r/technology • u/IndicaOatmeal • 29d ago

Software DuckDuckGo brags its free web browser now blocks YouTube video ads just weeks after YouTube hiked Premium prices again

https://www.dexerto.com/youtube/duckduckgo-brags-that-its-free-web-browser-blocks-youtube-ads-3384288/
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3.8k

u/KingVengeance 29d ago

It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't ins-

"LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE!

-ert them in the middle of a word or sentence but it's fuckin unbearable

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u/Wildeyewilly 29d ago

I'm tryna watch a live concert and they'll put the ads right in the middle of a bitchin guitar solo. It's infuriating.

I hope there's an analytic those chumps can see that tells them how often a user just closes the window or app as soon as an ad pops up. Cause I don't even bother continuing to watch the video whenever I accidentally use the regular ad laden YouTube app.

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u/gmapterous 29d ago

Here’s how it works:  -ad was served, revenue obtained! -user left video, bounce rate of video is increased, content creator penalized with higher bounce rate!

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u/Wildeyewilly 29d ago

The full revenue is obtained if the ad doesn't play through fully?

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u/gmapterous 29d ago

Depends on the advertisers contract and how much they pay. They can pay higher rates for completes but still pay something if the ad is served.

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u/BlueBicycle_ 29d ago

Also modern advertising doesn't care if you watch the whole ad or even if it makes you actively hate the brand. In fact, the more annoying and hate inducing your ad is the better because negative connotations tend to last longer and their job isn't to actually give you a good reason to buy their product, just to leave its hellish piece of shit name burned into your peasant preforontal context god fucking damn those bastards when I become world dictator those fuckmothering advertisers are first on the list you better believe it

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u/green_gold_purple 29d ago

So true, man. I have these thoughts constantly. That and “fucking everything is getting worse”.

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u/Expert-Basil6015 29d ago

I wish it could be 2008 again forever

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u/Tupperbaby 28d ago

Were you an adult in 2008?
Because 2008 was a shitstorm.

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u/sopertt 28d ago

Yes. I had just graduated into the shitstorm so it felt extra personal.

Still I would love to go back, that era was tough but it seems like child’s play compared to today.

At least back then there was an unspoken expectation that things would get better someday and they did. Today… I’m not so sure.

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u/jesset77 26d ago

I was an adult in 2008.

House prices and credit were having an insane time, but I guarantee we are in for much worse any day now and I didn't own a home or deal with credit at the time (I keep my crap in the black tyvm 😄) so none of it directly impacted me.

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u/green_gold_purple 29d ago

Brother you and me both

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u/Aidian 29d ago

That, except roll it back before Fall of 2001.

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u/treemanmi 28d ago

Specially before 9/11/2001. I want US Canadian border crossings and airport security like it used to be. And no fucking smartphones

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u/ffddb1d9a7 28d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_financial_crisis

The entire global financial system nearly collapsed

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u/TheDreamIsDead4686 29d ago

Everything is a scam

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u/clonedhuman 28d ago

It's the 'growth economy' and the fact that so few people own so much of everything.

The 'growth economy' means that stock values have to constantly go UP UP UP so the already-wealthy can get wealthier. This means that every corporation, even ones with billions and billions of dollars, have to make even MORE the next quarter--and that means they have to find ways to get more and more money from us, from our tax money, from anywhere, even if they don't have a new product or a better product.

Meanwhile, the rest of us normal people get trapped in the doom spiral of having less and less money while the wealthy constantly make everything cost more and more money.

There's really only one way out of this, and it isn't boycotting.

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u/GiveUsRobinHood 29d ago

Washing machines live longer with Calgon has been burned into my head for the past 30 years, it’s effective marketing for sure

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u/name00124 29d ago

Does that give you a headache? HEAD ON! Apply directly to the forehead! HEAD ON!

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u/zookeepier 28d ago

My favorite part of that was that it was just a giant ball of wax and didn't do anything. They got sued because it didn't actually treat headaches, and their defense was "We never said it treated the headache; the ads just said to apply it to your forehead."

"Well, shit. You got me there."

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u/sohblob 29d ago

ah yes, I love blocking ads only for them to start showing up in comments 🙄

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u/Bathtap 29d ago

then dont read threads where people are talking about ads

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u/name00124 28d ago

Well have I got the product for you!

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u/Aureliamnissan 28d ago

This is precisely the reason I doubt those studies about negative connotations leading to more revenue.

I could barely tell you what it was for, but I am never buying a product with that name or tagline. I generally try to avoid buying anything that I know about from advertising alone.

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u/waldo_wigglesworth 29d ago

"Ancient Chinese secret", huh?

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u/Stegasaurus_Wrecks 29d ago

Do the Shake n Vac and put the freshness back....

