Sponsored Interruptions

Don't we all hate pop-up ads?

By their very nature, they are intrusive, annoying and ineffective as a means to get my interest.
The underlying intention of a pop-up ad is to interrupt whatever you are doing to make you read a not-so-subtle marketing message.  If you invoke the option to disable pop-up ads it also prevents you from getting information you might have thought you wanted when you clicked on a link.

Most odious of all are those ads that spawn when your cursor rolls over a word on the screen. Seldom does the window contain any relevant information.  Usually it is a sales pitch for teeth whitener or penis enhancement.

Now it is probably true that many men could use some penis enhancement, but no sane person is going to order it from some unknown source on the Internet.  Next thing you know, all your twitter and facebook "friends" will get a message: "(yourname) likes Pump-It-Up gel!"

My point here is that online marketing has spun out of control.  It defies logic to assume that you can create a sense of trust when you sneak your message into the sight line of your targets, and the annoyance factor drowns out any pitch that might create a sense of need in the mind of the consumer. 

No one seems to be listening to the universal groan of users when they are assailed by these flashing, jiggling, pop-ups with no x in the corner so you can close the window.

Then there is the devious method employed by the Globe.com and dictionary. com for example.  When you go to their landing page, you get a hidden set of cookies install ed on your machine without your permission to tack your Internet use and you get at least one ad opened as a separate window surreptitiously placed on the bottom status bar. 

Small minds will reply that these trivial annoyances allow the vast information on the Internet to be delivered free to your browser.  Some one has to pay.

Well, I have hit the wall. My indulgence to accept these intrusions is worn thin.  I am erasing all the cookies on my machine, and vowing to  stop using any website that continues to require me to enable pop-ups.  If it takes me back to the dark ages, then so be it.

As Shakespeare said, "Kill all the Marketers." Well, if he had been writing on a laptop, I am pretty sure that's what he would have said.