Online Ads Irritating Frequency

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Below is an old blog 16 November 2023, about bullet advertising.

SKIP AD. Advertisers have a new ploy to force us to watch ads selling vehicles, cream to stop wrinkles, shampoo, hamburgers, movies and everything else. It’s irritating when we’re watching online videos, so we hit SKIP ADS.

I noticed recently that the interruption message has been changed to ‘video will play soon’. There are still ads that tell us how long they are: 20 seconds, 30 seconds or a minute. At least they give us the option to decide if we want to watch them or not. This new ploy ‘video will play soon,’ is dictatorship. We don’t know how long the ad is. No choice. Watch it. It will end soon. It’s interesting that advertisers realize that the word ‘ad’ is bad news, so they removed it. ‘Video will play soon’ is supposed to be reassurance to the viewer. Will this replace video will play after the ad? Probably, because it has ‘ad’ in it.

Aversion to ads is caused by their frequency. How do advertisers justify ads every two minutes? Are we watching movies and sports or are we in a digital market place? Why the rapid frequency? I used to allow short ads, but I quickly realized that the system sent me more 30 sec ads. Now I just switch off the program. Ads don’t subsidize my internet service. I pay for it.

In fact, social media should be called selling media. The intention is not to bring people together. It is to sell products. We are encouraged to share what we are watching so that advertisers can reach more potential customers. SKIP ADS gave us the option to decide if we wanted to see the ad or not.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger

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