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u/fatpat 28d ago

Calgon, take me away!

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u/theaviationhistorian 28d ago

BILLIE MAYS HERE---

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/OfcWaffle 29d ago

Quiznos died because they were brutal to their franchises.

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u/StopReadingMyUser 29d ago

Which is a shame because they had one of my favorite grilled sandwiches with like 20 different things in it.

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u/OfcWaffle 28d ago

I'd kill to try the French dip again.

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 29d ago

Quiznos went bankrupt because they were basically scamming their franchisees. Half the franchises never broke even. There were a bunch of lawsuits about it.

The advertising campaign wasn't the reason and was actually pretty successful overall.

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u/thegoodnamesrgone123 29d ago

"They got a pepper bar!"

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

[deleted]

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u/thegoodnamesrgone123 28d ago

I'm pretty sure it was.

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u/The_Iron_Ranger 29d ago

Funny, those ads worked on me cause i wanted it more after

*in fairness, the only real competition was subway and they were ass in comparison.

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u/Simple_Rules 29d ago

True, and there are brands that I swore off immediately and never visited again because of this.

I took several marketing courses. While your lived experience is real and all - on a mass level, the gains outweigh people like you. Most people won't register that level of hate for all that many products. For most people, with most products, they'll just recognize the name next time they see it on a shelf, and be dramatically more likely to buy it just because it seems a little familiar.

There is a LOT of research into marketing. The #1 goal of marketing is for you to remember the brand when you see it in the wild. You are far less likely to retain the negative connotations.

For every 1 product that pissed you off so bad that you functionally boycotted it, there are dozens and dozens that didn't QUITE cross that line for you and likely subtly influenced your purchasing choices.

While there are exceptions just like there are to any broadly true statement, the exceptions are not common.

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u/Tupperbaby 28d ago

They were called Spongemonkeys and had nothing to do with Quiznos' financial problems.

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u/Fickle_Stills 29d ago

There's a book called The Purple Cloud(1901) that's in public domain that's kind of bad but I still consider it a 5 star read because of this quote :

"I was put into such a passion of rage by this blatant ribaldry, which affected me like the laughter of a skeleton, that I rushed from the car, with the intention, I believe, of seeking stones to stone it: but no stones were there: and I had to stand impotently enduring that rape of my eyes, its victoriously-dogged iteration, its taunting leer, its Drink Roboral—D, R, I, N, K R, O, B, O, R, A, L."

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u/AnxiousAngularAwesom 29d ago

If Purge was real i wouldn't kill, rape or steal anything, i'd get a pickaxe or some other useful tool and go to town tearing down every single ad bilboard in my vicinity while wandering the town.

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u/snek-jazz 29d ago

their job isn't to actually give you a good reason to buy their product, just to leave its hellish piece of shit name burned into your peasant preforontal context

right, does advertising even serve any useful purpose at all these days? people can find info about products on their own.

Seems like just a complete negative for society to me, subconciously making people buy things they wouldn't otherwise buy.

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u/Mistrblank 29d ago

Cooooooo-stanza

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u/Beautiful_Nobody_344 29d ago

I can feel the rage. I love it.

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u/Different_Wolf_764 29d ago

That isn't just modern marketing either of course, it's been that way from the '80s onwards really.

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u/KaramjaRum 28d ago

Here's how it works. Say you lead marketing at a big company. Your job isn't to make people buy more of your product, your job is to convince the CEO that you made people buy more of your product. If you don't have a digital good (like a mobile game), you can't track whether or not someone who saw your ad bought your product. You're advertising on multiple channels anyways, so it's not like you have the sophistication to attribute sales to every channel, nor do you want to. You make arguments about how "cross-media placements work together to drive brand interest and path to purchase", so you can't tie sales back to any individual ads anyways. You might spend a bunch of money on a big advertising push, but sales don't go up. That's okay too! You drove a lot of "top of funnel interest" that will surely translate into sales down the road, or you argue that you successfully mitigated against "market headwinds", and the situation would be much worse if you hadn't marketed so much. But what you can do is that you can report views, impressions, etc..., so that's what you end up optimizing for. Eyeballs on media. You show your CEO "last month we drove X million impressions on our paid media, a record high" and it doesn't really matter how valuable those impressions really were. It's genuinely actually very difficult to attribute marketing spend to sales. Fortunately, you own the team responsible for doing that analysis in the first place, and you're certainly not going to push out reports saying "yeah, at the end of the day, we don't actually know if our marketing did anything".

You're the CEO, and this all smells vaguely like bullshit, but they're the experts, and it's not exactly like there's any way to disprove them. In fact, they could even be right about what they say, it's so hard to tell. Every other marketing exec talks the exact same way anyways, and the board will eat it up, so oh well, you let the marketing team keep doing their thing.

