Why Are Ads So Hated (continued)

I have long been a proponent of online advertising and I think its the definitive revenue model for most web-based businesses. I run ads on this blog and believe its the right thing to do. But I’ve noticed a lot of irritation with advertising lately and wrote a blog post recently asking Why Are Ads So Hated? I got a ton of comments explaining exactly why.

I don’t mind ads that are not intrusive. Text ads on the sidebar, banners, even ads below the post are fine with me.

But there is kinds of online advertising that I do not like. Popups were annoying and I am glad they are largely a thing of the past. The splash page that you have to "skip" to get to the page you really want is irritating too.

The most irritating ads are the ones that interfere with what you want to do. And for some unknown reason Rhapsody is running an ad for T-Mobile right now that literally makes it impossible to use their search field for roughly 30 seconds while "grandma" hangs over the edge of the screen. Of course you can close the ad, but the sheer stupidity of this ad is mind boggling. Can you imagine Google dangling Grandma over their search field? Check it out.

I use T-Mobile (my mobile carrier) and Rhapsody all the time. They are brands I have an existing relationship with. And they are pissing me off. Not smart.