Seems to me this is all part of a much larger issue of more and more people on the planet creating more and more businesses as ways to make money to survive, that creates a competitive crush on “limited” space. When ad space starts to take over content space literally — think video ads that can’t be skipped before content can be viewed— along with the myriad other ways online advertising has spread more quickly than the most virulent cancer, then it’s no wonder that people look for ways to defend themselves against it.

I really like the questions you’re asking, because you get that online users have had it and are voting with ad-blocking options. This is absolutely telling those of us in advertising and content marketing that we’ve begun to push over the limits of what users will tolerate, so in effect we’ve begun pushing away the very people we’re trying to reach. In the last week alone, I’ve heard several people tell me that they’ve stopped going to some of their favorite sites because they can’t take the ads anymore. This action is moving way past ad-blocking…

What is the perfect balance point between businesses getting their message out to draw new customers vs the overall user experience on the web? Forcing a way to block ad-blocking apps is about as effective as a parent screaming even louder to get a kid to listen who has already turned to walk out of the room: DAMMIT! COME BACK HERE! YOU WILL LISTEN TO THE MESSAGE I’VE PAID TO PUT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES NO MATTER WHAT!

Not only does this not build consumer trust or interest, it just pisses everyone off. And it seems to me that’s already happened.

Definitely time for a change.

Not sure either of these are the full answer but seem more in the right direction than your other options:

>Do we push publishers and ad-tech to make less-intrusive ads?
> Do we move away from advertising as a whole and onto another monetization model?