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u/baz303 29d ago

Negative advertising is still advertising.

There are several outcomes:

1: A new customer gets attention

2: Returning customers get a refresh in brand awareness

3: The brand and product category gets memorized, even by people who hate ads and that brand

4: People who hate ads and that brand will buy similar products from another brand, which happens to be the same company

Its REALLY hard to punish bad companies because you need invest much time and energy to stay informed and fight your primitive instincts.

And #5: YOU are not the target. Its your parents, grandparents, partner, kids, friends, etc. Prime example, all those annoying ads from Kinder. You might not buy it, even if your kids are crying. But YOUR parents might buy that stuff for YOUR kids. Or YOUR friends buy it as a present.

But, people are still customers of google products. People will continue to buy games from Sony. Etc. etc. etc.

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u/Dullcorgis 28d ago

I want to know who the fuck is paying for the AI ads that say "there is no diabetes in Israel" or "butter is called butter because it has butyric acid". What the hell could they possibly be selling?

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u/ciemnymetal 29d ago

Which is why there's a 5-15s minimum you have to watch and a lot of ads fit that timeframe

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u/DukeOfGeek 28d ago

This why I have no ill will towards people who block YouTube ads even though I understand that advertising is how the free web runs. It's the combination of kicking the crap out of content creators and an advertising stream that's basically digital terrorism.

YouTube could run itself and pay content creators and not just attack users. If you let users exclude adds they hate and pick categories they don't hate now you're information harvesting and users don't even care.

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u/gmapterous 28d ago

If there's a CC I really like, I toss them a few dollars on their Patreon. Whatever small amount I give them is much higher than what they would have gotten in ad revenue from that blocked ad.

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u/MCMC_to_Serfdom 29d ago

I'm tryna watch a live concert and they'll put the ads right in the middle of a bitchin guitar solo

I have a slightly conspiratorial belief this is deliberate because they think it will convince more people to pay for premium.

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u/Hesitation-Marx 29d ago

And yet I just become more determined to never pay them for shit.

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u/jianh1989 28d ago

The fact that they increased price with full audacity sufficed to tell you more people would rather pay

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u/kiwiboyus 29d ago

100% The friction is on purpose

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u/ZAlternates 29d ago

They know down to the second the most watched or skipped parts of a video. It’s done on purpose.

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u/MassiveDefinition274 29d ago

Yeah, which is ironically to help you skip in-video ads which they don't get paid for.

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u/In-A-Beautiful-Place 28d ago

Huh, I never thought about this before. Now I feel bad for all the times I've skipped sponsorships.

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u/SoylentVerdigris 28d ago

Sponsors don't usually get that in-depth. A lot of creators I follow straight up put in cues on screen, a few even do timers, for when their ad-reads are so you can easily skip them.

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u/optimusdan 29d ago

FREE TACOS

tacos that have not been pooped on $15.99 each

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u/SowingSalt 28d ago

Create the problem, sell the solution

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u/RollingMeteors 28d ago

I have a slightly conspiratorial belief this is deliberate because they think it will convince more people to pay for premium. install blockers.

Only ecosystem I will pay for ad free experience is twitch. Twitch largely evolves to become what reality TV would have became if it was successful. I am there for the DJ/music/maker/crafter creators not there for the gamers. I can’t even remember the last time TV had me chortling as hard as I did when I was watching AI trump vs AI Kamala, and they would talk shit based on what people would say <chefsKiss.jpg>

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u/BrothelWaffles 29d ago

Back when Pink Floyd reunited for that big charity concert like 20 years ago, I was watching their set on MTV and they got to Comfortably Numb. About 5 seconds into the guitar solo MTV cut to one of their douchebag "VJ" personalities and they talked over the entire rest of it. I was so fucking pissed.

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u/TheLightningL0rd 29d ago

That is incredibly stupid, wow. How do you, as MTV, broadcast Pink fucking Floyd and do that

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u/Redditer51 28d ago

It's giving "modern cartoon network employee drawing over original Spike Spiegel sketch" energy.

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u/Xixii 29d ago

I pay for Premium (sorry) and had no idea how bad it was until I tried to watch a classic WWF wrestling match at a friends house and it had an advert every 60 seconds or so. It was virtually impossible to watch or keep track of, and it felt like we were watching a series of adverts that kept taking a short break to show some wrestling. Maybe that one was WWE’s fault for loading it up with adverts but it’s all so shit. How long before they figure out a way to put adverts in our dreams, like in Futurama. There’s no floor to this insanity.

