Screw your contrast

June 12, 2004

Aggravating pop up/under ads

According to a recent story on CNET pop-up/under advertising is higher now than it was before the plethora of pop-up blocking software (i.e. Google, America Online, Yahoo, EarthLink, etc.) became available. The reason given for the increase in the annoying advertising tactic? Much like the reason for the continuation of spam advertising, because it works.

Purpose of advertising

First, let’s identify the purpose of advertising before we discuss ways around these annoying ads. The purpose of advertising is, ultimately, to sell a product. Now, once a company has sold you a product, ideally, they want to continue to sell the same product to you, or something else in their product lineup. Before they can sell you their first unit, they have to get your attention and convince you to buy their product.

Purpose of pop-up/under advertising

The purpose of the pop-up/under advertisements is to annoy the ever-living hell out of you. Much like the annoying kid brother of that really hot girl you were always trying to get some alone time with back in high school, there is no way you’re going to forget advertising this annoying. Pop-up/under ads work on the premise of repetition. Advertisiers believe that if they subject your eyeballs to their advertisement frequently enough they will eventually pique your interest to try out their product.

What is the solution?

The solution may be uncomfortable to some of you, but I have a few ideas, one of which should appeal to you.

  1. Use a text mode browser–This is the preferred method but, also the one least likely to attract a huge following. You’re not going to get any pop-anything advertising with a text-mode browser, also this prevents those annoying shockwave/flash advertisements that “paint” over your browser window from becoming a problem. As a side benefit, text-mode browsers eliminate the virus problems for Internet Explorer victims users as they don’t have the scripting vulnerabilities that are prevalent in IE.
  2. Turn off every scripting option in your browser–This is the method the rest of you should implement. This will put the burden back on the site and force advertisers to rework their advertising “solutions” by designing ads that will flow with the content of the page you’re viewing. Additionally, uninstall the shockwave plugin, as the overlay advertisements that “paint” over your browser window are predominately made in shockwave.
These types of advertising only continue because the unwashed masses tolerate their existance. Take steps to protect yourself from these annoying advertising tactics and eventually advertisers will get the message and change their tune or go out of business.

Posted by Philip McClure in on June 12, 2004