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YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

(iter.ca)
990 points smitop | 3 comments | 20 Jun 25 17:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.634s | source
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edwardbernays ◴[20 Jun 25 17:54 UTC] No.44330167[source]▶
If they ran less hostile ads, people wouldn't be as hostile to watching their ads. Some of the ads they run are just ridiculous and awful. Ads for scams, soft-core porn ads, just the worst of the worst.
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crazygringo ◴[20 Jun 25 18:02 UTC] No.44330248[source]▶
Where are you located? I've never seen any of those.

Pretty much all of my YouTube ads are for TV shows, movies, cars, mobile games, consumer products, and various consumer services. Volkswagen, Dove, TurboTax, etc. All incredibly mainstream.

Maybe you're located in a country or region maintain advertisers avoid?

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1. hellotheretoday ◴[20 Jun 25 18:10 UTC] No.44330335[source]▶
I don’t get soft core porn ads but I do scams all the time. Bullshit supplements, pyramid schemes, “buy my program to make money” type things. Otherwise it’s mostly political ads, more legitimate consumer products like dishwasher detergent, gambling, and mobile games. NE USA for reference
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2. edwardbernays ◴[20 Jun 25 19:30 UTC] No.44331146[source]▶
Personally, for my own value system, I consider the gambling ads to be as bad as scam ads. I think we'll soon come to see the social harm of gambling ads to be as bad as tobacco ads. We should strive for a culture where people see an ad for addictive services or substances and feel an instinctive, pre-conscious disgust. They are the dirty, disgusting, bloodsucking bedbugs of society.
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3. hellotheretoday ◴[21 Jun 25 03:07 UTC] No.44334169[source]▶
I agree and feel it is a reflection on social decline. While I don’t think prohibition it the way forward it is unsettling that we tolerate this as a society. Would we tolerate youtube advertising for heroin or even recreational marijuana? We certainly don’t for tobacco and we probably shouldn’t for alcohol.

I work in mental health and I am seeing more people who spend a substantial amount on “parlays”. Many examples downplay or hide the behavior from their social network and the extreme examples spend a significant amount. The advertising is obviously predatory and goes against what we know about control dynamics in addict behavior but we tend to view that as a personal moral failing rather than exploiting basic biology and as a result allow the dealer to ruin countless lives before any action is taken (see Purdue and Teva lawsuits)