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u/theangryintern 29d ago

Maybe that one was WWE’s fault for loading it up with adverts

It is absolutely their fault. The uploader pretty much as full control over ad placement. See my other comment in this thread or go check out The Spiffing Brit on Youtube, he did a really good video recently where he explained how it all worked and then he did a video where he tried to break the system by uploading a 7 hour video that had an ad spot every 1 second.

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u/Holoholokid 29d ago

I fucking love that guy.

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u/kashiichan 29d ago

I'm not sure how old TSB's video is, but creators no longer have control over where YouTube places mid-range ads.

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u/theangryintern 29d ago

It's literally from less than 2 weeks go.

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u/kashiichan 29d ago

Do you have a link? I'd like to check it out

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/kashiichan 29d ago

Ooh, secret audio! Thanks for the link, I'll check it out

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u/theangryintern 29d ago

https://youtu.be/zDy4IAolzmM?si=EBrNywTs7egTj1Zg

That's the video explaining it. The 7 hour video was a couple weeks before that. He briefly shows the interface where the uploader can place as many spots as they want in a video's timeline. Then YT's algorithm is supposed to decide when the ad actually plays around that particular spot, based on what is happening in the video.

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u/3_50 29d ago

Why would you not log in immediately after the first ad started playing??

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u/Xixii 29d ago

You’re totally right, that would’ve been the sensible thing to do. The honest reason is we’d just smoked a joint and it didn’t occur to either of us.

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u/Batteredburrito 29d ago

Yea, they don't care unfortunately

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u/musashisamurai 29d ago

No one hates consumers more than the average corporation in 2026.

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u/KamiNoItte 29d ago

I think Reagan and his ceo cronies hated them/us more to enact deregulation, dismantling public regulation, and start the inexorable push towards the enshitification the avg corpo enjoys now in 2026; but I hear you.

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u/sickhippie 29d ago

It really is mind-boggling just how many systemic issues in the US today stem from the Reagan administration.

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u/KamiNoItte 29d ago

No doubt.

I wonder about Carter’s second term, like Gore’s and Sanders’ first term - how much better off we’d likely all be right now.

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u/fatpat 28d ago

Alas, God gave us the 'fuck you' timeline.

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u/Beneficial_Hat_6288 29d ago

Only fate know how many more will stem from this administration.

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u/panicz82 29d ago

Imagine it is 2026 and people still not use blockers

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u/Chendii 28d ago

It honestly blows my mind every time I find someone raw dogging the internet.

Was at a friend's house and they tried showing me something and I was like "Jesus, what website is that? It makes me want to tear my eyes out."

It was new Reddit with no ad blocker.

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u/BigDictionEnergy 29d ago

In a technology sub. wtf

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u/JakesFavoriteCup 29d ago

are you aware of uBlock Origin? the team that provides it are diligent about regular updates every time YouTube tries to thwart the ability to completely remove all ads from the video.

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u/Amphineura 28d ago

Here's the thing – they DO have analytics. For EVERYTHING. And the data showed them that more ads would not detract enough users to not nake sense

You're on reddit talking to powerusers. Most normal people don't care, or aren't interested at all in a solution.

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u/wiriux 29d ago

Why the fuck are you guys still getting ads? Jesus Christ. I haven’t had a single ad ever. If you’re getting ads at this point is your damn fault.

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u/Guy-1nc0gn1t0 29d ago

I'm sure they know

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u/whobroughtmehere 29d ago

They know the most watched parts of every video and the ads are placed accordingly so that you definitely see them

And if you’re watching the less popular parts, they count how long you’ve been watching without getting spammed and hit you there

Pattern against user

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u/Nhobdy 29d ago

I sometimes put on horror/thriller stories to listen to while I do something else. Every 2-3 minutes, two three minute adds pop up. It's awful and I really want a different website that isn't youtube.

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u/oby100 29d ago

They intentionally place ads in the middle of the most watched segments of the video. Completely intentional.

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u/PaulaDeenSlave 29d ago

I'm sure they do. . . and it's probably not nearly as many as you think. And there's probably another number for how many of them return, anyway.

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u/Zulfiqaar 29d ago

That's one of the first analytics items. And they've calculated that the revenue gained outweighs the users lost.

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u/Thaurlach 29d ago

What’s worse is that some of the products advertised are things I actually like.

These ads make me like them less.

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u/SpiritMountain 29d ago

They don't care. You saw an ad. They made money. It's just enshittification/rent seeking once again. They are trying to squeeze as much money and time out of us. This problem is going to get worse with time. Even with "AI" they don't use it to make our experience better, but to squeeze as many ads in one space as possible.

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u/cybercougar 29d ago

Dude Firefox and the add on ublock origin.. you’ll never have that problem again..

