But we have popups, in-page popups ("sign up to our newsletter!"), blinking, flashing, audio and video. As realistic as the article is about the approach to advertising; that is never going to happen. If anything advertisers are going to be more aggressive as the market that does not run blockers diminishes.
I'm guessing that eventually the internet is going to become unusable without blocker; at that point blockers will become de-facto and universal. Advertisers simply aren't learning.
This is 100% true and something I don't understand. Marketers/Advertisers are, from who I've met, really smart people. Yet the reaction to people blocking annoying/aggressive ads is full on idiotic. Instead of toning it down, they dial things to 11, prompting more people to block their ads.
"People are blocking our ads because they are annoying and piss them off. What should we do Sam?"
"Make the ads more annoying and piss them off even more!"
To be fair, the author admits in the second half of the article that the industry has done things wrongly and proposes some solutions.