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YouTube's ad problem just got worse: Users now seeing 90-second unskippable ads!
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this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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Why are these companies wanting to pay to infuriate me? If I want to watch something and I’m suddenly interrupted by a 90 second unskippable intrusion I’m not going to have a positive relationship with your company.
Because while you and I will just not use their product, many people just accept it and go with the flow because it’s easy.
And this is very evident whenever you're outside the lemmy / technically skilled bubble, on reddit and many other places, whenever the topic of YouTube ads / premium come up, a surprising proportion of the comments will be to the effect of "just pay for premium" and "premium is so worth it" or "yt premium is the most valuable subscription out of them all". People don't seem to care that so much of the value of premium is avoiding a problem entirely fabricated by YT.
I agree with your basic point, tho to be fair, server costs are a thing, so it's more like a problem fabricated by... capitalism? the commercialization of the internet? The centralization of resources? I guess it depends on what you think the long-term solution is.
Yeah I'm more talking about everything they do in addition to make the non-premium experience more painful. The incentive is to make it as annoying as people are willing to tolerate with dark patterns and little irritations. That kind of thing is entirely done on purpose, and I think it's gross to have to capitulate.
Most ads aren't directly tied to a sales goal. Instead they work on brand recognition. IOW, when you are at the grocery store, you think of Coke in general rather than any specific ads. And when you're looking for a new car, Ford's marketing is constantly in the back of your mind.
Combined with the tsunami of marketing everyone faces every single day, few of these ads stand out. You likely don't turn down buying Coke because of how invasive their ads are.
Agreed. More specifically, I think brand association plays a part. Even if you never drink cola of any type, the ads make you think "Coke is the kind of drink for people who (whatever)". Then when you see your friend drinking one you say "Oh you drink coke? I guess you're the kind of person who (whatever the ad campaign says)." It's really insiduous.
Unfortunatelly, that's not how most people think, otherwise there wouldn't be these ads