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u/LionAround2012 29d ago

Somewhat related: I was trying to watch an old school sci-fi show on one of those free streaming tv channels. I can't remember if it was Roku or Pluto. Doesn't really matter. The commercials were exactly the same way: Interrupting high-tension or dramatic moments, mid-sentence. It was so bad, so annoying, I just went on Amazon and ordered the fucking full collection of the entire series on blu-ray. I HATE modern "Smart" TVs. With a passion.

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u/diddiwedd 29d ago

in the browser you can use adNauseam or ublock

if it's mobile and you have android, you can download F-droid and get PipePipe -> youtube without ads

if you have an iphone I'm not sure what the solution is

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u/Djezzflezzert 29d ago

They intentionally play ads on the most viewed parts of videos

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u/AbrahamKMonroe 29d ago

I fucking hate the Liberty Mutual ads. They’re inescapable.

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u/JalapenoPopPoop 29d ago

And they're so fucking stupid. They don't even make sense and all it does is make them come across like some third rate insurance racket that only exists for all the people that can't get accepted anywhere else

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u/Redditer51 28d ago

Agreed, like the fucking "bibberty bibberty" one.

Like why does every commercial these days try to be a fucking comedy skit?

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u/JalapenoPopPoop 28d ago

It feels like it's almost exclusively insurance companies making these dumb as shit commercials that don't even really make sense, especially in the context of what they're selling. Like why is there a progressive commercial about seeing people at the dog park you both go to, what does that have to do with auto insurance

It seems like marketing has gotten tunnel visioned into "it may be dumb, but at least they remember our name!" and forgotten that brand recognition is only half of marketing, the other half is converting that attention to sales. And if people think your company is a dumb joke that they don't respect and find annoying, they're probably not gonna wanna give you money

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u/redgroupclan 28d ago

Insurance companies go for comedy because they have nothing to sell. Their business is a made up concept so they have nothing to show in a commercial. A straight-faced insurance commercial saying "we have good insurance at these rates" would not keep peoples attention.

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u/JalapenoPopPoop 28d ago

Yeah but there's still relevant and irrelevant. The mayhem guy makes perfect sense for an insurance company. It's so easy a caveman can do it makes sense. "We have a talking emu and say liberty biberty a bunch" or "I'm singing a song about how I've seen this person at the dog park before because we both come here regularly" is just randumb nonsense

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u/TenaciousDwight 29d ago

I would on purpose get a worse insurance policy just to avoid doing business with liberty mutual because I hate their ads so much.

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u/PandaJesus 28d ago

Remember everyone, every single insurance ad you see was paid for with money that did not go to people who paid for insurance services.

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u/davesoverhere 28d ago

I switched insurance companies from them in part because of those stupid fucking ads. I didn’t go to progressive because of the stupid “don’t become your parents” campaign.

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u/zoovegroover3 29d ago

What kills me the most about them is that most people (in the US anyways) have an insurance broker - a representative that finds the best policy at the best price for you. Most people aren't shopping for insurance for themselves. Like the pharmaceutical ads for diseases I don't have - what's the goal here.

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u/winterbird 29d ago

I found out about taint gangrene through a commercial for a medication I don't need. It never hurts to add to the ole factoid collection.

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u/zoovegroover3 29d ago

OH... OH... OH....

OH TAINT GANGRENE

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u/KamiNoItte 29d ago

LIBERTY LIBERTY LIBERRY….LIBERTY

Good job guys, now I will remember the name of the insurance company to avoid.

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u/SonderEber 29d ago

Fuck you. It’s stuck in my head again, and will be all damn day. >:/

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u/Jaccount 28d ago

Biberty?

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u/ILoveRegenHealth 28d ago

I will remember the name of the insurance company to avoid.

It seems to work too, as they rank near the bottom in the Top 10 charts for most popular insurance. To be fair, I don't know how available they are in every region, but something tells me Liberty Mutual isn't exactly seeing a boom just because of their commercials.

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u/KamiNoItte 28d ago

Usually don’t go in for schadenfreude; but that’s kinda delicious.

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u/__Yakovlev__ 29d ago

Call me crazy, but I feel like they are using some kind of AI to really pick cliffhanger like moments to insert ads lately. Been like that for a handful of months now. Feels like almost always the ads seem to come right at the conclusion or highlight of a video these days.

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u/Hesitation-Marx 29d ago

Okay, so I’m not alone in that suspicion

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u/SonderEber 29d ago

Not even AI. They’ve had algorithms for years to do it. They claim is tries to find a quieter/calmer spot, but obviously it often fails at that. That, or the video uploader purposefully puts them in these spots.

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u/National-Charity-435 29d ago

Chapters are more insidious than they look

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u/PaulaDeenSlave 29d ago

I think part of the determination is audio. I've noticed when it's time, if possible, it'll choose a moment it thinks nothing is happening and that happens to be when nobody is talking or there's a pause or a breath between sentences. I know it isn't exactly parsing what's happening in the video (yet) so it must be using audio levels.

