Commercials Come To The Net (After This Word)

ctwxman writes "Say it isn't so. Full-motion commercials, when you go to click off a page, are coming to a website near you! The New York Times (standing in a bathtub with an electric iron required) reports: "Beginning tomorrow, more than a dozen Web sites, including MSN, ESPN, Lycos and iVillage, will run full-motion video commercials from Pepsi, AT&T, Honda, Vonage and Warner Brothers, in a six-week test that some analysts and online executives say could herald the start of a new era of Internet advertising." Unicast, the company responsible, says the ads will play regardless of pop-up blocking. "The only format that loads completely before it is allowed to play, the Full Screen Superstitial is guaranteed to play perfectly for every consumer, every time." I work in TV where commercials pay the freight. Is this so wrong on the net? It's not what we're used to, but maybe we're asking for more than is reasonable. I just don't know." I think I hear the whip swinging back, but harder ...

Off-beat browsers

[Carnildo]

Unicast, the company responsible, says the ads will play regardless of pop-up blocking.

The good news is that this requires Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, so I don't even need to modify my ad filter to keep them from showing up!

Some Guarantee...

[mkaltner]

"The only format that loads completely before it is allowed to play, the Full Screen Superstitial is guaranteed to play perfectly for every consumer, every time."

I was curious about this Full Screen Superstitial advertisement so I checked the Unicast website here http://www.unicast.com/gallery/gallery.asp and found that shockwave is required in order to display. Under firebird with no shockwave plugin installed (on Win2K no-less), all I get is a 'Get Plugin' page. Glad to see that this 'technology' is defunct from the start!

- mkaltner

Re:I wonder how long

[Carnildo]

You won't need a plugin to hide it. It requires Windows Media Player, so you'd need a plugin to see it in the first place.

Re:Expensive

[The Ancients]

Like here in New Zealand? Broadband is still a fairly rare beast, and when it is available, it's 20c per MB thank you very much. Looks like I now not only have to get up and do the 'ad-break' walkaround, I'm going to have to pay for the privilege...

..k

Re:Expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

Unicast claims 300 kb per commercial and that they can play the commercials between page changes, so you're looking at paying $.06 per webpage.

Reach out

[Anonymous Coward]

-- Dick Hopple, CEO Unicast Communications

Unicast Communications Corp.
160 Varick Street 6th Floor
New York, NY 10013

Re:10 minutes...

[Simon Garlick]

0.5 seconds to click "View Source"
10 seconds to find the advertisement tag
2 seconds to add the host to the squid banlist ACL
2 seconds to restart squid

Re:umm yeah.. no

[HTH NE1]

heck a poorly configured one probably will just display a 'get plug in' page/icon.

And my userContent.css will suppress even that:

object[codebase*=flash] { display: none ! important; }
object[code-base*=flash] { display: none ! important; }
embed[type*=flash] { display: none ! important; }

I don't have the plug-in installed and this suppresses even the alert.

However, they can easily code sites such that you can't find out the real link destination until the flash movie completes and redirects the main browser there. To bypass this with Mozilla, it would need to be able to decode the Flash movie (or whatever they use) and find the redirection. Assuming they haven't obfuscated it amongst many false leads or made the ad too interactive.

Re:Oh great...

[petabyte]

I use a mozilla-based browser with the ad blocking userContent.css that can be found here. [floppymoose.com] I find that also helps.

Re:I wonder how long

[Dutch_Cap]

"Looks like this will push Flash blocking through quickly. :)"

Flash Click to View: [texturizer.net]

why isn't internet bandwidth like cell phone time

[diabelek]

Why are banners and ads able to be "forced" (term used loosely) to your PC while telemarketers and text messages from businesses aren't able to call you or send messages since it costs me money. My internet bandwidth is not unlimited so shouldn't it be right to say that ads are costing me money. I would agree that it is somewhat debatable since your visiting that site and so you are almost agreeing that you'll accept the ads. As an arguement to that, how do I know a site will pop up advertisements (ie to the extreme, porn)? Should a site notify you before it loads stating that "to view the site, you accept that advertisements will be displayed on your computer"? Where does customer/visitor accepted advertising start/end?

Just some thoughts. Anyone have any thoughts on that rambling?

This will never fly

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember, bandwidth on the Internet has to be paid for by both the subscriber and the provider of content. Once the advertisers get tired of paying for the staggering amount of outgoing bandwidth needed to send 30-second video clips that are unrequested by 100% of the viewers and skipped by 99% of them, you can expect full-screen superstitials to go the way of the 110-volt rubber duck.

