Advertising Banners on Neopets

[Johnnydontgo]

Nah, Adam takes all this with a grain of salt, I'm sure... besides, he needs to know how everyone feels, to get a grip on "reality", so to speak... Keeps him in touch with the people, lol

[stampsyne]

*off to play the Sparkly deodorant game*

[coming2atvnearu]

*practically pops a vessel to see Johnnydontgo is back*

My problem is not the actual advertising that takes place, but those that are doing it.

There is a big difference, in my mind, of allowing a computer game to sponsor Neopets and allowing (re-ranting until someone pays attention to me) Major tobacco industries and the U.S. Navy to advertise on a children's site!

I wouldn't allow a Navy recruiter to stand outside my child's elementary school and I don't feel comfortable about them having a constant presense on Neopets.

[jeannauo]

It seems to me that with major names like Disney and McDonalds backing neopets, they shouldn't need to have the top banner as well. My main gripe with it, however, is that some of the ads are downloading tracking cookies to our computers. The AT&T CallVantage ad, for instance, invisibly sends a tracking cookie (spyware) called "Avenue A, Inc." Admittedly, Avenue A is fairly harmless. It doesn't cause popups and it doesn't damage your computer. But I don't like the trend; and I don't like having to worry about spyware from Neopets!

I have Avenue A blocked. But it makes me wonder... what ELSE is being downloaded without my knowledge, that I *don't* have blocked on my computer?

The banner itself I can deal with, although I dislike it. The spyware, if it gets any worse, I won't deal with. That is enough to make me boycott even Neopets, for I won't go to sites that install spyware on my computer.

I love Neo, and I hope that this is a "fluke" and not going to continue, or worse, expand. But if it does, well, I doubt I'd be the only one to leave, no matter how much I love the game.

[myname7772]

Adam doesn't bring the banner ads. Someone else *stares* who tortures the people in the neopets office to make flash ads are the one/s responsible. I'd rather have Donald trump ads then what im seeing today. Btw how are kids 3-5 years old tempted into buying those things.

[Johnnydontgo]

*practically pops a vessel to see Johnnydontgo is back*

My problem is not the actual advertising that takes place, but those that are doing it.

There is a big difference, in my mind, of allowing a computer game to sponsor Neopets and allowing (re-ranting until someone pays attention to me) Major tobacco industries and the U.S. Navy to advertise on a children's site!

I wouldn't allow a Navy recruiter to stand outside my child's elementary school and I don't feel comfortable about them having a constant presense on Neopets.

*blushes* Glad to see you, too!

I know you're in Canada, so I don't know how the school systems are run there (or in the northern US, for that matter), but in the South, Navy recruiters come to the high schools in the hope of getting recruits straight out of high school. I myself displayed some vague interest in it, and for the next four months, had the Navy recruiter calling my house, trying to set up an appointment, even after I told him I was no longer interested.... But despite that, the Navy is a voluntary organization, so I don't see a problem with a Navy ad (althoguh I haven't seen one, but I don't pay much attention to the ads). As for Big Tobacco, I've yet to see an ad for cigarettes. RJ Reynolds owns alot more than simply tobacco, and again I don't see a problem with Neopets advertising some toilet paper or laundry detergent that RJ Reynolds made. Most adults don't realize what companies Big Tobacco owns, much less children under 18.

[bgryph]

Er. Secret isn't "feminine deodorant." It's normal underarm deodorant marketed towards women. "Feminine deodorant" goes elsewhere on the body. :-)

Thanks to the power of css I'm not seeing the banners, but I find the fact that the ads evidently have tracing cookies rather disturbing.

[Jonathan]

Er. Secret isn't "feminine deodorant." It's normal underarm deodorant marketed towards women. "Feminine deodorant" goes elsewhere on the body. :-)

Thanks to the power of css I'm not seeing the banners, but I find the fact that the ads evidently have tracing cookies rather disturbing.

There is another way besides CSS that can stop you from seeing the banners, luckily for me, I have Norton Internet Security Perfessional (Try saying THAT five times fast ) Which there is a nifty little filter that blocks out all banner and popup adds, especially the banner adds, so I can't see the banner adds on Neopets!

I don't really like the new toolbar to much, one advertising box on the side was okay before, but TWO? And a large banner, with offsite links to other things -shudders-, I don't like the looks of this, with tracing cookies, which is disturbing to me, its like spyware, only you don't know its there.

[vinylraven]

*practically pops a vessel to see Johnnydontgo is back*

My problem is not the actual advertising that takes place, but those that are doing it.

There is a big difference, in my mind, of allowing a computer game to sponsor Neopets and allowing (re-ranting until someone pays attention to me) Major tobacco industries and the U.S. Navy to advertise on a children's site!