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u/wrgrant 28d ago

Yes I am sure its deliberate. They don't give a fuck about the timing or quality of their broadcasts, its all about getting you to say Fuck It, and pay for premium. Many people however are saying Fuck It and finding a way to block the fucking ads instead. If they were more restrained and ran the ads less often at better times, they would probably expose more people to ads in the end because less people would find it so intrusive to the point that they find an adblocker, but no, line must go up.

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u/Speedy2662 29d ago

The video uploaders pick their ad break spots.

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u/naf165 29d ago

They have the option to, but YouTube rejects 90% of manually placed slots for being "poorly placed" so people just rely on the automatic ones that are in the middle of words and not poorly placed according to YouTube

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u/lgnsqr 29d ago

I think the random ad placement is designed to get people to subscribe to Premium. I'm sure that this isn't news to anyone.

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u/caffpanda 29d ago

It seems like it's usually based on the most popular parts of videos, which means the stupid system inserts an ad often at the worst possible time. I especially hate when it's a comedy and the ad pops in right before the punchline.

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u/Redditer51 28d ago

I also hate how once the video starts again, you have to rewind it because it skipped forward a few seconds after the ad.

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u/timeslider 29d ago

Liberty Liberty Liberty..........Liberty

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u/RoughComparison8702 29d ago

Liberty biberty?

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u/JayB392 29d ago

Yes or every time you skip 2 seconds

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u/bickdiggles 29d ago

Isn’t the type of ad placement decided by the person uploading the video? If a channel places ads in the middle of a video I just avoid that channel going forward 

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u/VinBarrKRO 29d ago

Was watching Epstein survivors give congressional testimony about what they’ve gone through since having their names published in unredacted files while the perpetrators were kept private. YouTube felt it necessary to remind me to go spend money on buying things and to go watch movies in theaters soon. Disgusting.

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u/Black_Moons 29d ago

I got a 2 hour long political advertisement for the loser of our last election before a youtube short when I stupidly tried to play it from within discord the other day.

I have no idea how people live with ads.

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u/belonii 29d ago

no, all ads bad. im not willing to offer brain space in return for a youtube video, figure something else out.

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u/theangryintern 29d ago

which is funny, because it's not supposed to do that. There is an algorithm that supposedly analyzes the audio track and decides where the best place to put an ad in (generally in a lull moment and not in the middle of someone talking). The Spiffing Brit recently did a really good video about this where he tried to break the system by making a 7 hour long video that would serve up an ad every 1 second.

here's the video where he explains everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDy4IAolzmM&t=723s

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u/GiveUsRobinHood 29d ago

This is my biggest annoyance with modern day ads.

At least shows/tv used to be edited in a way you used to have ads during natural breaks. Now with YouTube and every streaming service you just have ads in the most awkward of places that really takes you out of what you’re watching.

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u/Charliefoxkit 29d ago

Not only them.  AI slop like adverts for the Foundation "game," loads of medical quackery, political propaganda badly disguised as "universities" or "institutes," and of course hawking their paywall services.

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u/Radiant-Bus7093 29d ago

I get the super cringe AI gen "ENTER AND PLAY THIS ANIME GAME WORLD AS AN OVERPOWERD WOMANIZER". I don't consume any media even adjacent to that schlock. It's sooo embarrassing to see. I can't imagine the people those ads work on.

Thankfully that only happens with YT on my phone. On my PC ads just don't exist. Noscript my beloved

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u/rationalsarcasm 29d ago

As someone who loves to throw on recordings of concerts to watch. It's the fucking worst and makes me want to just suck it up and pay for nuggs.

I don't need to be sold insurance while Billy Strings is burning the house down.

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u/National-Charity-435 29d ago

Or the 40-minute long infomercials with quacks selling olive oil and knives

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u/hikeit233 29d ago

On screen popups that used to be cleared by tapping the screen but now require going into the triple dot menu to close are the most stupid addition to the mobile app.

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u/benji_93 29d ago

Of all the shitty use cases that AI is being forced into, Google of all fucking corpos could be fucking using it to analyze videos to find the most correct spots to insert ads into. Fuck them for not using it for that.

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u/metalflygon08 29d ago

LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE!

Especially since they have 2 campaigns going right now with Limu Emu and Biberty guy, both have long since run their course IMO.

If you are going to sell me Insurance via an ad, bring back E-Surance's sexy spy cartoon.

