The Most Invasive Advertisement Ever.
March 1, 2002 2:42 PM Subscribe
The Most Invasive Advertisement Ever. (NYT) At least we don't have to close ten 'Orbitz' pop-up windows, but this advertisement is extremely obnoxious.
This bothers me far less than a new window. I hope the big sites come up with good advertising that doesn't open new windows so free content can survive on the internet. I don't know, this just doesn't bother me at all. I just HATE new windows. Anything on the page is just fine.
posted by McBain at 2:50 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by McBain at 2:50 PM on March 1, 2002
I don't agree. It didn't launch a pop-up window, and it didn't stretch itself over content I already started reading.
It's the latter type that I think are the most invasive. Sort of like when the cat lies down on the newspaper you're reading.
Still obnoxious, though.
posted by scottandrew at 2:51 PM on March 1, 2002
It's the latter type that I think are the most invasive. Sort of like when the cat lies down on the newspaper you're reading.
Still obnoxious, though.
posted by scottandrew at 2:51 PM on March 1, 2002
I hate when my cat does that. But at least she's furry and welcome.
posted by kokogiak at 2:53 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by kokogiak at 2:53 PM on March 1, 2002
I have to agree. It's annoying, but not the most annoying. I'll take just about anything but a pop-up.
I'll probably change my tune if everyone starts to use this sort of ad, however.
posted by Qubit at 2:53 PM on March 1, 2002
I'll probably change my tune if everyone starts to use this sort of ad, however.
posted by Qubit at 2:53 PM on March 1, 2002
Oh I forgot. There's an ad for Viagra tatooed on the cat.
posted by scottandrew at 2:56 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by scottandrew at 2:56 PM on March 1, 2002
I used an ATM in a supermarket the other day and had to sit through a 10 second ad for laundry detergent before I could get my cash. B of f***ing A.
posted by gazingus at 2:57 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by gazingus at 2:57 PM on March 1, 2002
I have no problem with pop ups because of software that cost 20 bucks. But why the pop ups? Because they work, for which , see
http://www.msnbc.com/news/717296.asp
and Orvitz made it big because of pop ups.
posted by Postroad at 3:02 PM on March 1, 2002
http://www.msnbc.com/news/717296.asp
and Orvitz made it big because of pop ups.
posted by Postroad at 3:02 PM on March 1, 2002
Wow, it was the third browser I launched before I could be annoyed and offended. I agree. IE users should be annoyed enough to change browsers. Mozilla appears immune, but that may be a Flash issue. Omniweb suppressed the ad nicely despite offering full support for Flash (it might actually be a bug in Omniweb's CSS code). All things considered, it could be worse.
posted by shagoth at 3:03 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by shagoth at 3:03 PM on March 1, 2002
I used an ATM in a supermarket the other day ...
That is the most annoying advertisement. You're already being hit anywhere from $1.50 to $3 to use the damn ATM and then they through an ad at you.
posted by Qubit at 3:04 PM on March 1, 2002
That is the most annoying advertisement. You're already being hit anywhere from $1.50 to $3 to use the damn ATM and then they through an ad at you.
posted by Qubit at 3:04 PM on March 1, 2002
Just wondering about clcik-through tracking for ads like this - I can't even begin to guess how many times I've clicked somewhere in a window to try and focus on it so I can scroll or type, and accidentally hit a hidden or visible ad and went through to the destination page - only to hit my back button immediately, cursing. So did that count as an impression? Is accidental click-through valued or even estimated?
posted by kokogiak at 3:07 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by kokogiak at 3:07 PM on March 1, 2002
i'm with kokogiak, and will be watching the season premiere of six feet under (although i already knew about it, this served as a good reminder)
posted by rorycberger at 3:08 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by rorycberger at 3:08 PM on March 1, 2002
maybe i'm missing something... there's no invasive ad on that page when i load it. unless you mean that banner at the top for the "laramie project archives."
posted by chrisege at 3:16 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by chrisege at 3:16 PM on March 1, 2002
Ok, it doesn't seem to be showing up for me, if someone would like to please describle it.
THE most annoying ad I've ever encountered was a banner that took up a bunch of my bandwidth to load, slowing down my comp, then played some really annoying music that overrode my Pixies, with which the only rememdy was closing the page and opening it up again in hopes of not getting the same ad.
Then, the second most annoying thing I encountered was that "popular" epileptic-seziure-inducing ad of flashing colors that served no purpose other than to distract you.
posted by Mach3avelli at 3:21 PM on March 1, 2002
THE most annoying ad I've ever encountered was a banner that took up a bunch of my bandwidth to load, slowing down my comp, then played some really annoying music that overrode my Pixies, with which the only rememdy was closing the page and opening it up again in hopes of not getting the same ad.
