Just out of curiosity, what is it EXACTLY about ads on YouTube that you dislike? Is it that they exist at all? That there are too many of them? That they’re unskippable? What would you, specifically, find to be a tolerable amount of ads? If you were Chief Ad Engineer at YouTube, how would you structure the ads system?
I have my thoughts on the matter, but I want to know what YOU think.
When video streaming first appeared on the internet, I basically stopped watching cable. I tolerate 0 ads and abuse video and streaming services until it’s impossible to do so and then I just won’t use those services anymore. It’s not sustainable to let me watch, acknowledged. I don’t care.
YouTube was working at a massive deficit to capture video streaming. I didn’t mind them trying to “catch up”, but they’ve gone way, way too far.
For me, the worst part is when they interrupt a video. Anything longer than 5 seconds is also a dealbreaker, often I decide that I dont need to see the video after all when multiple longer ads happen. But then again, I could never stand ads on TV either.
I think whats especially egregious about youtube ads is that they prevent you doing what you came for. On basically all other sites, ads are something in the background, something you ignore. They cannot be ignored if they play instead of a video.
I have zero tolerance to unsolicited advertising whatsoever. I am of extremely low opinion (but can sometimes tolerate) about advertisement reviews if they are stacked in some special place for advertisement reviews.
I despise ads, it’s brainwashing and psychological manipulation. No amount is tolerable. I have refused jobs at advertising companies even when I had money problems and needed to eat. If I were working for Google, I would quit.
I know many people, including me, that fall victim to the manipulation of advertising.
Back in the olden days, it was “here is my product, and this is the price, if you like it buy from this store” Now it’s not just the actual ad, it’s product placement in tv and movies, celebrity endorsement, influencers, and all that.
Just remember that advertising costs money, and that is in the price of the product. Products that don’t advertise can easily be better value.
Back in the olden days, it was “here is my product, and this is the price, if you like it buy from this store”
When exactly are these olden days you refer to? I ask because most “modern” advertising practices have long-since been in place for over a century now; the only things that’ve changed are the delivery method and frequency.
There were a time when I wanted to study marketing. I always love how Coca-Cola doesn’t try to make you buy its product, it’s just there, it doesnt say “buy!”, “we cheap!”, “we are better than the others!” or any bullshit. That dream ended when I learned what SEO was and what was doing to internet.
Coca-cola definitely advertises, famously Santa Claus, but did you also know they do more subversive things like trying to shift the blame for obesity onto the victims?
Products that don’t advertise can easily be better value.
This is exactly my reasoning in refusing to do business with service providers that (in my view) over-advertise (looking at you Geico, Progressive, United Health, Taco Bell, other major advertisers)…
Any service provider doing that much advertising is telling me 2 things with every ad: First, you already obviously have too much money and, Second, you obviously don’t need my money.
Fuck you and your “brand recognition”.
🙄 🤡 🖕 💩
Don’t forget the third thing ads tell you: ‘Our product is, at best, no better than our competitors’, and quite possibly much worse, otherwise we wouldn’t have to spend so much on controlling our reputation.’
There are lots of local brands that don’t advertise that are better than nationally-known brands, at a much lower cost.
I was fine with pre-roll ads and mid roll ads. Then YouTube became ultra greedy during Covid when tons of people watching, they went from 1-3 ads per video to 30 ads for a 30 minute video (2 ads every 2 minutes). What the fuck.
I installed adblocker because they did that. YouTube was not watchable at all. Sucks, because I didn’t mind supporting the platform and creator, but their greed ruined that.
My take on ads is this: I’ve been using the internet since 1989 - before search engines, advertising, SLIP/PPP/ADSL, etc.
When ads began to appear on websites in the late 90s, I was OK with it. A banner ad here, etc. Then they started to move. And flash. And make noise. And then popups, and pop-unders.
At that point I started to BLOCK THEM ALL. If your business model is a game of distraction from the site I’m visiting, then fuck you, your family, and anyone you’ve ever met.
Moving on to UI web-based stuff, the demise of excellent sites like AltaVista (with its superior search syntax) and the growth of Goooooooogle (with its astonishingly and intentionally shit search syntax), the progress and intention was obvious.