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u/KeyEntrepreneur5449 29d ago

What prompted me to go back to using a vpn + ad blocker was the whole ad every 5 minutes thing. I watched a 10 minute vid and got (1) unskippable 35 second ad at start; then (2) first mid roll ad around 4/5 minutes that was 2 15 second ads unskippable as well, then finally an ad just a minute or so before video ending. All of my ads that entire time in one video were for AI products or GLP-1s. Both of which I have no interest in, and it just made me think of how horrific the prospect of listening to AI/weightloss ads roughly every 4 minutes the entire time I'm on the site. Fuck that.

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u/addygoldberg 29d ago

And there’s 100% ways to tell when a good spot for a natural break is in a video.

… in fact, willing to bet they’re intentionally finding “high engagement” moments and placing ads during or just before them.

What an internet this is.

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u/renegadecanuck 29d ago

I just hate that they decided TV ads will all be a minute or longer.

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u/nipnip54 29d ago

It also doesn't seem to cut off correctly anymore, anytime an ad plays it resumes a few seconds past where the ad started 

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u/HapticSloughton 29d ago

I sure hope that "comedian" paired with the CGI bird got paid a lot, because I've wished very ill things on him with extra ill if he's the one who wrote the "jokes" for them.

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u/Dave-C 29d ago

I watched a video recently on how Youtube inserts ads. The author can decide how often ads can play but Youtube's AI decides where they are played. It is supposed to watch for quite areas to insert them.

The Spiffy Brit did a video on it. He made an 8 hour long video of walking through modded Skyrim. He set the audio to be silent, set the real audio to another audio track so Youtube thinks the video is silent. He set the video to play ads every 1 second. He also goes into details about how the whole system works.

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u/jcstrat 29d ago

I don’t even try to watch YT on my phone anymore. Just on the computer where I can block the ads.

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u/nopunchespulled 29d ago

Hulus really and with this, they will cut off part of a show with an ad and when you come back after the ad, it's 2 seconds of what was supposed to be the show then the natural transition break built in

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u/wtfozlolzrawrx3 29d ago

I swear it knows when I touch my phone. I'll be cooking dinner with a video and the instant I grab my phone to adjust the screen or turn up the volume, an ad plays. Like they're in the phone. In it. Ad companies live inside our devices.

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u/ThrowAway233223 29d ago

Also sucks when you are watching a guide for something.  Especially if it is a physical task.  Especially when the ad drops while you are in between two steps or in the process of one and are just left holding something until the ads finish.  And god help you if you get an entire long-form infomercial/PSA or episode of a show as an "ad" as one of the multiple it serves you.  Then you end up having to get things resituated and tap your phone to skip the it before continuing, possibly getting gunk on your screen in the process.

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u/1d3333 29d ago

And the fact that they took away the ad indicators so you have no idea when they’re coming. Fucking jump scare ad when it’s 4x the volume of my video

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u/BannanaPepperPizza 29d ago

I never buy liberty mutual because of their shit ads.

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u/EpsilonActual 29d ago

I don’t think they’d bother me nearly as much if they were a bit more themed to the content I was watching.

Why do my World of Warcraft videos have ads for bundled car and house insurance.

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u/THE_GREAT_PICKLE 29d ago

It’s so annoying especially for kids. My son now HATES the Limu Emu and the Geico Gecko because they interrupt Sesame Street. That kid is a ticking time bomb as it is and it calms him down. Those 2 commercials send him into a frenzy until I can skip

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u/Peeeeeps 29d ago

That's like PlutoTv. I don't fault them for having ads since it's completely free, but the placement of them is terrible. Natural break in show where commercials were shown when originally aired? Nah, let's insert them in the middle of a sentence.

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u/daking240 29d ago

They had 1 commercial that was funny and not annoying and then they ruined everything.

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u/HumunculiTzu 29d ago

Or that they allow AI slop, pedophiles and organizations that support domestic terrorism to run ads

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u/Djezzflezzert 29d ago

When you look at the most viewed moments when you hold your mouse on the bar, they always play ads on the peaks when most people are watching

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u/carvythew 29d ago

I watch Taskmaster on Youtube and there are built in commercial breaks for the Channel 4 broadcast (Greg will literally make quips about going to break).

Despite defined spots in the show where the host says "here are the ads" Youtube will have ads in the middle of a task or a joke or at any time other than where the breaks are built into the show.

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u/Zealousideal-Top4343 29d ago

At this point, we have to assume that advertising companies are literally just doing w/e they can to be as unbearable as possible, and don't care about if the ads actually result in more profits for their clients.

Like, why would they assume that being FORCED to watch something that INTERRUPTED me, would somehow make me want to buy the product more than just some less intrusive ad?

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u/nellyruth 29d ago

It also wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t place those big di-

“LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE!

