Is popup advertising fair to the consumer?

[Jack]

I have been thinking about this for a while and wasn't sure whether to post in the tech forum or here.

Advertising is everywhere around us. Billboards, commercials, posters, fliers, and on the internet.

For the most part, advertising only raises our costs in the form of a couple of cent's more on a product to pay to advertise it.

However, on the internet, advertising has a direct cost relation to some consumers in the form of bandwidth usage. Some user's either pay for the amount of bandwidth that they use, thus every time a popup pops up they use more bandwidth. Or some users pay by the hour. Paying by the hour may not seem like it would have a direct cost relation to popup advertising but if the consumer runs into 4 popups in one day, taking 2-3 seconds each time to close them, then within about 1 year they will have had to pay for an extra hour. That doesn't seem like much, but 4 popups in 1 day is moderately low.

There is also the fact that more and more websites are using them, so the users will run into them on a more constant basis than ever before.

To me, forceing the consumer to pay to be advertised a product to is just not right. If the company advertising the product was footing the whole bill, then that would be different.

I do realize that there are programs out there that stop/kill popups, but the popup still uses bandwidth.

What's your take?

[LZMF1]

i hate them. get pop-up killer.

[Arthur Dent]

Interesting point. But, I have a cable modem. 24/7 connection at a set fee, so the only loss to me is productivity from having to close all the damn windows.

[Gooch]

RIGHT now in the industry...pop-up advertising is producing ZERO revenue. And, if you are paying for bandwidth to browse the fuckin net...you're a moron. That rate structure has to be the most idiotic thing I've heard. NOBODY should be paying per bandwidth, and if they do, and then get innudated by pop-ups, tough shit.

This aside: pop-ups are worthless wastes of time for a web browser...however, the successul pop-up advertisers use it for brand identity. To make users aware, and not to get someone to click-thrus. Click-thrus for banner advertising, including pop-ups is almost NIL.

[Jack]

I couldn't agree more that paying for "bandwidth" is not the way to be browsing the internet. However, there are people that do just that. So would that then make it a tax on their stupidity?

[Arthur Dent]

.however, the successul pop-up advertisers use it for brand identity. To make users aware, and not to get someone to click-thrus.

Reminds me of one of the "best" pop-ups I saw. It was for the movie "13 Ghosts". It appeared on a few movie sites. Right after the page loaded, this dark ghost just started popping up all over the screen and then stayed in the middle with the name of the movie under it and then disappeared completely. The whole thing took about ten seconds and disappeared on its own. Fun the first time, annoying as shit every other time I saw it.

[Sean Cold]

Pop up adds just annoy the shit out of me. I used to go to AICN all the time and now with all the ads, I skip it. The worst pop ups are the ones that have a sound file embeded within and the fuckin ones that have no "x" for sutting them down.

[Spitfire]

It is 3Q 2030.

You're arguing with your wife again. It seems she's
missed her spending quota again this quarter. A proud
patriot, you have no problem spending 85% and
sometimes 90% of your income on consumer goods, yet
she can't manage to spend even close to the 75%
required by law. It's that foreign mentality, you
suppose--that's what happens when you are educated
overseas and without the benefit of a corporate
sponsor. You have to remind her that if the Internal
Consumer's Service (ICS) catches her, she'll be doing
time in Philip Morris™ Prison like her uncle.
Oh well, hopefully a night at the town's
AOL-Time-Warner-Clear-Channel-Blockbuster™
Authorized Media Distribution Center will smooth
things over with her. That reminds you--you need to
have your eye- and ear-implants inspected for this
quarter again, otherwise you won't even be allowed in
tonight.


You haven't attended church services for a while.
Although your wife is a devout follower of God's
Customers™ and shops in the Church Store at LEAST
five tiems a quarter, you're not yet convinced that
converting from Consumers For Jesus™ was that sound
an investment.


Your son Rick has just graduated from the local
McDonalds™ High School. You want him to go to
Pepsi™ University like his sister, but he wants to
go to Coke™ College. Not that it matters--the
permits you get at either school are the same.
Although he really wanted to attend Stanford™, his
corporate sponsors rejected that proposal, based on
what it might do to his credit rating.


Your youngest daughter just graduated Pepsi™ U. It
was expensive, but she is all set now, having received
a Creative Thought Permit and a Entrepreneurship
License. On top of that she's accepted a job at
Fortune 10 corporation. Of course almost everyone
works for a Fortune 10 nowadays, there being only
thirty-some corporations left. It's too bad she had to
sign all those NDA's though--you'd really like to be
allowed to know where she would be living and how to
get in touch with her. Ahh well, it's the price you
pay for our corporate security.


