Like many iPhone users, mine is riddled with apps, most of which are free and therefore ad supported. Yesterday I fired up my ‘Convert Units’ app to, well, convert some units and was greeted by this:
I don’t know if this was ‘targeted’ at me or not, but I fail to see how my desire to know how many grams were in an ounce (28.35), then prompted the iPhone to ask if I wanted to see Hooters girls wash my screen (presumably in a sexy manner)?
I’m not easily offended, and certainly wasn’t in this case. But it’s entirely likely that some (women perhaps?) might get offended.
And how did we get to this point? From inconspicuous banner ads to completely random requests for things, on top of said banner ads. I have a terrible feeling that this is considered as innovation in mobile app advertising. And if that’s the way things are heading then its probably the wrong direction. Mobile ads were meant to usher in an era of targeted, location-specific and relevant messages. Instead, it seems to be adopting some of the worst elements of online advertising, like page takeovers, which I find quite annoying.
This hasn’t made me delete the app just yet, but I might be a bit slow to fire it up next time I need it.
And in case you were wondering, I clicked ‘No Thanks’.
