy.

- Whether you saw/heard the ad on (a) the SDMB or (b) a TSD column archive page. Different types of ads appear in these two venues. It’s NOT necessary to indicate the thread; this provides no useful information.

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/35 "2012-01-24T15:12:26Z")

</div>

> [@Jman](#):
>
> I just had a very loud video ad for Reel Steel on one of the pages, with absolutely no way to pause it. If it is one thing I absolutely can’t tolerate it’s audio on a webpage that plays without me telling it specifically to play. I’ve had it wake up my daughter before if I’m in my study at night and I had my speakers up earlier in the day and never turned them down.

Did this appear on an SDMB page or a column archive page?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/36 "2012-01-24T17:05:04Z")

</div>

SDMB page…it was one of the inline ads that appear below the OP. It is possible I moused over it as I was moving my mouse around the page, but frankly a mouseover shouldn’t be consent to start playing stuff either…the mouse pointer has to be somewhere on the screen, and just moving my mouse around to certain links will eventually roll over an ad at some point.

I’ve since installed Ad Blocker Pro, but I’m sure that’s not what the SDMB wants everyone doing to avoid these things. Thanks for looking into this!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/37 "2012-01-26T12:41:56Z")

</div>

Mr Ed: I’ll let you know the next time I hear one.

The OP mentioned spanish… my peeve is relative to any unwanted sounds that come up.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/38 "2012-02-25T11:37:21Z")

</div>

Hi,

yes, I know, what I should do is pony up… but since apparently you guys report obnoxious ads…

For the last couple of months I’ve been getting one which plays the tinniest, most horrible Jingle Bells cover ever. It appears in all the forums and also in my PMs. It’s one of those “you’re our 567654 customer today! Click here to win an iPad!” ads, clicking on it takes me to aldaniti dot net

Location Spain, but I also get those “amazing trick!” ads for locations outside Spain, and ads in French… but they’re silent, so it doesn’t bother me.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/39 "2012-02-25T21:19:33Z")

</div>

Pls send a screenshot of the offending ad to tubadiva at aol dot com. This will give us a better idea who to beef to.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901/40 "2012-09-17T20:46:52Z")

</div>

Has something changed about the ads? All of a sudden I have started to get video ads with sound on the page. Just happened twice in the last couple of minutes. Some ad in Japanese in the Game Room and an ad for Kia on GQ.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901.md?page=1)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-keep-hearing-ads-play-in-spanish/605901.md?page=3)
