Over the past couple of day I get an ad for HP that displays a large picture at the top (something about this is the brand someone built).

It sits there and thinks for a couple of moments and then 'loads' the ad. It give a countdown option to 'skip' the loading ...

But this ad (granted I know the feeds come in) is not the same as the other banner ads. I wonder if something can be done.

It takes perhaps 5 seconds for the thing to get to the point where I can stop it .. and then the regular FT screen (with banner and side ad) load.

This 'interruption' is getting frustrating and time consuming.

Apparently, you can sign up to be a Premium Member on Flyertalk at a cost of $12/year and all the ads will go away. Or you can use Firefox as your browser and get Adblocker as an add-on.

JGR01 - we've also been noticing some strange activity with the HP ads, although I haven't personally witnessed the load you describe. The ad trafficking team is looking into this campaign right now to determine what the issue is.

Thanks for the feedback.

I've been running into the same HP ad 5 or 6 times by now. I didn't know this new wave of ad campaign is arriving at FT

This sort of "forced-fed" ad is not uncommon though. When I watch the TV program online (such as ABC, CBS, Fox...etc), I get to watch all the ad/commercials. I get the idea it's because of the sponsors that I can watch the episodes for FREE. All the commercials are about 30 seconds. Even though you can't skip it, different companies have different ways to "feed" it. For Fox, the commercials are built in seamlessly, meaning when the 30 seconds are over, the program resume by itself. Sort of like you are watching TV the traditional way. You just have to wait till the ad is over. That's fine with me.

For ABC, the online player will not resume to the program after the commercials are over. The viewers have to click on the "Continue", which is prompted at the end of each commercial, otherwise the next segment won't play. The recent HP ad at FT is similar to this, which is more intrusive than the others, IMHO. We are forced to "interact" with this HP ad. When I say "interact", I mean "wait till I can click the skip button" so I can go back to my normal FT viewing pleasure. Maybe I shouldn't complain too much since "skip" is still an option.

I know there's always trade-off for free FT. I can live with ads. I am just not sure if this form of ad is HP-specific. Or HP ad is simply a test-run before FT "adopts" (should I say IB) the new form universally? I surely hope it's not the latter.

I agree with JGR01 this "interruption" is costing us time.

I finally decided to let this ad do its countdown (skip ad counts down from 15 to 1) to see what it was all about.

NOTHING MORE!

It just displays the stupid ad for up to 15 seconds and then returns to a normal FT screen.

Thats 15 seconds of my life I'll never get back.

A really wastefull ad IMHO.

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Added ....

Maybe it did the intended 'trick'. Since the ad continued to waste my time ... I decided it was time to blow $12 for the Premium edition/membership/whatever it is called .. so I will not get ADS any more!

It works great! Best $12 I have spent in a long time!

You can instantly kill the ad by clicking the refresh button.

That didn't work for me.

I tried and refreshed 3 times. Every refresh I got to see the big giant HP ad loading again and again. That was the most annoying part for me.

Nor for me.

It took me back to where I'd just come from, not where I'd clicked to go. BUT, it seems if you right-click the link to open in a separate window the ad () is bypassed. Now you have an extra window of course .

Looks like it's targetted, the Canadians seem to be getting the same kind of thing from monster.ca (see thread below).

I believe they use cookies so you should only see that ad once per day. That's why the refresh works, after seeing it once you should not get it again. Perhaps your cookies are blocked?

The other annoying pop-up with the woman who is supposedly looking for me (yeah, right ) is only once a day.

It's not a perfect solution. You do have to click your destination again after getting rid of the ad.