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Vietnam bans unskippable ads

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Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#371

Post by xp84 »

If you were giving out free cookies at the front of your store intended to thank shoppers for coming in, and someone reaches in and grabs one while running past, that's an ad-blocker. Not the most ethically justifiable[1], but legal. This law though is saying that if you have a person at the door who makes sure you are at least browsing the store before giving you a free cookie, that practice is now illegal. This is utterly nonsense to me. Does the Vietnam constitution contain a right to free VOD? How do TV broadcasters get away with it, given they're riddled with "non-skippable ads" -- about 17 minutes per hour of them!

[1] if you want to dispute this, is it just because you're thinking the store is run by a big company you don't like and that you feel rips people off? Does it change though if your mom baked those cookies to give out to try to get people to shop in her little boutique that barely makes enough money to cover rent? The point is just that it's not universally justifiable. I don't care if you block ads (I block them too) or take free samples from stores.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#372

Post by kube-system »

kibwen wrote: post #351
kube-system wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, there are very few markets in which all of the buyers have perfect information. It is extremely common in the science/technology sector that buyers aren't looking for a solution to a problem they have because they are under the impression that a solution doesn't exist. The archetypal business-school case study for this is the story of Viagra. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/03/27/viagra... But it…

If the implication is that the ad industry helps to address the problem of buyers having imperfect information, that couldn't be more wrong. The entire point of the ad industry is to muddy the waters and psychologically manipulate consumers. It's not even remotely interested in informing , it's interested in propagandizing.

Obviously a gigantic industry has more than a singular impact on society. I only mentioned the one impact above because that was specifically the topic of discussion.

There are also many reasons that the ad industry needs to be tightly regulated, of which your point is one.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#374

Post by hoorayimhelping »

iammjm wrote: post #24
_jab wrote: post #13

I've often wondered whether the world would be better without ads. The incentive to create services (especially in social media) that strive to addict their users feels toxic to society. Often, it feels uncertain whether these services are providing actual value, and I suspect that whether a user would pay for a service in lieu of watching ads is incidentally a good barometer for whether real value is present. Don't…

The world would definitely be better without ads. All ads are poisonous. All of them first convince you that you and your life as it is is not good enough, and that in order to be happy again you need to spend money to buy a $product.

>All ads are poisonous

This is a silly and short-sighted blanket statement. People used to love getting catalogs, which are just big books full of ads. In the right context, people appreciate being informed of products that can help improve their lives.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#375

Post by gwbas1c »

blibble wrote: post #322
bastardoperator wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time is money. Ten minutes of daily YouTube ads adds up to 5 hours a month. Premium costs $14, roughly an hour's work at minimum wage. Trade one hour of labor for four hours of free time. That's 48 hours back each year for $168. It's a no brainer. Even if your wage is half of 14 dollars, you would still gain 24 hours back and it would still be worth it.

or install ublock origin and keep your money and the time! while depriving google of revenue AND costing them money win, win, win and WIN

I watch YouTube on many devices through the app. At the time, I was using YouTube music.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#376

Post by kube-system »

pluralmonad wrote: post #367
kube-system wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no successful economies without ads. Ads are a necessary evil for effective market discovery. They should be heavily regulated but you can't effectively operate a market economy without one.

Saying you want some sort of discovery mechanism is different than saying the current ad tech malware landscape is a "necessary evil." It certainly is not.

Not only did I not say that, but I also agree with you completely.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#377

Post by kube-system »

matthewkayin wrote: post #345
kube-system wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no successful economies without ads. Ads are a necessary evil for effective market discovery. They should be heavily regulated but you can't effectively operate a market economy without one.

You're right, but I think this just highlights the issue with market economies. There is this capitalist lie that money is a stand-in for "value provided to society". So, when you provide value, society gives you money, and you can use this money to ask society for value back. Which sounds great. And truly, I do believe that people should have to contribute to society if they expect society to support them, but the p…

Alas, well-regulated market economies are the least-worst option we have.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#378

Post by mbirth »

Groxx wrote: post #275
immibis wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME it's a real close button but the ad opens the thing when it closes, regardless of how it closes.

No, I mean there are ads with a "close button" in the corner, and then a few seconds later the real close button will appear and it'll weirdly overlap it. Because the first one was fake, just part of the image asset of the ad. They're very very clearly click-fraud tricks, and most platforms will ban them if they're caught. But by clicking on the ad, it closes the ad, and there's no way to go back and report them, nor…

> The whole industry runs on scams like this

Wasn’t there an article here a few days ago about Facebook specialising in hiding such malicious ads from testers and law enforcement to maximise gains?

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#380

Post by elinear »

jason_s wrote: post #42

I just uninstalled a game from my mobile phone this morning that had heavy ad usage. It was interesting to note the different ad display strategies. From least to most annoying: - display a static ad, have the "x" to close appear soon (3-10 seconds) - display an animated ad, have the "x" to close appear soon (3-10 seconds) - display a static ad, have the "x" to close appear after 20-30 seconds - display an animated a…

A particularly egregious offender is Kalshi ads. They regularly play for a minute, sometimes up to two minutes before they can be closed.

I would not be surprised if the incentives are in place for ad networks to push for longer ads and for advertisers to create longer ads.

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