Tag Archives: online ads

When online ads attack

This unholy mess is on People.com* right now:

(Click to embiggen)

I hate rollover ads to begin with since they inevitably (purposely?) cause the user to accidentally expand the ad, covering the content of the page (where the real value resides).

But this ad from American Cancer Society (which isn’t even in its expanded state) coupled with the subscription ad prevents me from reading the headline and what looks to be the first 2.5 paragraphs of the story. That’s bad enough, but there’s nothing I can do to get rid of the subscription ad since the American Cancer Society ad is covering the Close button I assume is in the top right corner of the subscription ad. You can’t click-and-drag the People ad anywhere and can’t shrink the ACS ad to get access to the close button.

Does refreshing the page get rid of both ads? Yes. But that’s a lousy user experience, I’d say.

Yeesh.
* Save your judgment. I clicked a friend’s link via Twitter, I wasn’t looking for the latest Jon and Kate update.