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Online Ad Czar Berates Adblockers As Freedom-Hating 'Mafia' (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Randall Rothenburg, the president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has made a speech branding the creators of Adblock Plus (who were banned from the conference where he made this keynote) as "rich and self-righteous," and accused adblockers of subverting freedom of the press. Speaking at the IAB's annual conference, Rothenburg characterized the Adblock Plus team as "operating a business model predicated on censorship of content."
...then I must a sadistic communist, as I have a suite of self-made chrome addons that will identify Analytics platforms and trigger false events, among blocking specific ads. :-)
Tell ya what, Randall. How about we have someone step-up on stage right in front of you, take the podium, and shout to advertise that there are hot Russian brides waiting in this area for YOU.
Then, during your speech, we allow various individuals to talk over you to tell us the virtues of the X10 camera. You remember that, Randall? The X10?! Maybe we all want to hear more about that then whatever the hell you're talking about.
Then, finally, as you finish your speech, the convention security should invite passers-by to "punch the monkey". Better serpentine, Randall, because I have news for you: You are the monkey.
Ooooh, he's referring to his freedom, not mine. I see. It sounds like he believes that crap too, he thinks he has the right to advertise:
The full speech begins with an overview of the development of the $600 billion online ad industry in the twenty years since the formation of the Internet Advertising Council in 1996, and includes ... direct comparisons between freedom of expression and freedom to advertise, citing advertising’s pivotal connection with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Here's what Article 19 says:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
So the head of the advertising industry thinks that Article 19 means that he's allowed to shove anything he wants at us, and we have to take it. Apparently he thinks that "freedom to ... impart information and ideas" means that the person on the receiving end does not have the freedom to reject that information. I wonder if he feels the same way about us, I wonder if he also thinks that other people have the right to shove whatever information we want at the IAB, and they have to take it.
This is what happens when your only motivation, your only metric, is money.
This is the head of a $50 billion per year industry referring to the people in charge of a $120 million per year company. Yeah, they're the ones just out for profit at the expense of morals and ethics.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
more importantly, since when is advertising considered press or a protected form of speech and does this mean I have to allow [insert activist nutjob's opinion] to be plastered all over my computer.
You really think the ad companies saying "boo hoo, we're being censored" don't know every trick in the book the lie, manipulate, and skew the response their way all the while knowing damned well they're full of shit??
Yeah, I realize that he's probably slightly more self-aware than he projects. I do really enjoy seeing these stories though. I have never been a fan of advertisers, on any medium, and seeing these people start to fight back, and seeing places like Forbes block people using ad-blockers, it just shows that our efforts are being noticed. We're finally eating into their bottom line enough that they've decided they need to fight back, and I love that. Advertisers have seemed so tone-deaf and obstinate that it's been so frustrating trying to deal with ads, so the fact that they're feeling it in their pocketbook means that we're finally getting through to them, finally forcing them to pay attention. Especially the name-calling of the ABP folks, I enjoyed that part especially:
Now, you may be aware of a kerfuffle that began about 10 days ago, when an unethical, immoral, mendacious coven of techie wannabes at a for-profit German company called AdBlock-Plus took to the digisphere to complain over and over that IAB had "disinvited" them to this convention.
Ooooh yes, more name-calling! Nothing says "I'm about to make a fantastic argument" like some grade-school-level name calling. And why are they "techie wannabes", of all things? Because they're beating him at every opportunity. He's in an arms race against people who are on a level that he doesn't even understand, so he specifically picks that as the way to insult them. I love it, he's admitting that he's getting beaten at the technical arms race. Instead of trying to figure out new ways to get around the filters, their solution is to just block people using the filters. Here's what I love even more: he's going to realize that their only solution is to end up paying ABP for inclusion on their whitelist, and as soon as that check is written he's going to wake up and realize that ABP just failed after everyone left and now there are 5 other blockers that people are using that don't have a whitelist. Who is he going to call names then?
On another note, I noticed this question in his speech:
But since you are here, I want to take the opportunity to ask you a personal question - a question that may make you uncomfortable.
Go on.....
Sure, $50 billion in revenue is a great thing - for the businesses taking it in. But how will we create - and how will you, personally, contribute to creating - the next $50 billion in value... value to society, value to the culture, value to your family, value to your friends and neighbors?
Yeeeesssss... considering the fact that your work is not valuable to any culture, and that your friends and neighbors probably secretly hate you and the work you're doing, how are you going to personally create that ... ahem... "value"?
But if money is your only goal, then you risk falling into relativism - a pernicious trap, for you begin weighing all potential returns based on the single metric of how much more money you can make. Truth, beauty, fairness, justice, honesty, civic pride, neighborliness - they become means to an end, rather than ends in themselves. That is debilitating, and ultimately deadens the soul.
There you go, Ad Guy, THAT was the message you should have been spreading 20 years ago when you started. Now it's a bit late to try and get everyone "on board" with doing things the right way. You've spent the last 20 years treating things like truth, beauty, fairness, justice, and honesty as means to a profitable end, and now I'd like to invite you to Sit'n'Spin while you think about how you've spent those last 20 years. Welcome to your funeral.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Videos, pictures, and text advertisements are all referred to by the advertising industry as "creatives." Which makes sense in a way, because some artist or writer worked to make them.
Want to know something else? You, the reader and user of the website, are referred to as "supply." Websites try to build up supply so they can fill the "demands" of advertisers. No joke. This sort of stuff is why I left the advertising industry and am never working there again.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Why doesn't his association just put up a webpage of all their content and wait for the page hits to come in? Surely, people cannot wait to see it. $$Profit?