I have a confession to make. I use
AdBlock Plus in all my browsers. I simply don't see ads.
The reason I block ads is because of the really spammy ones. The ones that whir, flash, jigger around in my peripheral vision, shouting "Look at me! Look at ME! LOOK AT MEEEEEEE!"
Advertisers really think that the way to get my willing compliance is to annoy the living crud out of me - or give me a migraine? (Seriously: that's a thing. I don't need more migraine than I already have. It's very effective aversion therapy for adverts.)
So they spoil it for everyone else. I don't mind sidebar ads, provided they don't compress the actual content into a Brazilian-waxed mini-strip down the middle. I don't mind ads that don't jump up and down like a clingy, demanding three-year-old, having tantrums when I don't pay attention. Sometimes, targeted ads that play nicely will even get my clicks. But the others, the irritating ones, have poisoned the well for the rest, because you can't filter for "spammy", so I block the lot. And I'm very, very far from being alone in this, as industry stats illustrate so well.
I appreciate that this breaks the unwritten compact between content consumer and producer: that the presences of adverts - even if not the deliberate click-through - are what pay for the content we consume.
So, this is my message to the advertising industry, and to the content makers: get your act together.
- Advertisers: stop equating causing irritation with getting attention. Would you reward someone for stamping on your toes?
- Producers: apply controls on who advertises through you, and how they do it. Play nicely, and come down hard on those who won't.
Do these things, and consumers might stop routinely using AdBlock Plus and its rivals.
AdBlock is not the disease, it's the symptomatic treatment for one. Cure the disease, and patients won't need the medicine.