Then, the second most annoying thing I encountered was that "popular" epileptic-seziure-inducing ad of flashing colors that served no purpose other than to distract you.
posted by Mach3avelli at 3:21 PM on March 1, 2002
Mach3avelli - the ad in question is a big flash ad. About a half-second after the NYT sports page loads, the ad takes over and turns the whole screen black, then a little animated ad plays in the center. A few seconds later the blackscreen melts away to the bottom right corner and goes away.
posted by kokogiak at 3:27 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by kokogiak at 3:27 PM on March 1, 2002
I had no idea my internet connection wasn't optimized for 100% speed.
Anyway, ads like this remind me which TV shows *not* to watch. Namely Six Feet Under. Vote with your wallets, people.
posted by Succa at 3:29 PM on March 1, 2002
Anyway, ads like this remind me which TV shows *not* to watch. Namely Six Feet Under. Vote with your wallets, people.
posted by Succa at 3:29 PM on March 1, 2002
The shame of this is that Six Feet Under is one of my favorite shows. Excellent writing, original, unique... But ads like this really piss me off. Similarly, I DESPISE "enhanced CDs" that take over your PC when you put them in to listen to and launch some goofy interactive Shockwave thing...
Anything that takes over your PC or directly gets in the way of what you're trying to look at or work on should be stopped...
posted by mattpusateri at 4:06 PM on March 1, 2002
Anything that takes over your PC or directly gets in the way of what you're trying to look at or work on should be stopped...
posted by mattpusateri at 4:06 PM on March 1, 2002
kokogiak you've got a point. Instead of going after spammers, telemarketers and obnoxious advertising agencies we should be going after the morons who succumb to this crap.
posted by fleener at 4:22 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by fleener at 4:22 PM on March 1, 2002
I'll take the pop-up windows over this opaque Flash crap. As obnoxious as pop-ups are, at least they don't prevent me from reading what I went there for.
posted by pmurray63 at 4:26 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by pmurray63 at 4:26 PM on March 1, 2002
It should be noted that if you allow cookies the ad only appears the first time you visit that page.
[unless you delete the cookies that is]
posted by DBAPaul at 4:39 PM on March 1, 2002
[unless you delete the cookies that is]
posted by DBAPaul at 4:39 PM on March 1, 2002
I used an ATM in a supermarket the other day and had to sit through a 10 second ad for laundry detergent before I could get my cash.
It's going to take about ten seconds whether they show you the ad or not.
Anyway, ads like this remind me which TV shows *not* to watch. Namely Six Feet Under. Vote with your wallets, people.
HBO doesn't care whether you watch "Six Feet Under," since it doesn't carry advertising. What they want you to do is pay for their channel. So, if this ad disturbs you, cancel your HBO, or don't get it if you don't already have it.
posted by kindall at 4:41 PM on March 1, 2002
It's going to take about ten seconds whether they show you the ad or not.
Anyway, ads like this remind me which TV shows *not* to watch. Namely Six Feet Under. Vote with your wallets, people.
HBO doesn't care whether you watch "Six Feet Under," since it doesn't carry advertising. What they want you to do is pay for their channel. So, if this ad disturbs you, cancel your HBO, or don't get it if you don't already have it.
posted by kindall at 4:41 PM on March 1, 2002
actually , the ad seemed the equivalent of what we all take of granted with TV and radio, namely occasional commercial interruptions before we get to the "content." it felt like it took all of five seconds before it went away. big whoop. Web sites offering free information have to pay the bills somehow.
posted by nobody_knose at 4:53 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by nobody_knose at 4:53 PM on March 1, 2002
I've gotten so fast on the "CTRL-F4" that I kill popup windows before they even finish loading.
Oh, that wasn't a pop-up? Oops, sorry NYT, I just killed that browser window and I'm on to something else. Justifiable page-icide. Maybe you shouldn't go around dressing up as a pop-up window.
posted by Tubes at 4:59 PM on March 1, 2002
Oh, that wasn't a pop-up? Oops, sorry NYT, I just killed that browser window and I'm on to something else. Justifiable page-icide. Maybe you shouldn't go around dressing up as a pop-up window.
posted by Tubes at 4:59 PM on March 1, 2002
it felt like it took all of five seconds before it went away. big whoop. Web sites offering free information have to pay the bills somehow.
