The purpose of advertising, whether it be on television, print or online, is to get someone to buy a product or service, or to remember the brand name. Ads may be the bane of some people’s existence, but I’ve never minded them too much. A world entirely void of advertising is about as likely as a world without TLC, which is something I learned to accept in my lifetime.
One can usually avoid advertising simply by passing over it in magazines or newspapers, or by fast-forwarding or changing the channel on television. Online advertising has proven to be a bit trickier to deal with. Anyone who has watched a YouTube video knows this. For a lot of popular videos, ads appear that either force one to watch 20 seconds of a grinning maniac wiping something down with Clorox, or, allow one to skip the same Clorox ad after about five to six seconds. Either way, you are going to see something getting smothered with cleaning product.
Commercials on YouTube are exasperating, but they are not the only ads that populate the Internet.
Ever opened a website to read an article only to have a full page advertisement pop up and engulf the entire screen? Generally, the only way to get rid of such a monstrosity is to either wait for the ad to finish or to search for the tiny “CLOSE AD” button usually hidden on the top left the screen. Even after shutting down the massive pop-up, the website itself probably has scrolling banners that follow you up or down the page as you read the article, something that can be quite frustrating if one happens to be reading a particularly lengthy piece.
Most of the time one can close these as well, but advertisers are getting craftier with their ad placement. Recently, a website I was on had advertisements that slowly creeped up within the photographs that accompanied the article, and these were advertisements that couldn’t be closed.
Once I realized clicking upon the ad covering up half of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s face was only going to take me to a web page that offered me a vast amount of information on credit scores, I gave up and closed down the site.
When an advertisement is forcibly hoisted upon me, it has the effect of creating an intense dislike of whatever product is being advertised and actually making me go out of the way not to purchase that product.
Not only that, but when websites allow these obnoxious, screen-eating ads get in the way of their content, it frustrates readers and viewers and drives them away.
Being battered over and over again with a mandatory commercial for Mentos before one can view a singing cat video usually does not instill any great feeling in the viewer for the product or the site that hosts it.
There is no problem with advertising for a product. There are countless examples of great ads, such as Old Spice and Geico, which rely on humor and wit to get their products and services name recognition. The thing is, when watching television or reading a magazine, one can fast-forward through commercials or rip out the print ads, but online?
It’s one thing to ignore side banners, but it’s quite another to have to close countless pop-up or scrolling ads or to have to skip through commercial after commercial in order to see a video on YouTube.
The thing is, for the most part this type of aggressive and grating advertising does little to engender feelings of brand loyalty in the average viewer.
Most of the time, the only thoughts these ads spark are thoughts of irritability and annoyance. I understand websites need advertising to pay for hosting and content, but when a site drops an ad the size of a small tarantula on my screen, I’m not thinking, “Hey! I really DO like Clorox cleaning products!” What’s actually going on in my head is, “GET IT AWAY FROM ME.” I’m fairly certain that’s not the reaction advertisers had in mind.
Categories:
Online advertisements go too far
Claire Mosley
•
September 24, 2012
0
More to Discover