Pop Up Or Pop Under: Either Deserves A Pop In The Mouth

I'm trying to read an online page and -- bang! -- a pop up ad blocks my view. Is that supposed to put me in the frame of mind to buy a product?

When TV and movie star Darren McGavin ("The Night Stalker") died I was reading his obit and suddenly a pop up -- or in this case, a pop down since it slid down from the top of the screen -- obstructed my view of McGavin's photo. Suddenly some cookies appeared and to show this particular brand had extra fudge, animated chocolate goo drooled all over the cookies. That shows respect for the dead.

Now there's another "pop" ad that is annoying, what is called a pop under. I've only encountered this when I visit pressrepublican.com, the website of Plattsburgh's daily newspaper. I'll read an article and when I close that window, there's another window with ads for local businesses.




I never clicked on any link to bring up that second hidden window. It's automatically generated just by visiting the PR site.

Here's a coincidence: since I didn't click on that ad page to view it, I'll make sure to never buy any products it hawks.

People have had enough with advertising shoved in their faces, especially with TV and radio. With TV I record a show and later when I watch it, I zip through all the commercial stretches. As for radio, I can't listen when there's too many ads. I'd rather listen to my own choice of music sans annoying commercials.

So it appears they're going to screw up the Web by shoving ads in our faces or at least sneaking them under what we want. Stupid. All it does is create resentment. Such resentment that I use AdBlock Plus to zap away the ads.