First of all, it's taking a lot more than five seconds on the screens of those with dial-up accounts and less-than-state-of-the-art computers. Second, instituting ads so onboxious that they drive people away from your site entirely does not "pay the bills." Tubes closed the entire window and left the Times site. Like I said in the prior thread, I completely closed the tvguide.com site (another page that takes forever to load itself, before any obnoxious flash ads) and will not be returning there for some time, as I can get TV listings from a dozen other sites that are not pulling this little trick.
posted by aaron at 5:15 PM on March 1, 2002
First of all, it's taking a lot more than five seconds on the screens of those with dial-up accounts and less-than-state-of-the-art computers. Second, instituting ads so onboxious that they drive people away from your site entirely does not "pay the bills." Tubes closed the entire window and left the Times site. Like I said in the prior thread, I completely closed the tvguide.com site (another page that takes forever to load itself, before any obnoxious flash ads) and will not be returning there for some time, as I can get TV listings from a dozen other sites that are not pulling this little trick.
posted by aaron at 5:15 PM on March 1, 2002
I don't get all this resentment against advertising. If it's not worth putting up with the ads to read the Times, then, sure, don't do it. It's not like they want you to.
I don't like ads. But I really, really like being able to read the Times for free. That's pretty incredible, actually. I can afford 10-15 seconds of waiting to get to it. I usually do the equivalent of channel surfing, anyway -- I open another browser window while I'm waiting for what I want to load. No skin off my back -- and the Times gets it's 5 cents or whatever from HBO. And I get to read the Times, for free. Sounds pretty good to me....
posted by mattpfeff at 5:16 PM on March 1, 2002
I don't like ads. But I really, really like being able to read the Times for free. That's pretty incredible, actually. I can afford 10-15 seconds of waiting to get to it. I usually do the equivalent of channel surfing, anyway -- I open another browser window while I'm waiting for what I want to load. No skin off my back -- and the Times gets it's 5 cents or whatever from HBO. And I get to read the Times, for free. Sounds pretty good to me....
posted by mattpfeff at 5:16 PM on March 1, 2002
I don't see anything out of the ordinary when I go to that page.
posted by dgeiser13 at 5:28 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by dgeiser13 at 5:28 PM on March 1, 2002
why do you people have such a problem with popup windows? CTRL + W anyone?
posted by ignu at 6:23 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by ignu at 6:23 PM on March 1, 2002
A screenshot [40 kb] for dgeiser13 and the others who can't see it. I scrolled down a bit, so you see it's on top of the actual content.
posted by c3o at 7:03 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by c3o at 7:03 PM on March 1, 2002
First of all, it's taking a lot more than five seconds on the screens of those with dial-up accounts and less-than-state-of-the-art computers.
My computer isn't that less-than-state-of-the-art, but it really looks bad to me. Maybe it's my stock video card, but the thing flickers and flashes so much it looks more broken than anything. I barely saw the images it was supposed to smoothly and unobtrusively present.
I'm glad I'm not epileptic, that's for sure.
As for pop-ups, I'm testing out Pop-Up Stopper - even though it also kills legitimate pop-ups now and then. (Okay, I like the little bug zapper noise it makes when a pop-up is foiled, too.)
posted by pzarquon at 7:03 PM on March 1, 2002
My computer isn't that less-than-state-of-the-art, but it really looks bad to me. Maybe it's my stock video card, but the thing flickers and flashes so much it looks more broken than anything. I barely saw the images it was supposed to smoothly and unobtrusively present.
I'm glad I'm not epileptic, that's for sure.
As for pop-ups, I'm testing out Pop-Up Stopper - even though it also kills legitimate pop-ups now and then. (Okay, I like the little bug zapper noise it makes when a pop-up is foiled, too.)
posted by pzarquon at 7:03 PM on March 1, 2002
Okay, as long as media enhanced CDs are the fair game, I have the worst story ever:
New computer. 4 days old. Put in enhanced CD, and it stops playing every time the comp needs to refer the hard drive, for some reason. Anyway I'm a macuser and it puts on my desktop not one but 2 icons, one a creepy system level thing and one a snazzy multimedia icon. I go to take the cd out by dragging one of the icons to the trash. The other icon remains there. I don't really know what happened, but my comp froze, and when I rebooted it said there was an ADDRESS ERROR. I had to COMPLETELY REFORMAT EVERYTHING. DAVID BOWIE AND HIS LAME ISP CAN GO TO HELL.
Also: anyone else love finding an atm that still uses little ascii arrows to the buttons you use to make selections?? the old ones??? Christ.
posted by Settle at 7:59 PM on March 1, 2002
New computer. 4 days old. Put in enhanced CD, and it stops playing every time the comp needs to refer the hard drive, for some reason. Anyway I'm a macuser and it puts on my desktop not one but 2 icons, one a creepy system level thing and one a snazzy multimedia icon. I go to take the cd out by dragging one of the icons to the trash. The other icon remains there. I don't really know what happened, but my comp froze, and when I rebooted it said there was an ADDRESS ERROR. I had to COMPLETELY REFORMAT EVERYTHING. DAVID BOWIE AND HIS LAME ISP CAN GO TO HELL.