Re:Expensive

[chunkwhite86]

Who's forcing them to go to these sites ? Last time I checked, you had access to this smart little "X" button that would close the window. I'm all for those ads. They dont try and trick you by using faked windows, they just plain make their sales speech, and then you move on. If you dont like it, there are a bunch of other sites around that dont use them.

That's just it - they *DO* trick you. The article clearly states that *while* the user is browsing a given web site, the full motion video ad is being downloaded in the background. It is only when you leave the site that the video starts playing.

You don't have the option to check the "No thanks, I pay by the MB for my downloads" button. You don't even know about the large download until after it's done!! That's the offensive part.

One can only hope that the sites which feature these ads have a warning.

There is one...

[dark-br]

The mozilla "click-to-play flash" add-on that you can find here [mozdev.org]

Check The Firebird Plugins

[BSDevil]

It's not the slickest thing, but if you run Firebird you can install Flash Click-To-View [squarefree.com]. It does exactly what you'd think it would do - replaces any and all Flash content with a gray box saying "Flash - Click to View." Works pretty well, except gets annyoing on those flash-only navigation pages.

Re:10 minutes...

[the_Bionic_lemming]

1.0 seconds to copy URL .05 seconds to hit tools .05 seconds to hit internet options .05 seconds to hit security .05 seconds to hit restricted sites .05 seconds to hit sites
1.0 seconds to paste URL .05 seconds to hit add .05 seconds to hit f5

No more ad loading in IE on that site.

With that said - What about users on a FUP connection? Do they even care?

Re:Expensive

[blutrot]

According to Unicast, each advertisement is aprox

15 seconds
300k file size
Full screen
Plays between pages during consumer transition

300KB/7KBps == 42+ seconds of *extra* download time, presuming the user is downloading at a full 56kbps. Just think, if every page has this ad technology, this is going to make for some very long browsing sessions for modem users. I don't know about the rest of you, but I never was able to reach a full 56kbps when I used to be on modem. It always dropped back down to 26kbps or a similar speed.

Imho, it is advertising suicide. Then again, not every user knows there are alternatives to MSN, ESPN, etc...

Re:Flash Controls?

[Anonymous Coward]

Myself, I just leave Flash uninstalled. Every few months there's a site I want to see that has Flash. I install it, look at the site, and uninstall it. It kills a few minutes, but to me it's far preferable to seeing all that Flash crap I don't want to see.

However, now that I've learned about
http://www.squarefree.com/userstyles/xbl.ht ml

I'll give it a shot.

Re:Hmmm... *Any* User?

[Wanker]

For a preview, try one of the sample SUPERSTITIAL ads [unicast.com], available from the firm marketing them. You can even test your browser against some of the other formats [unicast.com] offered by the same company.

My favorite quote [unicast.com] (from near the bottom of the paragraph):

Full Screen Superstitial is guaranteed to play perfectly for every consumer, every time.

I'd sure like to see the terms of that guarantee... <grin>

Re:Oh great...

[molafson]

I use a mozilla-based browser with the ad blocking userContent.css that can be found here. I find that also helps.

The css file blocks content from being displayed. In other words, the unwanted content still gets downloaded. Thus, these ads remains a problem for modem users and pay-by-megabyte users.

Re:Expensive

[stephanruby]

"The article clearly states that the large video advertisement is downloaded in the background, hidden from the user, and doesnt display until the download is complete."

I doubt very much that the download would begin on through Mozilla without Mozilla telling me something. If IE doesn't work for you, you can always switch to Mozilla or Opera.

"How are you to know which sites use these ads and which don't if you don't know about the ad until it's already been downloaded!!"

So you get screwed once and you don't return. That's the all point of the internet, isn't it? You never know what you're going to get until you try, and then you only end up trusting very few web sites like google or slashdot.

It's reasonably gay, but not really gay.

[iamghetto]

If you check out the specs sheet of the "Superstitial" full screen ad format here: http://www.unicast.com/formats/htmlspecs_fs.asp?do cument=FullScreenSpecs%5F05277521%2Epdf [unicast.com]. At least the specs are reasonable.

- All ads are essentially Flash movies with set limitations
- max file size 600K
- limit to 15 seconds max
- *MUST include sound off button
- *MUST include a skip commerical link
- if no buttons are visible at any point during the commerical, clicking on the commerical itself will allow the user to "bail" from watching it.
- embedded videos can be no larger than 320x240

And all interactivity and motion/animation is done in flash, most using actionscript. It almost seems like a crime to pass this off as new technology, when it fact it just appears to be flash movies forced to run full screen.

And no I don't agree with what they're doing, and I don't believe that I should have to pay with my own bandwidth to watch someone elses ads, but at least they're giving up the option in these ads to skip them... Which isn't much a silver lining but..???

