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LibertyBob.com

Not your candidate

Expanding Flash Ads

2009-08-09

Category: General

You have probably seen the Flash ads that expand to cover more than the space of a regular ad. The people who make and sell these ads know that such a huge ad not only gets attention, but it also looks like it is part of the regular content on the page. This makes it more likely that people will click. It has the opposite effect on me.

My default reaction to such ads is to treat them as malicious software. They are taking over my browser's display space without my authorization. I immediately send a note to the web site's administrator to complain about this infection on their pages. I strongly recommend that you do the same.

The people who come up with these kinds of ads are the same people who think it is permissible to hang their junk mail on your doorknob or shove commercial fliers under your windshield wiper. These purveyors of bad taste insist on renaming your local historical monuments after products. They would just as likely sell advertising on your baby's forehead and on your tombstone, because we all know how much you prefer Jiffy Stone brand tombstones.

Never buy a product that uses such an ad. Send an email to the actual vendor being advertised and tell them that you are not buying their products because they engage in such inappropriate behavior. Tell the web site's owner that they have been hacked. Write your politicians to insist on new legislation requiring those advertisers who make and sell such ads be taken out to Meet Pig Roger! Do it now before they put expanding ads on the back of your underwear.


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