There was a brief period where Google, etc, provided what people wanted. But that time has passed. Now it’s all in on GIGO: garbage in, garbage out.
tl;dr: Once advertisers started to behave like gambling sites, they were yeeted to the hell in which they belong.
It’s not the ads I hate, it’s the data harvesting I hate. Static ads without trackers don’t exist on YouTube, unfortunately.
Advertising is pollution
Full stop.
Every marketer is trying to coerce you into a decision you wouldn’t arrive at on your own by limiting the information available and lying to you.
If I were chief ad engineer at YouTube i would probably be afraid of anyone knowing what I did for money.
You know facilitating the theft of people’s money by targeting them with brainwashing.
If you’re a marketer. Get a real job pal.
My problems:
- Ads not for kids in kids videos.
- Very long “ads”. Let’s say, 1 hour? I know that there are longer ads, but, well, if you think that an hour ad is not a problem, well…
- Ads everywhere. In the video, in the recommendations bar, in the main page.
- Ads INSIDE the video. I know this is not about a youtube thing, but I really hate being in middle of some video an then the guy starts talking about Brave or something.
- The pourly implementation of ads in middle video. On TV you were able to tell when and how the ads would came and felt natural because your content wasn’t cut out of nowhere.
Taking it from the last point: that’s why I love Pluto.tv. I can be watching my, whatever, and then I know that ads are coming, because uses the same timing as regular TV, so I can use that time of ads to just ignore them and get on my phone or do something else, like old TV times. Not in middle of my video that it’s gonna last 5 minutes, damn.
Edit: One last thing that I’ve forgot. I hate that everyone can submit ads, making the platform more like a town with no law. Why would I care about a product made with AI which ad itself is also made with AI?
I’m much more a fan of the PBS/NPR underwriting model. Tell me who deliberately funds the show or video.
When the advertisement is so divorced from the show, is not relevant to the conversation or is not relevant to me, then the andvertisers are wasting their money.
If you show me the same ad over and over again, I am actually more likely to NOT buy that branded product or service because I’ve become so annoyed and numb from the ad taking what little time I have on this planet that I will actively boycott it.
However, I do have a nice space mug from PBS, a plot of land on Mars, the moon and Scotland, and a t-shirt for the Truth podcast to prove that I will spend money when the advertising is relevant to the content I’m consuming. So if you want the ad to work, invest your dollars directly into the content and providers I care about.
But for the love of everything, do not think for a moment that your contribution gives you license to control their messaging or content.
Advertisements are an attack to manipulate me and change my behaviour. I don’t tolerate them at all. They also ruin the product, because it eventually becomes more important to cater to the advertisers than the users.
If Youtube went back to how it was originally (no ads, downloadable videos, creator-controlled, etc), I, and many others, would happily pay them even if we could get the content for free (see Patreon, or GoFundMe, or PornHub, or Imgur, or Reddit, or many other sites as examples).
There is no tolerable amount of ads, because not only are they an awful experience, they explicitly drive user hostile growth and decisions in the future (ie enshitification).
I used to pay for YouTube to avoid ads, before I got sick of Google and refused to give them any more money. Now I use a pihole and a browser based adblocker, as well as 3rd party front ends, because fuck Google. I don’t give a shit if I’m denying them income.
to me I still use the paid version because, for me it’s not that expensive on the family plan, and I do want the content creators to get paid. I do hate the monopoly etc… but as far as I can tell it’s one that can’t really be broken. Far as I can see no other site can actually arrange a system in which creators get paid any substantial amount.
also do have to note the inevitable put up or shut up part of nature. There’s basically only 2 options of systems when it comes to the internet, either we deal with ads or we pay for services. Until a magical extra option appears I’m OK with paying to avoid ads.
If it we weren’t Google, I’d be ok with paying too. As it is, the content creators will have to get by with their individual sponsorships, rather than getting ad revenue from me.
People seem to only consider wasted time from ads playing as the cost, but the lasting mental pollution in my brain is worse. I don’t want that shit in my head. I don’t want to think about ads. I don’t want shitty ad jingles popping up in my mind while I’m trying to live my life. A youtube video is worth having to carry more ads in my head.
All of that shit and more like they’re attack vectors for malware and scams.
I just have a moral objection to advertising in general, and try to subject myself to it as little as possible.
