Here is a screen grab of an article about the terrible earthquake in Chile. Alongside the article is an ad for Celcom, a Malaysia mobile service provider. It is one of those ads that you are encouraged to roll your mouse over to expand the ad and get more information. What I was pleased to note was that unlike many other similar ads, this one reduced when you moved your mouse away from the ad. I find it offensive and intrusive when you roll your mouse over these ads and then cannot get the ad to reduce when you move the mouse away.

Anyway, to me it is another example of the dangers of not controlling your ad placement. This could be considered even worse because it features a man standing on the top of a mountain and by default references nature. I’m not really sure what the relevance of the mountain is and it is not explained in the copy. Perhaps we are supposed to associate using the telco with being on top of the world. Or perhaps it is not relevant and is just an image chosen by the advertising agency. Or perhaps we just make up our own minds in which case, having the ad alongside a horrifying article about the Chile earthquake is not helpful.

We won’t go into the fact that he is standing on the top of a mountain that doesn’t have any snow on it even though mountains lower than his do have snow on them, or the fact that the scale is so out of whack.

But tell me, does an ad like this, alongside a negative story, encourage you to roll your mouse over the ad, read the copy and then seek further information or do you simply ignore the ad?