Adblock Plus publishes Acceptable Ads manifesto, with support from Reddit and others

Adblock Plus today unveiled a set of guidelines for its “Acceptable Ads” initiative in the form of an online manifesto. The company’s goal is to define how a reasonable ad should look and behave so that ad blocking can only encompass annoying ads.

The manifesto has five basic tenets:

1. Acceptable Ads are not annoying.
2. Acceptable Ads do not disrupt or distort the page content we’re trying to read.
3. Acceptable Ads are transparent with us about being an ad.
4. Acceptable Ads are effective without shouting at us.
5. Acceptable Ads are appropriate to the site that we are on.

The manifesto has been endorsed by a coalition of organizations, including Reddit, Consumer Commons, ad measurement firm PageFair, and the Anti-Advertising Agency. Nevertheless, Adblock Plus hopes that it can convince others to join as well, based on the argument that not doing so will only make matters worse:

Advertising is the economic engine that drives the Internet, giving users free websites and great content. But many online advertisements have become obnoxious and obtrusive in an attempt to be heard. In response, hundreds of millions of consumers have installed adblockers, which further depresses click-through rates, causing advertisers to use even more intrusive and annoying methods to win back attention – and the vicious cycle continues.

While the Acceptable Ads initiative originally started back in 2011, the manifesto takes it a step further by trying to get the broader industry to accept it. Back in October, Adblock Plus penned an open letter asking Twitter to join, but received not response.

“The idea behind Adblock Plus’ Acceptable Ads initiative is to forge a compromise between users and advertisers,” Adblock Plus co-founder Till Faida said in a statement. “We think that this Manifesto is another step in the right direction to offer organizations and individuals alike the ability to join with us to communicate with advertisers our desires. We’re excited to have found like-minded organizations out there that understand what we’re trying to do.”

Top Image Credit: asabird