Banana republic ad going crazy on mobile

[dArc_Uriel]

That banana republic ad at the bottom of the screen keeps popping up, covering 3/4 of the screen. When you minimize it it will pop right back up with it's full screen animation every few minutes and stack another copy of the same ad over the other...

I've seen upwards of six of them in constant screen filling rotation making the mobile site absolutely useless...

You guys really need to police these ads...

 

[Jordan]

I'm aware of it. It has already been reported to our ad provider and will be removed shortly.

 

[Populuxe]

It's not just Banana Republic and it's not just on mobile. There are a few new ads that do the same thing on my PC. The ad creates a full frame around the screen and then the bottom slides up to cover about the bottom third of the screen. I just saw a McDonalds ad that did this as well as the Banana Republic ad.

 

[Famine]

It's not just Banana Republic and it's not just on mobile. There are a few new ads that do the same thing on my PC. The ad creates a full frame around the screen and then the bottom slides up to cover about the bottom third of the screen. I just saw a McDonalds ad that did this as well as the Banana Republic ad.

Screenshot and post it please. If we know what the obtrusive ads are, we can report them to the providers to address them.

 

[Populuxe]

Screenshot and post it please. If we know what the obtrusive ads are, we can report them to the providers to address them.

Of course now that I've posted about it, it's not happening. If it does, though, I'll be sure to screenshot it.

 

[Populuxe]

Here's that intrusive McDonalds ad. I wasn't quick enough to get the dancing cups that went up each side of the screen before they disappeared and this took over. The site runs considerably slower when these are popping up.

 

[Moglet]

To be fair those look delicious, I wish we had them in the UK

 

[dArc_Uriel]

Now there's a new banana republic ad that's even worse than the first...It literally overlays something over most of the entire screen that doesn't even close when you x out of the ad at the bottom...

You guys really need to set some ground rules for what ads can and can't do or ditch banana republic...

Oof...

Also that original banana republic ad is still here also...

The site is super annoying to try and use...


(Edit) sorry about the "double post" the second "original" ad popped up right after I posted it and didn't want it to be missed...My bad...(end edit)

I'm aware of it. It has already been reported to our ad provider and will be removed shortly.

Still here...Any idea how "shortly" shortly is and if the other banana republic ad is known about as well...?

 

[Jordan]

You guys really need to set some ground rules for what ads can and can't do or ditch banana republic...

We have strict rules, but it's not that simple and we aren't working with Banana Republic (or McDonald's) directly.

We have an agreement with an ad network which acts as a brokerage. They sell access to our ad units directly to advertisers or to other brokerages, who in turn sell it to other brokerages, and so on, until the "highest bidder" for that ad unit has been determined (this all happens in a few hundred milliseconds or less).

Each brokerage in the chain is supposed to respect our ad restrictions, but as you can see, they don't always do that. When I report a problem like this to our ad network, some poor soul has to dig through all the ad logs to determine exactly which ad, from which broker, caused the problem and then block it.

Still here...Any idea how "shortly" shortly is and if the other banana republic ad is known about as well...?

They blocked it within a few hours, but that's where it gets even more complicated.

A company like Banana Republic will generally buy ads from a lot of different brokers, so even if our ad network techs block their ads coming from one broker, they can still find their way onto the site through another (unfortunately it's not a standardized system, so it's not as simple as blocking any ads that link to BananaRepublic.com or anything like that). This appears to be what is happening now.

I have notified the ad network about their return and the McDonald's units and they're working on it.

 

[Darla Starch]

I mean tbf it's Wawa but ad reloaded itself like six times after closing it out (if it didn't decide closing out was a very polite suggestion) in the time it took for me to read the topic.

 

[GT5 Level 41]

Banana Republic Ad is awful, makes site unusable. I close GTP everytime it pops up. sad face.

 

[Populuxe]

Yeah, I just got the Banana Republic ad again.

 

[Populuxe]

Here's another one. It surrounds the screen then takes over the bottom third.

 

[AerodyManiac]

Figured that I should post this here because this seems to be the de facto thread for obtrusive ads…

I noticed the other day that when I’m browsing GTP that ads became a lot more obtrusive, in the sense that there’s a new advert popping up that takes up probably around 2/3 of my screen, and when counted alongside the banner at the bottom, takes up around 4/5 of the screen. (I’m on an iPhone 13 Pro, so maybe it will take up more space on other devices with smaller screens.) Below are some screengrabs if they’re of any help:





I tried using the ‘Report Ad’ button at the bottom of the larger ad and wrote something like ‘ad is too intrusive’ in the feedback box before submitting it, but it didn’t seem to work. However, I discovered just now that when I’m logged in, the problem disappears for the most part, because now the huge ad won’t pop up, no matter when I’m in the forums or on the news page. Is this by design, or is it the advertising service provider trying to maximize their earnings again?

I’m using Safari for iOS.

 

[Jordan]

Thanks for reporting this, it’s definitely a misconfigured unit from the ad provider. Their tech staff is based in Florida and may be affected by Hurricane Ian but hopefully we can get it resolved today.

 

[GT5 Level 41]

I'll say it has been better latley for US users. Whatever you did helped so thanks!

 

[Jordan]

@AerodyManiac This should be resolved now. Please let me know if you see it again.

 

[AerodyManiac]

@AerodyManiac This should be resolved now. Please let me know if you see it again.

It’s a lot better now. The super-huge ad to the right of the screen is now gone when I’m browsing as a guest, which makes the experience much more pleasant. I’ll be sure to report it if things get out of place again.

Thanks!

 

[JamCar0ne]

Since this is the crazy intrusive ad thread, here is another one

Trying to log into gtplanet was quite the task with these crazy aggressive ads. The ad about the sweeper is a video that cannot be closed and when the timer reaches zero, it starts over. When all these ads are up, cannot scroll page to get to the 'Login' button. After several page reloads, found that immediately scrolling (before ads have loaded) all the way to the bottom allowed me to at least have a chance to click Login without the green hulu ad covering the log in fill out box.

 

[Populuxe]

Are we really hosting an ad for a game in which sexual assault is an option? (We should probably rename this thread “problematic ads”.)

 

[Jordan]

"We" are not hosting the ads, they are served dynamically by the ad network and its supply-side platforms. I will get that one blocked.

 

[Populuxe]

Now I've got this ad that completely takes over the screen, repeatedly. I click on the X, it goes away, and then it comes back in less than two minutes.