The most important thing is that when we see these commercials, we should not click on anything but the "skip" button. If we make sure the skip them all, I think our message will be heard loud and clear by advertisers.

Re:Expensive

[TheSpoom]

From the people that brought you (and are still bringing you) Kazaa Lite comes Supertrick [accs-net.com], effectively a Hosts file used to redirect the servers that provide advertising to your loopback address. Also, if you're not already running a server, you can get eDexter [accs-net.com] to make any "blocked" into transparent GIFs that don't break the page. Should work pretty well for these background loading ads. :^)

Adblock for Moziila doesn't have a problem with it

[Mike Buddha]

Blocking http://*.unicast.com/* and http://*.enliven.com/* seems to take care of this new annoyance quite handily.

mozilla adblock plugin also

[Anonymous Coward]

http://adblock.mozdev.org [mozdev.org]

Lets you selectively block Flash objects, as well as filter out a whole bunch of other crap. Like Slashdot ad banners :)

Some constructive MSIE user suggestions

[maggard]

• For those of us using MSIE for one reason or another I can't recommend strongly enough MyIE2 [myie2.com]. A free shell for MSIE it adds another 2MB but in that include features like tabs, mouse gestures, various sorts of filtering including by string and by domain, and yes, trivially enabling & disabling Flash. There are other similar products but IMHO this is the smoothest.

• Next I'm betting the the Google Toolbar [google.com] will be revved pretty quickly to counter this, they'd be fools not to. Indeed I'm betting nearly every pop-up blocker will be jumping on these. FWIW I use Norton Internet Security Pro [symantec.com] and it's ad-filtering is pretty good once one undoes it's favored-partners exceptions.

• Finally there will indeed be a rush to block the offending IP's, unless the advertisers get crafty and start making their adverts appear to come from the content IP's, then it'll be ugly everywhere. Hopefully things won't come to that and over the next few days we'll start seeing handy "filter these" notices.

• And yes, there will be the flood of "Switch to Mozilla", "Use Linux" & "Use MacOS X & Safari" etc. postings. Thanks folks but most of us are well aware of those options and for one reason or another aren't taking advantage of 'em, or are but also using MSWin & MSIE too. Just deal with the fact that there are unenlightened or dissenting or locked-in folks and not be annoying proselytizers please. Oh, and MyIE2 is beta-ing [aab.spin.ee] Mozilla support for those wanting/needing to keep a foot in each camp.

This is sooo easy to block

[AstroDrabb]

Download and install the latest version (1.6) of Mozilla or MozillaFirebird. Turn off pop-ups AND also go to the extensionroom [mozdev.org] and get the Adblock extensions. This will let you block ANY content on a regex. For example, put in *servedby* and wham, no more crap form servedby.XXX.com. If you get one of these commercial ads, just look at the host they come from and put it in your Adblock list and it will be no more.

Just don't use crappy IE and you won't be exploited by this crap.

Some good catch-alls for Adblock

*servedby*
*/ad/*
*/ads/*
*doubleclick.net*

Re:Wrong perspective

[Magus424]

> junk calls on your cel phone(for those who pay to receive calls).

I don't know about where you are, but as I understand it here in the US, telemarketing to cell phones is illegal.

Guaranteed to work... maybe

[brad-d]

"The only format that loads completely before it is allowed to play, the Full Screen Superstitial is guaranteed to play perfectly for every consumer, every time."

Well, it didn't work for me, but that's a nice benefit of not having shockwave installed. Of course, I just ended up with a large blank page that did nothing. Handy

Re:What country are you from?

[gcaseye6677]

Its interesting how many people have pointed out that cable TV used to be commercial free. So why are we now paying to receive ads on cable? This [makethemplayfair.com] should give you some insight. Basically everyone in the United States who subscribes to cable or satellite is paying a Disney Tax, mainly due to fees for ESPN. That's right, when you watch ESPN, you are bombarded with commercials, you see onscreen advertising, and on top of it your cable companies are charged out the ass for the rights to carry ESPN. But should they decide to drop ESPN or move it to a premium package, Disney will threaten to pull ALL of their channels from that cable company. This means no Disney, ESPN, ABC, and whatever other channels they own. The cable provider would lose lots of subscribers over this, so they must play along. But why does Disney feel that consumers should be forced to pay to watch ads? Because they clearly are willing to do so. Sports fans who pay almost $100 per game ticket and then $12 for a beer and slice of pizza, and then watch ads all through the game are more than willing to pay whatever they are charged for ESPN. What is unfair is the fact that every cable subscriber must pay whether they watch sports or not. The summary of this post is: Fuck ESPN. Fuck them in the ass with a concrete dildo.

