Danish "AidOnline" ad program replaces ads on websites and causes a stir
In these days one of the biggest subjects among new media persons in Denmark is the case with "AidOnline".
AidOnline is a piece of software, not unlike the Firefox extension AdBlock Plus, which prevents ads from being shown in the browser. What's different about AidOnline is that instead of hiding ads, it replaces the ads on websites with those of its partners, 12 humanitarian organizations including The Danish division of The Red Cross. Meaning that if you're using AidOnline the ads on the websites you visit will be replaced by those of AidOnline's partners.
This practice has caused a great stir, since these advertisers leech on the traffic generated by the websites and The Association Of Danish Interactive Media (FDIM) has sought to get an injunction against AidOnline, which (if granted) will force the people behind AidOnline to close it until an investigation can conclude whether the software is against Danish regulations or not.
I myself work at ekstrabladet.dk, which is the largest online newspaper in Denmark, and since my salary is — in part — paid by the ads we can sell and show on our website, I can only condemn an initiative like AidOnline. The traffic our site generates, because of content created by people who also gets part of their paychecks from the ads, is being leeched upon by these organizations — and to make matters worse, the company behind AidOnline has secured themselves a 20 percent cut of the money generated, the rest goes to the organizations.
Adblocking users might be the real losers here
Ironic enough, the people losing in the end might be the ones using adblocking software like AdBlock Plus. Why?
Well, first of all there's a counter campaign against AidOnline at stop-aidonline.dk and they have developed a script, that blocks out users with the AidOnline software installed. A side effect, however, is that users with AdBlock Plus installed also gets banned.
This is one thing. The other, bigger, issue is that some websites will realize, that they can in fact do something against people viewing their sites using adblocking software, meaning "for free".
Depending on how this turns out, with the injunction and all, one should not be to sure that we won't see a coordinated effort against the use of adblockers. And to think, it all started because of AidOnline serving ads for, among others, The Red Cross.
Related posts