I wouldn't allow a Navy recruiter to stand outside my child's elementary school and I don't feel comfortable about them having a constant presense on Neopets.

very well put. i agree wholeheartedly. i don't know which is worse, big tobacco or the navy advertisments. either way they don't belong on neo.

[PKMN Kid]

Er. Secret isn't "feminine deodorant." It's normal underarm deodorant marketed towards women. "Feminine deodorant" goes elsewhere on the body. :-)

O_O Where DOES it goe anyways....? Wait...don't answer that.

[everconfused]

The banner ads bother me because they represent bad news on the business end of Neopets. Neopets, as a business concepts, is a web page offering imbedded advertising. If they can't make enough money from imbedded advertising and licensing fees, then the entire concept is flawed, and Neopets has no real reason to exist.

Or, more precisely, investors and advertisers will see no real reason for the site to exist. The experiment has failed, Neopets won't endure, and eventually, in 5, 10, or 20 years, my tiny virtual pets will cease to exist, and that idea makes me sad Very sad

I don't see how that makes sense. Neopets earns the majority of their income from, like you said, embedded advertising and marketing real-life merchandise. It seems to be working quite well for them. And, as Adam said above, we're talking 3% of all banners (for now), and the number will probably grow. Alot of large companies (i.e. General Mills, whatever movie companies are advertising their movies) are jumping at the chance to be a part of it. I don't see this as the "downfall" of the company per se, but perhaps the "depersonalization" of it.

Yes, its not like we want to do this, but we dont really have much choice. If it doesnt work out then we will certainly revert to the old style of yellow bar... I'll keep you posted

Its only a banner, it could be a lot worse We'll never do popups or anything like that...

Anyway, you get a Neopets ad 97% of the time, and we will be making more of them so you dont see the same 13 ads over and over again.

I don't quite get the first part of that .. "no reason to exist". All businesses rely on advertising. That is partly (at least) what helps them TO exist.

That said, and as someone who does buy real life "stuff" (and yes I am an adult, just can't resist those plushies; at least the ones I can get my hands on *grumbles there's NO Ltd. Too stores around here*) ... well I do feel like I'm helping to support the site.

When I first saw that huge topbanner the first thing I thought was here comes loads of third party, tracking adware embedded ads (as 99.999999% of banner ads DO have something like that - even eBay itself has it, I'm always getting doubleclicked blocked there). I do have spywareblaster (highly recommend it) along with spybot s&d and ad-ware as a backup. So, if you are worried about those trackers, get the software - it's free and easy to use.

Now, to the topbanner itself. I am with Ledi on this. Is there a way to make the darn thing smaller, less "animated" ... something? I know 2 people with physical problems who have already quit because they can't get the pages to load quickly enough to scroll past the banner and for whatever reason can't get firefox to work right (I can't either - but I'm kind of computer illiterate).

I have also seen and talked to many people who have drastically cut back on the time they're spending on the site due to the topbanner, thus reducing your pageviews, thus reducing what stats go back to the sponsors. Kind of a vicious cycle happening here. Just something you may want to pass on to whoever thought this thing was a good idea for selling ad space to sponsors/advertisers.

I would LOVE to see you go back to just the one shockwave ad on the sidebar and completely lose that topbanner. It's the ads, yes, but it's also that the new look is just so overwhelming, seems "heavy" and all that yellow!

I like the new sidebar, though of course I keep clicking create a pet instead of pet central , but that'll sort itself out. The clock is very useful, I like it ... except when the pages decide to to take a few minutes to load and I can just sit there watching the clock to know just how long that topbanner is taking to load. Ugggghhhh, dial-up!

Ohh, sorry for the ramble - been without a computer since Monday! Trying to catch up with everything.

[meowth1982]

<_< I have Premium. I don't think I've ever seen a non neopets ad...

[everconfused]

<_< I have Premium. I don't think I've ever seen a non neopets ad...

Meowith, if I remember correctly, Adam said that Premium users would not see sponsor ads. Of course, I thought at the time that meant they wouldn't see that topbanner at all .

Oddness with the sponsor ads? There was one that kept trying? to show up today. I kept getting a privacy report for a third party cookie (tribalfusion), but no ad ever showed up. Wonders if it's that odd one that people were talking about.

Here's the ss of what the privacy report showed when I clicked on it - sorry for the uber poor quality...there's no good graphics programs on this puter (not mine):

[plushie]

Its currently 3% of all banners. That may increase but yeah, we dont have much choice.

Look on the bright side, it means more artists and programmers for us, the company can expand and we can do lots more cool stuff

Id just ignore them (or get some sort of ad blocker:P)

a bunch of flashy banners that induce seiziures and you expect us to ignore them!??!

fine with me xD

I took an idea from someone else here and changed my location to Antarctica. I've only seen Neopets ads since.

THAT is genius! *runs into iceblock of a frozen account* eheh, forgot about a minor detail ^-^;; maybe my little brother and sister will like it