Pop-up Ads – A Tactic for Unethical Marketing

Have you ever streamed a video and the next thing you know you’re bombarded with pop-ups? Don’t you get annoyed? Don’t you just want to avoid them? 

Everyone who uses the Internet has come across pop-up ads while visiting a website. These range from winning the lottery, to losing weight, or at times it can be an advert displaying sexual content. This form of advertising is unethical because they are filled with malware and are a way of retrieving personal information from online users. It makes the internet unsafe for minors who are very gullible and will click on it.

I remember when I was younger, there was a pop-up ad about a picture of me that was on a website. Me, being curious, clicked on it and ended up having my computer bombarded with pop-up ads about breast enhancements and other junk. I was overwhelmed and scared because of all the stuff I was reading. This incident shows that the internet is unsafe for minors because you never know what they are exposed to. Ads that target people like that makes it hard to protect the minds of youngsters from material we don’t want them to see.

Another issue with pop-ups is that sometimes they impersonate real companies. If consumers were to click on a pop-up thinking that it was, for instance, an ad by a well-known company and it ends up being spam, the company itself will lose customers and it will hinder its reputation.

Pop-ups, in my opinion, need to go. They create an unsafe environment online. Plus, they should never be a way for a company to advertise its product because they have a reputation of scamming people.

Say NO  to pop-ups!