Re:Wrong perspective

[zcat_NZ]

The Onion started doing interstatial ads. I don't know if they still are, because I stopped going there as soon as it started.

A pity, because other than that they were an excellent parody site. :(

Re:Software Patents (6,466,967)

[nullforce]

Patent# 6,466,967 [uspto.gov]

Looks like it should be easy enough to block:

TABLE 1
ADVERTISING TAG
<SCRIPT SRC=http://unicast.com/loadad.js>
AdServer="http://AdManagement system"
</SCRIPT>

One portion of the advertising tag (SRC=http://unicast.com/loadad.js), when executed by the browser, downloads a JavaScript file (named loadad.js) from the agent server. This file, in turn, is then interpreted and executed, as a script, by the browser. The effect of executing this script, as symbolized by block 200 shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, is to substitute applet tags, dynamically written by the script, into the referring web page in lieu of advertising tag 40 so as to form a modified web page, here referring content page 35', residing in the browser disk cache. The script, by invoking a feature associated with dynamic writing, completely hides these tags from view should the user then display HTML source code for page 35' with his browser. This, in turn, hinders the user, to a certain degree, from readily ascertaining the source of the agent and ad management systems. Collectively, these applet tags form Transition Sensor applet 210. This script, as described in detail below and is reproduced in Table 2 below, when interpreted and executed by a Java virtual machine (Java interpreter) resident in the browser persistently loads and then instantiates the Transition Sensor itself which, in turn, loads and instantiates the remainder of the agent in the client browser.

TABLE 2
TRANSITION SENSOR APPLET
<applet code="com.unicast.adcontroller.tools.TransitionSen sor"
codebase="http://www.unicast.com/java/classes/"
align="baseline" width="0" height="0" name="TransitionSensor"
archive="adcontroller.jar">
<param name-"adURL"
value="http://www.unicast.com/media/fireworks_01_a d_descriptor.txt">
<param name="cabbase" value="adcontroller.cab">
</applet>

Re:Expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

Those guys can't provide cable in NZ's largest city, Auckland.

The ripoff company he is getting his DSL through is the only vendor of DSL, Telecom. Telecom know they have a monopoly, and they totally and utterly rape us, because they know we're fucked if we don't want to go back to dial up.

The more affordable options for DSL involve monthly limits of 600MB or less, and 20c for every MB over that. The less affordable options have limits of 2GB, 5GB, and 10GB, with prices dropping all the way down to 16c per MB, and the monthly fees for those levels far outweigh the cheaper options.

Re:Expensive

[1u3hr]

Just how big are these fucking files?

After visiting their site I find "2MB for 30 seconds". I went to the demo page, which took several minutes to load to 99% before stopping -- probably because I use Opera. Investigatng my cache I found an exe file these pricks had sent. WTF are they trying to do? What an excellent way to install a Trojan.

Look at the source

[Necron69]

Look at the HTML source at:

http://www.unicast.com/gallery/

Check the 'Full Screen Interstitial' example. It isn't Flash, but Windows Media Player. It bails right away if you aren't running IE with the right version of media player. Also requires Javascript.

Not a problem for me. :)

- Necron69

PROXOMITRON

[Cognitive Dissident]

Proxomitron is a local proxy that lets you write powerful scripts the alter your incoming and out-going browser data-stream 'in real time'. Yes, you can intercept Shockwave/flash as easily as any other sort of file, as well as Javascript and .CSS files. You can not only block ads and pop-ups and cookies, you can customize your entire browsing experience! You can also SEND things like spoofed cookies and other codes that let you control your browsing experience. The add-blocker CSS for Mozilla/Firebird is good but but this is an order of magnitude better.

Proxomitron. Get it, learn it, keep up with the cookie snoopers and pop-up pushers.

http://www.proxomitron.info/

Re:Even more wrong perspective

[broller]

Not according to the Learn More [unicast.com] button on that page.

"The Video Commercial is:

Up to 2 MB
Up to 30 seconds
Full Screen
Broadcast quality (564 kbps) - plays up to 8 times faster than broadband video (100 kbps)
Completely pre-cached* -- 30 frames per second video that plays perfectly for every consumer, every time"

"The Video Commercial IS NOT:

Streaming video which inevitably results in buffering and freezing even on a broadband connection

Partially pre-loaded or "politely" loaded which does not guarantee consistent playback

Flash video"

It specifically says it's not flash.

Not true.

[jotaeleemeese]

The big chains (Dixons, Comet, Currys) will not sell you a region free DVD player.

You can get them in other reputable shops like RicherSounds, but is by no means a generalized given.