Acceptable ads for special circumstances

[Holdek]

Hypothetically, how would YouTube or other video sites be able to display "non-intrusive advertising" as videos? Or web mail sites such as Outlook? They aren't typical web pages with text that you're trying to read. I'd like to give them the option of supporting themselves through responsible advertising. Have any discussions among the list authors been had about this?

[DylanYoung]

Same as any other site, no? There is simply no way to embed an Ad in a video unobtrusively, except perhaps by giving users the option to disable these ads 1) before a video plays and 2) immediately after an Ad starts plays (i.e. no wait 5 seconds to skip), and probably also 3) globally for the site in question.

[Holdek]

Same as any other site, no? There is simply no way to embed an Ad in a video unobtrusively, except perhaps by giving users the option to disable these ads 1) before a video plays and 2) immediately after an Ad starts plays (i.e. no wait 5 seconds to skip), and probably also 3) globally for the site in question.

Those are some good ideas.

A big reason Adblock Plus with acceptable ads turned on is justified is because websites started abusing ads (flashing ads, ones with sound, ones that where splashed on top of the content that you had to exit out of to read, etc). So I feel like Adblock Plus with acceptable ads returns the experience to being more like opening up a print newspaper: there are ads there on the side, but you can easily ignore them and they aren't going to interfere with your reading the article.

So I guess the question is: what is reasonable for a video site? Just making it analogous to TV means you need to at least block pop-up ads and ads that stay on the screen while the content is playing. Additionally, maybe some rules could be only allowing ads outside of the video frame, limits on how long ads can last, the number of ads for the given amount of content, only allowing ads at the beginning or end of the content (not interrupting the content), etc. I like the idea of being able to skip ads immediately, too.

[Luna Moon]

So I guess the question is: what is reasonable for a video site? Just making it analogous to TV means you need to at least block pop-up ads and ads that stay on the screen while the content is playing. Additionally, maybe some rules could be only allowing ads outside of the video frame, limits on how long ads can last, the number of ads for the given amount of content, only allowing ads at the beginning or end of the content (not interrupting the content), etc. I like the idea of being able to skip ads immediately, too.

Even though I think the option to skip an ad immediately would be an improvement and more possible than no ads at all in the middle of content, it still interrupts the content. So I agree with Dylan Young's ideas. As far as I know, YouTube already has an ad policy, but it is more focusing on the content instead of user-friendly display.

I like your idea to apply rules from TV, but I think for a video platform like YouTube another problem is what rules/what laws should it follow as it is international and the most countries have their own laws and views on advertisements?

[greiner]

Video ads are indeed tricky. There may be individual examples of video ads that aren't disruptive (e.g. personally, I quite like TED's approach with their simplistic, one second, static, pre-roll ads) but they're certainly not widely adopted and it's difficult to define criteria for them while also excluding the ones that are obviously unacceptable.

On that note, feel free to check out the Acceptable Ads Committee if you're interested in shaping the Acceptable Ads criteria since that task has now been taken over by an independent committee. So if you want you can apply or ask someone else you trust (e.g. some digitial rights organization) to apply (see list of members and application form).

[Luna Moon]

On that note, feel free to check out the Acceptable Ads Committee if you're interested in shaping the Acceptable Ads criteria since that task has now been taken over by an independent committee. So if you want you can apply or ask someone else you trust (e.g. some digitial rights organization) to apply (see list of members and application form).

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