open letter to entertainment media companies

dear entertainment companies,

we have to talk about ground rules.

if i am watching content you created or are paying to broadcast either on television or radio or over the web, i am totally toasty with seeing advertisements, because that's how stuff gets paid for.

if you have sold me a service that consists of advertising-free content, you may not place advertising in it, because by asking me to pay for the content was ostensibly what was going to be your revenue stream.

i know, it seemed rather like an easy choice for you to sell me content without advertising but then your ADVERTISERS got cranky because they wanted to put advertising on all your content!

that's not my lookout.

there is no double-dipping.

either give me free content with advertising OR let me pay for advertising-free content. you cannot have it both ways, you greedy little pricks.

and while we're at it, if i am watching AN ADVERTISEMENT, you may not put advertising on that before i can watch your ad. that is also double dipping and not ok.

furthermore, if i am visiting an ad-supported website to read an article but then i can't see the article OR THE ADS because of a second layer of popup ads, i simply close the window and therefore do not look at the popup but i also do not read your inline ads or your sidebar ads or your banner ads and i also do not read your content and i do not talk about it or link to it.

so while you're thinking about how you can squeeze every last penny out of my eyeballs by cramming ads into your content, what is really happening in the aggregate total is that i am not looking at any of your content, and my shopping dollars are going to sites and advertisers that have given some thought to how the consumer might like to see advertising.

because let's face it. the real reason for advertising is to boost actual purchases, and if i am so mightily annoyed as to turn off the media source, nobody is getting what they want.

and i know you didn't ask me, but here's is how web advertising works in my brain:

sidebar ad gets read, and most often clicked. i will go out of my way to buy stuff from sponsors of free content i enjoy.

banner ad is sometimes read, but most often ignored.

inline ad gets aggressively ignored, because it is annoying. did you not think i saw the sidebar?

popup gets closed immediately.

persistent popup means i stop using your website.

i know i have helped you.

love,
flask.