This is extremely bad from a UX perspective (very confusing what is an ad). It's the problem Google has where people click on ads thinking they are search results. This makes money for Google short term, but loses them a LOT of money long term
This sort of thing should be discussed because either (1) companies just change their mind and prioritize long term profit, as has happened here. I don't see these ads in LLMs (2) they remain stubborn, but other companies/services outcompete them
1. Hulu doesn't seem to understand that people pause shows to examine a scene more closely, and not just for bathroom/discussion breaks where occluding the frame would be okay. And/or companies are struggling to drive profits upward, to the point that they aren't being thoughtful. It reminds me of the Netflix show Manic. (Seen it?) In the present-day alternate-reality dystopia, a person can get paid to allow a human AdBuddy to follow them around, rambling about products.
2. You could extend the definition of an advertisement further - flowers use bright colors to advertise their nectar to pollinators. Plant roots secrete specific exudates into soil which "informs" bacteria about what nutrients they need synthesized. It's all interconnection, info-sharing, stimuli & responses!
3. Of course, my orientation toward all this is: I'd be surprised if we spend much time at all on screens by the late 2030s, so pop-up ads are a temporary inconvenience.
Recent example, here's an ad that was inserted INLINE in the response of an LLM: https://substack.com/@omarshehata/note/c-70829541
This is extremely bad from a UX perspective (very confusing what is an ad). It's the problem Google has where people click on ads thinking they are search results. This makes money for Google short term, but loses them a LOT of money long term
This sort of thing should be discussed because either (1) companies just change their mind and prioritize long term profit, as has happened here. I don't see these ads in LLMs (2) they remain stubborn, but other companies/services outcompete them
1. Hulu doesn't seem to understand that people pause shows to examine a scene more closely, and not just for bathroom/discussion breaks where occluding the frame would be okay. And/or companies are struggling to drive profits upward, to the point that they aren't being thoughtful. It reminds me of the Netflix show Manic. (Seen it?) In the present-day alternate-reality dystopia, a person can get paid to allow a human AdBuddy to follow them around, rambling about products.
2. You could extend the definition of an advertisement further - flowers use bright colors to advertise their nectar to pollinators. Plant roots secrete specific exudates into soil which "informs" bacteria about what nutrients they need synthesized. It's all interconnection, info-sharing, stimuli & responses!
3. Of course, my orientation toward all this is: I'd be surprised if we spend much time at all on screens by the late 2030s, so pop-up ads are a temporary inconvenience.