The funny thing about Ads though

Screenshot from X

I'm not even going to talk about just YouTube ads here, I've downloaded many apps so I can really relate to this guy's perspective.

Ads are meant for one thing, to convince you to buy something, or download something or use a service but because of how intrusive they have gotten, they're almost doing the opposite.

If I have to count how many times I've genuinely clicked an Ad in the past decade, I'll say just 2 or 3 times, but more clicks have been mistakes because I didn't even see the Ad coming, I just wanted to click next button and some big ass Ad popped up for me to click it.

I understand that developers and service providers earn from this to be sustainable but the end users can get disturbed sometimes when the ads come in at the wrong time.

An Ad, in theory is meant to spark interest and make you curious enough about a product or service and eventually have you reaching for your wallet or downloading something, but not when your mind is super ready to watch a video which has a pretty sick thumbnail and you just can't wait to see what it's all about.

It's definitely a placement issue rather than the product itself but, have you ever been in a rush to go someone and some random dude stops you to talk about a product he's selling on the road side? How do you feel at that time. Nine out of ten, you've got a messed up side eye you're giving the guy because you're in a hurry.

But to some extent the ads do work. There are some ads that have repeated themselves so many times. The same ad shows when you open your music player, your video player, your VPN tool and your browser so you're always seeing that and it's in your brain.

I'm sure you've even unintentionally memorized the words in the Ad.

But seeing that same thing on YouTube is a whole other level of messed up when you're trying to watch something cool.

I don’t know about you, but I've noticed the timing of these ads always feels very personal, almost like they're actually trying to piss you off. It's usually the content creators who decide sometimes, especially if the YouTube video is a long one. They choose at what time the ad should show, the time you really want to see what happens next.

If they don't get you at the very beginning because of their deceptively impressive thumbnail, then they'll probably get you at some point in the video.

What’s ironic is that I probably wasn’t thinking about the company at all until they barged in uninvited, so the companies know the ads do create attention and infact I'm starting to think it's reverse psychology, if they can piss you off well enough, maybe you'll never forget their product.

There are some brand names that I never knew but because of how many times they keep showing up in each YouTube video I click, I can't forget them. If I actually cared about the product maybe I would have clicked the ad, but the mere fact that it interrupted a good video can really rub me on the rough edge.

I'm not going to be one sided though, I understand that companies have to make money and creators deserve to get paid for their content. I don’t hate that part. What I hate is how they choose to do it. How many times I've stared at my phone, waiting for the “Skip Ad” button, I can't count. And the problem is if it's a really good video, I barely pay attention to what the Ad is saying, I'm only looking at the timer to press Skip Ad.

I'm pretty sure as things change and technology evolve, they might find a better way to keep showing ads because heaven knows the ad business is never going to stop, otherwise, how else will products get promoted to their customers?