The McBournie Minute: Web Ads

Years ago, we won the war on pop-up ads, for the most part. Before long, people were downloading Google or Yahoo! or whatever toolbars for their browsers. The ads were blocked and the world went about its Internet surfing in peace.

However, there are new threats to the shaky truce we have. The worst of such threats is possibly those high-quality ads with movies in them. One can find them on CNN.com sometimes or on MySpace.com on log in and log out. The MySpace ones are the worst.

When you log out, an ad from True or some other dating service comes up. They are usually girls at laptop computers, looking like they want to chat with you. They type, they laugh, they take off their hooded sweatshirts--and it's all webcam quality or better. I assume when girls log out from the site, they have musclebound guys winking at them.

These things creep me out. Firstly, because they make me think that these girls can really see me. Secondly, they are terrible actresses. A few of these ads even start off with a close-up on some girl's butt or cleavage. Above it, it says "it's not OK to stare." Then the camera pans back and the girl gets angry with you for looking at the goods.

Since when did the Internet try to make us feel creepy? Sure, we stalk people on social networking sites, but we choose to. This is something totally different and must be stopped.