Romney popup ad

[Don Vito Corleone]

Over the past couple of days, I frequently get a popup advertisement for the Romney campaign on the forums, despite Firefox's built-in popup blocking. The ad is particularly annoying because it includes audio. Is this a legitimate ad purchased from Anandtech or some kind of malware? If it's the former, I urge you to limit your ads to banners and not use popups, much less popups with sound.

 

[DrPizza]

I'm not super-knowledgeable about the ad end of things. But, if you get another, can you get the URL that's sending the ad? I believe that information will need to be sent on to the ad people.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I'm not super-knowledgeable about the ad end of things. But, if you get another, can you get the URL that's sending the ad? I believe that information will need to be sent on to the ad people.

I just figured out that what's happening is that there is a banner ad at the top of the page, and just mousing over it (not clicking on it) inadvertently triggers the pop-up. I don't know how to identify a URL because both the banner and the pop-up are in Flash, so right-clicking them just brings up the Flash control panel. At least now that I realize the pop-up is started by mousing over the banner, I can be more careful to avoid doing that. I just don't recall ever seeing a banner ad that triggers a pop-up by merely mousing over it.

 

[AkumaX]

I have a similar issue with a McDonald's ad.

An accidental mouse-over triggers it to expand and plays audio - which KILLS my browser (Firefox) and prompts me to open task manager and kill the adobeflash plugin associated with Firefox.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I just had this happen again, and I'm fairly certain it happens whether I mouseover the banner or not. I just load the page, and next thing I know I'm hearing Mitt Romney talk about Steve Jobs. This would be very annoying even if I were a Romney supporter, which I am not.

 

[ViRGE]

Ugg. I'll look for it later today.

In the meantime grab a copy of Firebug. That will help you track down the source of it if it happens again. AT doesn't run 1st party political ads, so it would have to be coming from a 3rd party filler network.

 

[MrChad]

Seeing an American Crossroads pop up flash ad.

http://cdn.oggifinogi.com/prod/2012...5-9bdb-7259e2429287&site=forums.anandtech.com