Your older daughter, after twenty quarters of
employment, was finally permitted to tell you that she
is working in middle-management at AT&T. Of course,
every job in the United Corporations of America is
middle-management. The cheaper--skilled--labor is all
outsourced to Those Other Countries, whatever they are
called. In ten more quarters, assuming her credit
rating remains good and she has attained Shareholder
status, she'll be allowed to talk face-to-face (no
encrypted channel) with us again!


Apparently, her five year old daughter has been
grounded again, this time for racking up a $6000
fine--singing "Happy Birthday™" at a party without
a Media Distribution License. She really needs to be
taught a lesson--that as a patriotic Consumer of the
UCA, she needs to respect the rights of Shareholders
and property owners. What a dangerous thoughts she
has! She thinks she should be allowed to say whatever
she pleases, no matter what it does to someone else's
portfolio! No one can get it through to her that
terrorist ideas like that will land her in one of
those "special" schools--and she'd be subjected to a
lower quarterly limit on all her credit cards.


Fax from your wife--she'll be late tonight. Corporate
HQ has re-instated fourteen-hour work days until the
end of this quarter. It's too bad she's not allowed to
quit her job--you could get her a pretty sweet
management position any time in your department at
Microsoft.

[Keyser Soze]

Porn invented all the tricks you see today on the net. Looking to squeeze every last dime of revenue they could from the horndogs visiting their websites, porn webmasters decided that an 'exit' pop up would be their last chance to grab them before they left. Pop ups were almost non-existant in mainstream until much later.

So once again you can blame it on those filthy porn slingers.

[Skitchr4u]

great story spit...

oh, and pop ups suck

[Galt]

They may create brand recognition, but it's bad recognition.

I remember reading something about those X10 cameras that was really the first company that I ever noticed doing popup ads.

Before they started doing it, no one had heard of them. After a month of the ads, they had over 50% of recognition from Internet users, but something like 80% plus (by the way I'm making up all these numbers) of the people who had heard of them had a negative opinion of the company and wouldn't buy anything.

[fbd]

i may be the only person who isnt against pop up adds.to me, a pop up is the same as a commercail, or a billboard.its the same thing.they come, and are an annoyance at most.just close it and move on, just like changing the channel on tv or keeping your eyes on the road

[Gooch]

not when they pruposely make it confusing to close...then it becomes a major issue. I see pop-ups with fakes X's, or lightened or put in strange places...and this is pure harassment.

[The Sleeper]

I really hate those flash pop-ups that appear when I'm checking my Yahoo baseball team or that used to be present on Audiogalaxy. Sometime they don't even have an option to close them, or they move around and it's hard as fuck to do it. I would never buy anything from a pop-up ad out of principle.

[Jack]

i may be the only person who isnt against pop up adds.to me, a pop up is the same as a commercail, or a billboard.its the same thing.they come, and are an annoyance at most.just close it and move on, just like changing the channel on tv or keeping your eyes on the road

Only thing is, is that you have to at least look at it to click (or even find) the x to close it. With a billboard or commercial, you look away and in a few seconds it is gone. Not so with a popup. You have to physically remove it from your view.

[fbd]

its the same physical removal of clicking x or hitting alt+f4 as it is to change the channel on tv.you can turn away from both, but that gets rid of the purpose of having the thing on, and i think most people look at the tv to change channels, or you could stare right at the keyboard as you hit alt+f4

[Jack]

its the same physical removal of clicking x or hitting alt+f4 as it is to change the channel on tv.you can turn away from both, but that gets rid of the purpose of having the thing on, and i think most people look at the tv to change channels, or you could stare right at the keyboard as you hit alt+f4

But with a commercial, you don't necessarily have to change the channel. Wait a few seconds and the ad will go away. A popup will not go away until you click the x to make it go away.

[Sean Cold]

Like it has already been said, it's the decietful fuckers that are really fuckin annoying. My most hated is the ones you click off by the x and bam, three new pop up ads to get rid of. Clutter just sucks.

[AdolescentMasturbator]

For the pay-per-bandwidth thing, people in certain countries(australia, etc.) have no chance to pay any other way. Once they go thru a certain threshold of bandwidth they get raped with charges.

And whoever came up with pop-ups deserves to have ebola in his colon.

[GonzoStyle]

pop ups are great, it's like a video game. You kill one and another pops up, it is a game of speed and strategy.