Intrusive Internet Video Ads: Lose Friends and Annoy People

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by

Neerav Bhatt

I woke up yesterday to see this broadcast message on Twitter by my friend Stilgherrian: “Dear Fairfax, video adverts which auto-play with sound turned on are REALLY F*CKING ANNOYING and make me hate you and your advertisers.”

Lose Friends and Annoy People With Intrusive Internet Video Advertising

I agree wholeheartedly and had said so only the day before: Neerav: “ATTN: Online advertising ppl. I hate those popup autoplaying video ads by MediaOne with a passion & so do many other ppl. Scrap them pls”

Lose Friends and Annoy People With Intrusive Internet Video Advertising

Another friend also chipped in with her comment: “Fushmush: I hate those video ads on the SMH. I leave feedback everytime one plays. My feedback usually is in CAPS and has lots of !!!”

Lose Friends and Annoy People With Intrusive Internet Video Advertising

An example of one of these annoying ads is shown below. So far I have seen them on several Australian and NZ websites. They’re especially annoying when I’m reading the Sydney Morning Herald or APCMAG because these video ads start playing automatically with loud audio so they interrupt any music I’m listening to on my computer 🙁

Lose Friends and Annoy People With Intrusive Internet Video Advertising

MediaOne says “Our consumer research confirms that the MediaOne format makes a high impact on the consumer” – but is the fact that my friends and I want to punch them the impact they were looking for?

What do you think?

Comments

19 responses to “Intrusive Internet Video Ads: Lose Friends and Annoy People”

  1. servalan

    By using Mozilla Firefox, with the flashblock & adblock plus plugins, I’ve never seen these videos or any other ads for that matter on the SMH site.

  2. Wayne

    UGH yes… audio ads are to me even worse than the ones that take over your whole screen just as you’re scrolling. They somehow manage to be DEAFENING regardless of how high you have your headphones’ volume.

  3. Sanavas

    Placing such annoying ads will make your visitors run away. So don’t use them

  4. brie

    I hate those ads with a passion, god damn it. It’s not even effective marketing — more like annoying marketing.

  5. Bob Yeager

    I agree… nothing like waking up in the evening (sleep all day 🙂 to read an article and having my headphones on, frantically looking to throw them across the room or mute the volume. Pop up videos are effective advertising, but for those who spend more than a few hours online (which is growing in numbers everyday) it gets very annoying.

    I like a pop over that says “Click Here to View this Video Message from _____” more affective and allows the reader the privelege of making a choice.

  6. Scott Rhodie

    Anything that plays sound the moment I go onto the site I automatically avoid.
    I won’t even go to someone’s MySpace page simply because I don’t want to hear other peoples music blast out of my speakers.

  7. Swanie

    Oh, I have been annoyed a few times by these loud ads that play automatically and whole page ads that you need to click “skip this ad”. Never going to visit those sites again.

  8. Christopher Hennis

    Yeah, I don’t even do anything on my laptop anymore without the sound being muted. I unmute it maybe once every 3 or so weeks to dabble with Adobe Audition or listen to a Portishead album or something, but that’s about it.

  9. Wolf

    why when visiting The Age do i keep getting the same add for the NSW govt playing… if I hear the term 60billion once more I might just go postal.

    Those video adds are a waste of bandwidth and time and aren’t even targetted for crying outloud.

  10. Giulio

    An autoplay anything is a violation of my time and my eardrums. I have two ways of handling this: Never go back and tell others to avoid the website. As far as I am concerned it is website spamming.

  11. erin

    Swanie, I do the same thing. The minute the ad pops up, I get annoyed, turn off the sound and usually leave the sight right away. Grrrr.

    I think they a waste of time and not effective at all!

  12. Rashmi Mehta

    Hi Neerav,

    You have certainly made a valid point thru this post. In fact it is high time that owners of such websites realise that not only are they wasting their time and money thru these intrusive autoplay audios, they are also axing their own feet by turning away potential visitors who otherwise would have stayed at their sites & possibly convert in to customers in the near future. And this cud be highly detrimental to their online business !

    The sooner they realise, the better for them…

  13. Janey

    First thing I do in the morning is read the online papers whilst drinking that well needed cup of coffee. I always try and resist clicking on any outside links for fear of an auto play video blasting out and waking my other half up. I also feel my space is being invaded with some sales pitch I do not want to hear. I need to mute the sound but forget because I love listening to music.

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  16. Really Cheesed Off

    The one that finished me off after decades of being a Sydney Morning Herald reader was the “feature” that goes to an advert instead of a story video you select, and, incredibly, asks you which ad you’d like to see from a choice of three. If you don’t chose one, it randomly autoplays one. “Which ad would I like to see”? They can’t be serious. After something like 45 years, I signed off ever reading the Herald in any form again.

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  18. tim

    Is there a way we can start a boycott of the companies that are advertised?
    or at least a list?
    “companies that like waking up our kids”

    Fairfax, it is also showing how DESPERATE you are.

    It’s a bad look.

    Do you think GOOGLE got rich by ANNOYING people?
    Duh! The Opposite.

  19. Anthony

    It would be absolutely F*CKING HILARIOUS if all these intrusive advertising AS*HOLES were PUNISHED with PRISON TIME for their ARROGANT BULLSH*T!! After three such offenses these WORTHLESS PIECES OF ADVERTISING SH*T would receive the DEATH PENALTY by a FLAMETHROWER.

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