The problem with pre-roll advertisements: now is not the time
April 18, 2007 in Academics, General Media, Multimedia views, Va. Tech Shooting
Update (4-18-07, 9 p.m.): Another example is in this AP video of the newly released “multimedia manifesto” by the VT killer, which features a 15-second Microsoft ad. Sorry, MS – now is not the time, this is not the video for pre-roll ads. #
Yahoo! News has video from the Virginia Tech shootings, including this video of a cell phone capturing audio of gun shots being fired. But you know what you have to get through to get to the video? @$#%@ 30 seconds of an M&Ms video! This is the problem with pre-roll commercials – they are inappropriate at the beginning of some stories – including any stories involving the deaths of human beings. This isn’t the only pre-roll I’ve had to sit through today that irked me. #
I understand that Internet video costs money, and advertising pays the bills, but there are times when advertising should be kept out of the equation. This is one of those times. #
CNN had the same problem with their contextual search and banner ads running alongside the developing story:
http://searchviews.com/archives/2007/04/virginia_…
If anything, it reinforces the need for human editors in contextually-placed advertising.
Profiting from Breaking News and Tragedy?…
A grad student doing some research emailed me today to ask what I thought about media web sites including pre-roll advertising on breaking news video. The impetus was apparently an ad that a news site showed as a pre-roll before…