It's ironic that, while reading this 2-page article, I had to close down a pop-up which Salon had thoughtfully chose to show me AND ignore an interstitial advert between the two pages. While not as crooked as the campaign that the article is about, the fact remains that ALL pop-up ads are wrong.

Posted by: Alan Fisher on May 10, 2002 10:46 AM

 

A while back, I sent Salon an angry email about a Flash ad that covered the story I was reading. I made it clear that I didn't object to advertising per se, just advertising that inteferred with the content.

Much to my surprise, I got a reply from a "Sr. VP of Business Operations". He mentioned that he didn't like the obtrusive ads, but justified himself on 3 grounds:

1) The ad market is so soft, the advertisers are dictating the terms.
2) Yahoo and CNet are doing it.
3) We've never made a profit.

In my email I neglected to mention that I had actually considered and rejecting getting the premium service when it became clear that this would get rid of some but not all ads.

So of course while insisting we wasn't "shilling" (his word) for Premium Services, he mentioned Premium Services. Kind of like the passive-aggresive trick of saying "I won't even mention the time you were so drunk you were directing traffic."

I didn't bother with a reply.

Posted by: Chad Lundgren on May 10, 2002 12:32 PM