Also: anyone else love finding an atm that still uses little ascii arrows to the buttons you use to make selections?? the old ones??? Christ.
posted by Settle at 7:59 PM on March 1, 2002
Anoying? Yes. As annoying as my local NPR station's pledge drive this week? Nope. As annoying as the commercial breaks in between a nicely-paced episode of The Iron Chef? Nope. As annoying as popups? Nope. As annoying as the goddam "Got Milk" billboard I stare at every day to work? Hm, close call.
No one hates advertising more than me. No, not even you, you, you... or even you. Yet I happen to be paid by one of these big dying tech-media companies who are trying to find a business model in the rubble. You wanna hear about annoying?
As long as it doesn't confuse advertising with news content, this really isn't a big concern to me. G'head, try to annoy me as much as this pledge drive is annoying me.
posted by rex at 8:30 PM on March 1, 2002
No one hates advertising more than me. No, not even you, you, you... or even you. Yet I happen to be paid by one of these big dying tech-media companies who are trying to find a business model in the rubble. You wanna hear about annoying?
As long as it doesn't confuse advertising with news content, this really isn't a big concern to me. G'head, try to annoy me as much as this pledge drive is annoying me.
posted by rex at 8:30 PM on March 1, 2002
Lord, those public radio station pledge drives are the greasy back hair of Satan himself.
Advertising drove me to public radio in the first place, and now public radio's begging is driving me to go live with the Amish.
I GAVE YOU MONEY ALREADY. I DID IT WITHOUT YOU ASKING BECAUSE I VALUE YOUR SERVICE, THE SERVICE I'M NOT GETTING BECAUSE YOU'RE ASKING FOR MORE MONEY. I WANT MY MONEY BACK.
Sorry. Had to do that.
posted by dong_resin at 9:57 PM on March 1, 2002
Advertising drove me to public radio in the first place, and now public radio's begging is driving me to go live with the Amish.
I GAVE YOU MONEY ALREADY. I DID IT WITHOUT YOU ASKING BECAUSE I VALUE YOUR SERVICE, THE SERVICE I'M NOT GETTING BECAUSE YOU'RE ASKING FOR MORE MONEY. I WANT MY MONEY BACK.
Sorry. Had to do that.
posted by dong_resin at 9:57 PM on March 1, 2002
The ads I find most offensive are the ones played as "previews" at the movies. Hello, I just paid $8.50 and I now have to watch that smug-bastard-drag-racing-lady-snatching car ad? I always picture some ad executive sitting at a long shiny table, rubbing his hands togther, saying in an evil voice, "I've figured out a way we can make people pay to watch our advertising! Muh-ha-ha!"
posted by kittyloop at 10:12 PM on March 1, 2002
posted by kittyloop at 10:12 PM on March 1, 2002
What ad? I use Mozilla as my browser and Proxomitron (.cjb.net) as my filtering proxy. I saw *no* ad. A screen-grab is here. The page never did finish loading though...
posted by krisjohn at 1:48 AM on March 2, 2002
posted by krisjohn at 1:48 AM on March 2, 2002
I didn't see it .. I've got PopupKiller running. Free download.
posted by Mondo at 12:01 PM on March 2, 2002
posted by Mondo at 12:01 PM on March 2, 2002
Above link doesn't work, sorry :(
Can we delete our own messages here ?
posted by Mondo at 12:06 PM on March 2, 2002
Can we delete our own messages here ?
posted by Mondo at 12:06 PM on March 2, 2002
ingu: if one surfs the web much, doing Ctrl + W every time one encounters a popup becomes a huge annoyance.
I didn't see a thing on the page because I'm running AdShield, which can be configured to block all scripted popus and Flash animations. Rockin' good little util for anyone using IE. If you use the Web for news and information, you won't miss a darn thing.
posted by dack at 1:44 PM on March 2, 2002
I didn't see a thing on the page because I'm running AdShield, which can be configured to block all scripted popus and Flash animations. Rockin' good little util for anyone using IE. If you use the Web for news and information, you won't miss a darn thing.
posted by dack at 1:44 PM on March 2, 2002
The most annoying ad ever still has to be the stupid pop-under X10 ads. Sure, it made me aware of the company, but in a negative way. If I ever need to snoop on the hot girl showering next door, I'm going to go out of my way to avoid buying an X10 cam.
posted by gyc at 2:29 PM on March 2, 2002
posted by gyc at 2:29 PM on March 2, 2002
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
I feel bad now - like the 1 person out of 100 that actually buys something from a telemarketer, and so justifies their bombarding all of us with calls.
posted by kokogiak at 2:50 PM on March 1, 2002