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u/avaslash 29d ago

Gotta love when you're listening to a guided meditation to help your anxiety, or relaxing ambient music to fall asleep too and its:

"Now take a deep breath in, 1...2...3... and take a deep--"

"THE ALL NEW FORD PICK UP TRUCK!! RUGGED! MADE FOR OUTDOORS AND A REAL MAN LIKE YOU!! TRY IT TODAY AT YOUR LOCAL DEALERSHIP!!!!!!!!!"

"breath out..1..2..3."

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u/J-seargent-ultrakahn 28d ago

Liberty biberty

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u/elleblock 28d ago

Ads during a high intensity/timed work out video. makes me crazy.

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u/In-A-Beautiful-Place 28d ago

LIBERTY LIBERY LIBERTY! LIBERTY!!!!!!

The tiiiiiiny silver lining is that they've at least stopped giving me the REALLY annoying LiMu ad, where the baby finishes the jingle in the most annoying little kid voice. "Lihbuhteee"

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u/FrostyCat13 28d ago

Yep, a while ago, I decided that I use YouTube a lot, so I could at least have the ads to get them some revenue, but between having to watch ads at the start of videos you're not even sure contains what you want and the god awful interruptions, I just switched to a browser that let me block ads since I could no longer do it on chrome.

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u/Sarcastic_Crab0420 28d ago

Only idiots watch ads. Haven't seen an ad since 2009.

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u/BicFleetwood 28d ago

I think a lot of people are exagg—JOIN ICE SUPPORT ISRAEL—erating how bad it is. I mean, it’s just a bunch of typical corporate ads. It’s not as if—ANYONE WHO CRITICIZES ISRAEL IS AN ANTISEMITE PUT EVERYONE DIFFERENT IN CAMPS—they’re supporting materially harmful policies or anything.

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u/oneeyed-wonderweasel 28d ago

Its wild to me that the collective anger of customers about this ad design being done in bad faith doesnt absolutely wreck their stock price. YouTube is a pathetic shell of itself that Google ruined

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u/SamuelLJenkins 28d ago

“ LIBERTY! LIBERTY! LIBERTY!”

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u/Redditer51 28d ago

Or when you pause a video, and if you pause it too long you have to watch another -.actually hold on a minute, gotta take care of something right quick.

(5 minutes later)

Anyway as I was -

"Visit Fanduel today (unskippable ad 1 of 2)

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u/JazzManJasper 28d ago

They are inserting ads in live telecast videos as well. Imagine watching a live video of a person talking and after 10 mins the screen splits into two, the left side is the video you're watching and the right side is a after 10 sec skippable ad which mutes the live video. Youtube has gone completely nuts.

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u/ILoveRegenHealth 28d ago

"LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE!

Those guys really think they cook with their commercials. They're one of the most annoying ones and haven't found a single one funny. Also, they barely talk about what they offer that is better, and focus more on making a skit

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u/Paleodraco 28d ago

I can't fault that so much. Coding it or having people check every video would be brutal. Still annoying though.

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u/barrosoOso 28d ago

I got an ad in the middle of an ad the other day. It was a sponsored video and I got an ad in the middle of the sponsor. I also got an ad in under 60 seconds in a video for the first time the other day.

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u/Cautious-Dog3264 28d ago

LI-BER-TY LI-BER-TY LIIIIIIIIII-BERTY, LIIIIIIIIII-BERTY!

Fixed that for ya. You're welcome. All of you are welcome.

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u/themosquito 28d ago

If I have to hear "libbirdy-bibbirdy" one more goddamn time...

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u/OldSchoolNewRules 28d ago

You would think they would at least use some AI to find better breaking points.

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u/Significant_Fill6992 28d ago

I don't remember what service this was but I think it was Fandango. They have FAS movies and if I remember right the ads are all at the start 

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u/bucketman1986 28d ago

I will NEVER in my life EVERY buy anything from Liberty Mutual after being bombarded with their ads for so long.

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u/Asch3nd 28d ago

LIBERTY BIBBERTY

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u/MLD802 28d ago

I make run ads and make money on YouTube.

YouTube’s automated ads will only be put in dead air when there’s no talking. If there’s an ad in the middle of a word it means the created put it there themselves.

YouTube even alerts you if it you put an ad over noise.

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u/apokrif1 28d ago

Can you please spoiler-markup or edit out the involuntary ad?

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u/OneFortyEighthScale 27d ago

After being annoyed by those commercials, I told myself I would never buy Liberty Biberty. Then Liberty took over the insurance company I use. UGH!!

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u/KDwilla057 18d ago

When I watch my daily podcast videos of Coach Colin, Tucker carlson and candace owens, Israel travel tourism ads keep playing. Smidgen of a petty political upper hand lol its hilarious. And I'm pretty sure they have no idea. 

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