Commentary

Digital Bill Of Rights (Proposed)

by Mike Donahue , Op-Ed Contributor, October 20, 2015

I’m probably not the only person who believes that the best summary of the anger and frustration that leads people to block digital ads is captured in Peter Finch's line from the movie "Network":

"I’m as mad as hell.. and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

I'm glad Randall Rothenberg and Scott Cunningham at the IAB have decided to take action to recognize that consumers have the right to block digital ads… as part of what I believe is The Digital Bill of Rights.

The Digital Bill of Rights is premised on this overarching right:

Consumers and marketers deserve an ecosystem that puts marketers and brand users FIRST.

Both constituencies have the right to:

Ads that are served to humans, not bots;

Ads that are served without infecting people's digital devices.. not those that do;

Ads people can see.. not those they can't;

Ads that, if people choose, they can opt out of... persistently.. not ads that can reappear even after they disable their cookies;

Ads people want.. not retargeted ads that can make people feel they are being "stalked"

Ads that are "skinny" and load quickly.. not those that are "fat" and slow down page content;

Ads that are few but visible.. not the current overload.

Hopefully, if the digital ecosystem can come to respect all these rights, people will be less interested in blocking the ads that marketers buy to drive their businesses and increase the value of their brands.

Working together, the community can make all this common sense… common practice.

4as, advertising, digital, iab

4 comments about "Digital Bill Of Rights (Proposed)".

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Virginia Suhr from Lobo & Petrocine Marketing, October 20, 2015 at 4:58 p.m.
Websites could give consumers the option of free content with ads or paid content with no ads. My guess is that the majority of folks would rather not paid to go on a website.
Reply

Bruce Dundore from Lazaroff/Dundore, October 20, 2015 at 5:21 p.m.

I know ads are necessary to pay for content- I buy that, believe it, think its fair- but I'm there are sites that serve ads in a dignified way where they are in my scroll and I can see them and scroll over them to my content, then there are the a**holes who pop out from the side of the screen, over the screen, from the bottom, top of the screen, that jump in there and attempt a mugging. Those I would like to banish from the earth, especially the ones with the close X no where to be found. Block them, banish them, send them to hell.

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, October 21, 2015 at 10:24 a.m.

And no one expected ad blockers. "Get it while you can." That's the choice now.

David Mountain from Marketing and Advertising Direction, October 21, 2015 at 3:03 p.m.

Why is it hard to just not go to sites with overly aggro ad placements, rather than resort to using a blocker for all? There isn't a content site on the Web that I value so much as to put up with bad ads; if the publisher wants to slash and burn for today only revenue, vote with your eyes.