[MOmelanuk]

I arrived home from vacation to find the November PCWorld waiting for me. Shock! The cover is a full page advertisement.

I am totally disgusted that PCWorld would sell its integrity by allowing Trend Micro to simulate its cover. I find it ironic that editors consider this appropriate when in the same issue (on page 13) the article "11 Mobile Web Annoyances...." cites built-in pop-up ads as its 3rd annoyance.

PCWorld's lapse is worse than an annoyance, because it allows an advertiser to hijack PCWorld and give the impression that PCWorld is not only endorsing it's product, but endorsing it so strongly that it is worth a cover story.

Shame on you! Your excellent reputation is sullied, your reviews devalued, and your integrity shot to Hell.

Henceforth, I will look at PCWorld with a different eye, and will certainly not buy from Trend Micro.

Did I say this is bad journalism?

[LiveBrianD]

Although I don't subscribe to PCWorld's print magazine, I've seen plenty of annoying web ads. Honestly, maybe people need to start using adblockers until sites learn to NOT use such annoying, in someone's face ads. THEN maybe they'll learn it the hard way.

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 24 October 2010 - 11:48 AM

[AgentF]

LiveBrianD, on 24 October 2010 - 11:47 AM, said:

Although I don't subscribe to PCWorld's print magazine, I've seen plenty of annoying web ads. Honestly, maybe people need to start using adblockers until sites learn to NOT use such annoying, in someone's face ads. THEN maybe they'll learn it the hard way.

That's not how it works though. Advertisers will just find a way to circumvent such blockers. I despise video advertisements. It takes me a while to load a video but now I have to load a commercial too. Sure makes it difficult to stay under my limited bandwidth.

It happens on television too. DVR was invented which allowed people to skip past commercials on recorded shows. Now they advertise at the bottom of the screen during the show. A couple years ago, I was watching a program and one of those bottom-screen advertisements enlarged into a commercial mid-sentence of a character's dialogue. Thankfully this sort of advertising didn't catch on.

This post has been edited by AgentF: 28 October 2010 - 08:05 PM