Frustrated over in app advertising

[Scottgoeshiking]

I just received a full screen ad for a third party product when opening the fitbit app. I'm increasingly frustrated by the pervasiveness of ads in general, especially in products that have already been paid for. 

Frankly it's infuriating. If I buy your product, I am your customer. If you then advertise to me, the advertiser is your customer and I'm your product. My goals and the advertisers goals differ, so the experience that I paid for suffers so you and the advertiser can profit. I will always opt for paid services that don't advertise over free services that do advertise, and absolutely over paid services that continue to advertise.

[USAF-Larry]

If you close the pop-up ad by tapping the X, it does not reappear so it should not be an ongoing problem.

[JohnnyRow]

If you are talking about the water bottle, I got that too, but it's not just a random third-party product ad.  It is I guess co-branded with Fitbit.  It has the Fitbit logo on it, and syncs with Fitbit to automatically log water intake.  And it was introduced with relatively little fanfare so many Fitbit users might not be aware of it, and might like to know of its existence.

https://www.fitbit.com/global/us/products/apparel

I agree, I would rather not get these ads, but it not just selling advertising to random advertisers, more an ad of a sort-of Fitbit product.

[Scottgoeshiking]

Yes, it's easy to close, but I shouldn't be seeing it at all. Why should I have a diminished experience at all on a product I've paid for?

[USAF-Larry]

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@Scottgoeshiking wrote:

Why should I have a diminished experience at all on a product I've paid for?

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Probably the same reason I see advertising on cable channels I pay for. It is about generating revenue.

[Scottgoeshiking]

Exactly, and it's not ok. I'm making it clear that fitbit can lose revenue from me because of this practice, and I encourage others to take the same stance. If Fitbit wants to offer an ad supported product at a no or reduced price point I have no problem with that, but offering a product without a paid no advertising option needs to be rejected by consumers. Worse is adding ads to the product after it's already been sold, which is what has happened in my case. I'm not using fitbit to help it's advertisers sell their products. If they want more revenue, they should price their own products accordingly. Advertising is a blight.

[USAF-Larry]

I got it. I can see that some have problems with that, but I personally have become used to them over the past 5 or 6 decades and learned long ago how to ignore that which I don't need to see or hear. So, I'll keep using my Fitbit devices in spite of the occasional advertisement, along with other products I use that also advertise.

[Scottgoeshiking]

Yeah it makes sense what you say. I guess I've made an effort to build a reduced ad life, so I've opted for paid services like netflix over ad supported cable, and I've intentionally avoided products that rely on advertising. Once you get away from the constant bombardment of ads, they start to feel extremely invasive when they do appear.

Not only do ads disrupt my experience, they also alter the company's motives to serve the needs of advertisers over their user base. Google is a great example, and appropriate now that fitbit had been acquired. Their reliance on ad revenue has resulted in consumers becoming Google's product for their advertisers, and Google's products are all oriented around that advertising model to the detriment of people using their services.

[BowenRacing]

I got a full page ad too, albeit for a fitbit product. In-app adverts annoy me and I don't use apps that contain them.

I've already bought a fitbit. If I want to upgrade then I'll look into it. The ads simply serve to annoy users.

I appreciate that I'm on the end of the tolerance scale, but if I keep getting spammed by in-app ads that I can't turn off, I'll simply uninstall the app, leave a one-star review on the Google Play Store, and move to a competitor's product.