Majority of Americans now use ad blockers

[usonian]

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/america_ad_blocker/

More than half of Americans are using ad blocking software, and among advertising, programming, and security professionals that fraction is more like two-thirds to three-quarters.

According to a survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by research firm Censuswide, on behalf of Ghostery, a maker of software to block ads and online tracking, 52 percent of Americans now use an ad blocker, up from 34 percent according to 2022 Statista data.

More striking are the figures cited for technically savvy users who have worked at least five years in their respective fields – veteran advertisers, programmers, and cybersecurity experts. (66 to 76% )

For the general public, the rationale for doing so tends to be more about protecting privacy (20 percent) than blocking ads (18 percent), with another 9 percent wanting faster web page loading.

[Qutzupalotl]

1. Guess that's one reason ad revenue and rates are declining.

Less ROI.

[usonian]

2. My opinion of advertising is summarized in this article by George Monbiot. over 12 years ago!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/24/advertising-poison-hooked

here's a bit:

Advertising claims to enhance our choice, but it offers us little choice about whether we see and hear it, and ever less choice about whether we respond to it. Since Edward Bernays began to apply the findings of his uncle Sigmund Freud, advertisers have been developing sophisticated means of overcoming our defences. In public they insist that if we become informed consumers and school our children in media literacy we have nothing to fear from their attempts at persuasion. In private they employ neurobiologists to find ingenious methods of bypassing the conscious mind.

Pervasiveness and repetition act like a battering ram against our minds. The first time we see an advertisement, we are likely to be aware of what it's telling us and what it is encouraging us to buy. From then on, we process it passively, absorbing its imagery and messages without contesting them, as we are no longer fully switched on. Brands and memes then become linked in ways our conscious minds fail to detect. As a report by the progressive thinktank Compass explains, the messages used by advertisers are designed to trigger emotional rather than rational responses. The low-attention processing model developed by Robert Heath at the University of Bath shows how, in a crowded advertising market, passive and implicit learning become the key drivers of emotional attachment. They are particularly powerful among children, as the prefrontal cortex – which helps us to interpret and analyse what we see – is not yet fully developed.

Advertising agencies build on this knowledge to minimise opportunities for the rational mind to intervene in choice. The research company TwoMinds, which has worked for Betfair, the drinks company Diageo, Mars, Nationwide and Waitrose, works to "uncover a layer of behavioural drivers that have previously remained elusive". New developments in neurobiology have allowed it to home in on "intuitive judgments" that "are made instantaneously and with little or no apparent conscious effort on the part of consumers – at point of purchase".

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. We block ads because of TRACKERS, not advertising. Show a picture or text.

Pictures and text are not blocked, if they are clean and free of trackers.

[usonian]

4. Agree

I hate everything forced upon us.

It's not enough to say "Trackers are harmless, because I never see the ads"

Data is sold. You never know how it will be used. I'll bet that insurance companies buy it. They buy auto sensor data.

And that's my counter to the TikTok noise.
Our data, collected here in the U.S. of A. is sold, and who asks what the buyer will do with it (or even who the buyer is, behind some front). Classic example is Cambridge Analytica, housed in U.K., a nation of ill repute.

Heck, weren't the GOP feeding Putin data?
I mean polling data, not the classified kind.
That's another matter.

[DBoon]

5. 3rd party ads are a vector for malware

blocking ads is like keeping mosquitos out of your house

[CloudWatcher]

6. I'm simply stunned

Yeah, I use ad blockers about 99% of the time. When I do turn it off (briefly), I'm always stunned at just how awful every web site I visit has become.

From intrusive "take over page" ads to insultingly stupid click bait links, they are amazingly obnoxious. Sites like CNN go from just terrible to absolutely intolerable.

I'm frankly surprised that there is not a "decent ad service" that sites can use to have a higher quality of ads. Maybe ads that actually just sell a product and do not include the click-bait, lies and scams that appear to be most ads these days.

Of course this isn't just a problem on the Internet. I'm always shocked at the ads on MSNBC when I forget to hit mute. Full disclosure, MSNBS is just about the only broadcast TV we watch anymore. I'm afraid to think about regular TV ads.

I don't understand how "reputable" sites (and TV channels) put up with the scummiest of bs for ads.

[usonian]

7. Money and love are blind. Nobody cares!!

Lots of ads are bid upon in real time. It's very complex.
And I don't get into the details because I prefer to blank them out.

Here's an example.
https://adengager.com/what-is-rtb-a-beginners-guide-to-real-time-bidding/

One or more browsers or ad-blockers offer an option to "allow acceptable ads". Zero in my book.

I don't watch TV and mute the radio ads.

I am more than capable of finding things on my own. I skip the first 5 or 10 results on search (I use DuckDuckGo, which bases ads (and placement?) on content, not on profiles, which they don't keep.) and skip past Amazon, EBay and such. It's all SEO crap at the top of search.

I do OK.
I even turn off extensions when at a really critical banking or business site.
They have strange interactions, but I need to do the numbers correctly.

[Earth-shine]

8. Do companies ever figure on the "hate factor" that comes from saturated bombing of ads?

For example, I hate those Chase commercials on the cable channels. The commercials with Kevin Hart are so moronic, I could never watch any of his movies now. So stupid are these commercials, it sheds light that the other Chase commercials are also stupid.

I'd never even consider Chase as a bank because they have over-exposed themselves to me.

And don't get me started on that valley girl with the showers. If you repeat the same commercial every 15 minutes, I will eventually hate you and your product.