Day 114: Then Do Something About It

2026-05-31

Hello!

This is a hastily-written response to Absurd Pirate's article: "I'm So Tired of Ads". My response: Then Do Something About It.

I definitely understand that ads are annoying. I also think that not enough people (including me) know the economics of advertising, and how marketing in general pays the bills for independent websites or large companies. If I watch an advertisement all the way through, am I really just giving a fraction of a cent to a content creator I'm watching? Is my time really worth that little?

I'm not saying that you shouldn't be tired by ads. I'm saying you should do something about it.

But also: you shouldn't be tired by ads. In the same way that a gentle water stream can carve entire canyons over time, and a tsunami can break down entire cities that aren't prepared for it, the tide of advertising is incredibly powerful. I will detail my thoughts on how to resist that tide, but I think there's merit to letting the cool sensation of water flow over you. Rather than being tired, stay calm. There's something philosophical there :-).

They give several examples of being bothered by ads. I have thoughts on each example. They're framed as examples through a daily life, which is creative enough. I honestly like their writing style — it's much better than mine, at least — but I want to throw my hat in the ring and say something about the subject itself.

If you watch an online video (say, on YouTube) while heading to the bathroom in the morning, a substantial portion is preloaded with advertisements. Ads at the start, ads sprinkled in the middle, ads sprinkled at the end if you haven't clicked off yet.

Let's assume you're on your phone in the bathroom. If you're bringing an entire computer to the bathroom, that's a different issue. Here's my solution: don't watch videos in the morning. Addiction is bad. If you need to catch up because you think the world has suddenly stopped turning while you were asleep, YouTube wouldn't tell you. Check your texts or something, instead. You've got mail, and all that.

One hydra head down. If you hear advertisements on the car radio (because you're lame like me and don't have a way to access radio anywhere else besides the car), switch stations. Your local university probably has a radio station that can surface interesting tracks. Radio is really cool! I'm just too lame to figure it out. Also, I don't use the radio that often...

Also in the car: plenty of billboards. You can't avoid this. It sucks. Even if you take the train, some transit companies collect advertising money from companies plastering posters on the inside and outside of each train compartment. They're even putting ads over the speaker system in planes now.

But rest assured that billboard advertisements are the worst type of advertisements — lawyers resorting to billboards know that they're not appealing to you anyway, only a very specific person. The rate of visibility to paying client (called "conversion rate") is very low with regards to billboards. Their advertisements won't work on you.

Still in the car (the worst part of any day), avoiding bad radio and ignoring bad billboards, you turn on a bad podcast. Everyone's making a podcast now, and they depend on advertisement and sponsorship money. You could choose not to listen to the podcast, but if you really like their content, there's probably a way to block it. I watch one or two regular podcasts on YouTube, where I have an adblocker and sponsor skipper installed. It took me one minute.

On independent websites (the example given was a recipe), the concern is that you will be inundated with advertisements. Even after blocking them, you will see a pop-up asking you to see the ads again — somehow, the website knows you're blocking those ads. But you could also block the pop-up. uBlock Origin, a modern content blocker, is named as such because it can deal with much more than advertisements. Developers, it turns out, are pretty clever.

Along the way, the idea of an adblocker like uBlock Origin as I've mentioned has been addressed. On YouTube, watching a video no longer has advertisements (addressing the first hydra head of annoying advertising) but then you're hit with a sponsored segment. If you're techie enough to install uBlock Origin (which is two clicks), you're techie enough to install SponsorBlock, which does what it says. Just another two clicks. You can absolutely just Do Something About It.

Now, the real challenge. Streaming services like Netflix now have advertisements if you're not paying enough, and it seems like there's no limit. Barring illegal solutions like piracy, one could get up and make some tea, or go for a bathroom break. Or hit the mute button and walk away for a while. Check on your indoor plants — do they need water? Is your dog sitting patiently for little snacks?

Product placement is a whole other topic and is one of the more unavoidable aspects of advertising. It's a confusing topic that is above my pay grade, so I'll link Tom Scott's video on product placement in the media, according to British law.

And as for the actual economics of web-based advertising, I would recommend you start going down the rabbit hole of YouTube CPM (cost per thousand views) and affiliate marketing. Them websites and content creators don't get much from peddling nonsense.

In short: watch less content that just sells you stuff, which might be easier than you think. Of the content you like watching, block the bits you don't like through browser extensions or the humble mute button on your TV remote.

Cheers,
David