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Lucy Parkhurst Brad Thompson Terrance Brown Pop Up Advertising Description: Pop up advertising is a form of online advertising on the internet that is intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. It works when certain web sites open a new web browser window to display advertisements. The purpose of such advertising is to increase and expose brand awareness, which consumers find “intrusive” and “annoying” There are many types of pop-up advertising that include the floating ad, which moves across the user’s screen or floats above the content.
Another form is the expanding ad, which changes size and may alter the contents of the webpage. A polite ad, where a large ad will is downloaded into smaller pieces to minimize the disruption of the content being viewed. The wallpaper ad is a common form, which changes the background of the page being viewed. Another is the trick banner, which looks like a dialog box with buttons. It simulates an error message or an alert. The most common online advertisement is a pop-up, which opens in front of the current one, displaying an advertisement, or entire webpage.
Analysis: Advertisers use online advertising to “capitalize on the interactive capacities of the internet and of interactive television to create a two-way “conversation” between product and consumer” (Larson 46). However, pop up banners and ads are one-way communication, because these ads are conducted without consumers consent, and are not interactive nor are they conversations. According to Spence and Van Heekeren, they “invade the consumer’s privacy and are ethically unjustified” (p. 104). The ethical behavior of pop up advertising has become a major issue.
Take for example pornographic pop up ads, which puts children surfing the web in a vulnerable position. Another issue with such advertising is privacy issues, because such ads can find ways of obtaining one’s email address, and other personal information. Companies are constantly looking for new ways to advertise their information. For instance, mainstream companies would just love to flood email boxes with advertisements. There is no better direct way to reach customers than by sending them personalized ads.
However, while many disreputable companies use unsolicited email, mainstream companies that have dabbled in it have quickly found themselves labeled as spammers and have faced an onslaught of protest. Online advertising encompasses a range of types of advertising, some of which are deployed ethically and some are not. Some websites use large numbers of advertisements, including flashing banners that distract the user and some have misleading images designed to look like error messages from the operating system rather than advertisements. Pop up advertising is effective because it targets anyone with a computer, or internet access.
Companies have become incredibly sneaky because the internet allows advertisers to show ads based on a user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and to reach users based on their interests (e. g. “sports enthusiast”). Companies target consumers by recognizing the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network. Defense: To avoid pop-ups, one must first understand how it operates. Company websites can program any part of their pop-up to go to any Web site and, in some cases, install software into your computer system.
They can make buttons that say Cancel, No Thanks, I Refuse, Close, Quit, etc. , that do the exact opposite of what you think they should do. In other words, up means Down, Left means Right, etc. In many cases, if a pop-up displays some text along with install and Cancel buttons, clicking either button or even any of the text above the buttons will start the download or be a hypertext link. Once you understand how they work, clean out any spyware if you suspect it on your system. Finally, when surfing the web, use a Web browser that can close pop-ups before they even open.