I think I’m having a change of heart about these animated adverts adorning websites such as Microsoft’s Hotmail & MSN, Yahoo, AOL etc. Just to clarify I’m talking about legitimate ads here, as opposed to adware which is even more frustrating.
I used to think that they are no problem, support a website, and to be annoyed or offended by such things is simply making an issue where there isn’t one – you can simply ignore them.
However I’m becoming increasingly aware that such advertising is hard to ignore, any non-user initiated movement on a page focuses your attention if only momentarily. And I’m fed up of seeing adverts for ridiculous weight-loss schemes that seem to be everywhere online and just mirror how shallow our printed media industry is. It’s sad to think that people could be drawn in by such things and they must because online advertising is a big business which some people make a comfortable living from. I’ve been fooling myself into thinking I couldn’t be offended by a simple, but eventually very irritating advert. The reason is simple – adverts that are for products I have no interest in or products that I in fact dislike the very idea of, are where the frustration lies. Unfortunately that’s a subjective thing, and makes me think that perhaps much or all of current internet advertising should be axed or at the very least better targeted to the user.
