[rifung]

I'm not sure what generation you're a part of but I appreciate ads when they actually tell me something I didn't know about that I do want to buy. For example I've been shopping for beds and dont mind ads for brands I hadn't heard of. Some of them I would have bought had they been in my budget but this to me isn't so much a problem with ada in general as it is about as targeting.

[magashna]

If I'm diving into buying something like a bed, I'm never looking at regular advertising. I'm trawling through forums and old message boards, looking at sites that do direct sales, reading reviews, looking at pictures, going to an actual store to touch and see a thing. Advertising is a skewed view of something I want to buy where they try to convince me it's 110% beyond my wildest dreams and expectations. It's not, never will be. I just want something that's about 80% there and to confidently know it's good enough.

[alkonaut]

I’m way past accepting ad-network ads. If an ad shows for a product I’m really interested in I’d rather google it on a different browser/device than click the ad. But mostly I’m disappointed that the company in question even uses ad-network (ie tracking/targeted) ads.

(I’m from the 70’s and TV didn’t have ads when I grew up, that could make a difference I don’t know?)

I want to be shown no ads or ads for products completely irrelevant to me because seeing (well-)targeted ads makes me feel watched and tracked.

[JohnFen]

> I appreciate ads when they actually tell me something I didn't know about that I do want to buy.

I can't remember the last time I even saw an ad that did this (at all, not just online).

Oh wait, I lie, I do remember -- ads for electronics and computers in the technical journals of old used to do this, because they included actual information about the products they were selling. I haven't seen a useful ad in decades, though.