Why the bad rap for popup ads compared to all the other ads we live with? I’m speaking comparatively here.
They’re intrusive and annoying: and TV ads are not? Direct mail and telemarketing aren’t? Magazine and newspaper ads don’t interrups your reading?
They use the computer I paid for and the internet access I pay for: TV ads use the TV you paid for and (often) the cable/dish you pay for. Newspaper and magazine ads take up space and increase printing costs of the magazine/paper YOU paid for.
They waste my time, my electricity and other valuable resources… TV ads waste your time and electricity. Printed ads waste dead tree carcasses. So does direct mail. Telemarketing wastes all the resources used to provide phone service.
Sites should find another way to support themselves: Either/or in my book. Applies equally well to any medium. We’re all happy to have “free” TV and usually accept we have to watch commercials as a trade off. We’re all happy our newspaper costs 50 cents instead of $2.00 because ads offset the costs. We bitch about direct mail, but we’re happy to take advantage of the sale prices it often promotes.
They interrrupt what I’m doing unfairly: TV… Radio… All much more “interruptive” than popups (I’ve seen commercial breaks on TV go into 4-5 minutes of COMPLETE hijack from what you’re doing…)
My point in summary: In short, unless you want to propose that ALL advertising is intrusive, wasteful and obnoxious, you can’t hypocritically just pick on popups…
So, how can one justify the vehemence and venom with which popup ads are approached? It just doesn’t compute for me.
PS - I am distinctly NOT talking about the hijack type popups common from porn and gambling sites – the ones that open infinite windows when you close them, reset your home page, etc. That is no more acceptable than would be a TV commercial that changes your channel or reprograms your VCR. I’m talking about simple “popunder” ads that open themselves and are waiting for you when you close the current window.
Yes, I agree. And so are TV ads, Newspaper ads, Magazine ads, Radio ads, Billboards, Posters on the train, telemarketing, junk mail, and those damned stupid stinking cards that fall out of everything I try to read… TO mention just a few.
My point isn’t that they’re NOT annoying, it’s that they’re singled out unfairly and I’m curious how you justify the near-vigilante opposition to them in light of general societal acceptance of all those other ads.
Fear Itself: So you’d be okay with popup ads if they hid everything else on your computer for five minutes and then went away on their own? (The equivalent of what TV or radio ads do?)
My beef with popups and popunders is that they take away my control over an important component of the user interface.
I want to determine myself what windows are open on my desktop, and where they are. Like I want my TV to stay where i put it, and not hop on to my lap if advertisers notice that I don’t consciously take notice of TV ads.
I also think TV and radio ads (that interrupt programmes) are evil. In this country we have a TV channel or two that has to go by a law we have for local TV channels: No ad is allowed to interrupt a programme.
Watching movies on these channels are bliss compared to watching them on other channels.
tschild: Again, so if popup ads simply took over your screen for 5 minutes, played their message, and went away returning you to where you were, that would be okay? Your only choice would be to go take a bio-break, work on another program, or visit another website until the 5 minutes was up? If that’s not what TV and Radio ads do, let me know.
Problems with ads on TV are adressed by sending angry letters to TV companies.
Problems with ads on radio are adressed by sending angry letters to radio stations.
Problems with ads on the internet are adressed by sending angry letters to the internet (message boards).
Well, then I’d say problems with ads on the internet are addressed by sending agry letters to the sites putting up the ads, in your sequence of events.
Message boards seem perfectly capable of handling issues on the Internet itself, but also on TV, Religion, the UN and pretty much any issue anywhere. I still say we’re being a pack of hypocrites to focus on popups while letting the rest slide.
I was trying to make a joke. I realise that this may be out of place on the GD forum, and I apologise.
This is a good point. However, focusing attention may be an effective tool - if everyone decided to try and stop intrusive popup ads, we would have “precedent” when going for TV ads, for instance.
Not even discussing the intrusiveness of ads in other media may be hypocritical, yes. The reason why it is so, I suspect, is that ads on TV, for example, are socially accepted.
Elethiomel: Don’t sweat it. I think humor is perfectly appropriate here, I did realize your comment was tongue-in-cheek (and had a good chuckle).
I agree with you that the fundamental issue is what is “socially” accepted. Personally, though, I differ with you on “focus” – I think we should be vehemently opposing ALL these intrusions.
I suspect that TV ads are socially accepted because people generally realise that they pay for the programmes that they do watch. Personally, I think the problem is that people have unreasonable expectations in assuming that internet content should always be provided for free. While that doesn’t necessarily mean revenue from pop-ups, I can’t blame content providers for wanting to try different advertising techniques online.
Where did you get that idea? Not from me! All I said was that TV & radio ads are marginally better, because they don’t persist. To infer that my statement means that I like TV & radio ads, and would approve of pop ups if they were more like TV & radio is willfully obtuse. Get thee behind me!
You indicated a reason that TV and Radio ads were “better” than popups. I asked if making popups more like TV and Radio ads would make them acceptable to you…
So either we’re BOTH being “willfully obtuse”, or I asked a legitimate question (and eagerly await your response).
For example: You might have much more productively (and, by the way, politely) said something like: “No, I’d still hate them – I’m no fan of TV or Radio ads either even if I do think they’re marginally better.”
Libertarian: True, but TV and Radio ads do put themselves “on top of” what your viewing/hearing… and you can’t even click them off – just wait 'em out.
