This post is brought to you by the delicious taste of Lay’s® Barbecue Flavored Potato Chips. BETCHA can’t eat JUST one!

Prepare for me to become an old man and shout at a cloud.

I am increasingly perturbed at the placement of ads in streaming services. Now I get it, you have an ad tier, and ad free tier. That’s not what I’m complaining about.

The pause screen is no longer sacred.

Perhaps you wanted to pause the screen to look at an easter egg, identify an actor, etc. NO. You must take this SPONSORED PAUSE break to CONSUME.

I know this isn’t new, but I’ve noticed it becoming more pervasive on services¹ . I’m seriously wondering who is pausing their show then sees an ad for the delicious taste of Lay’s Potato Chips², and scans a QR code to see how they can be the ideal sidekick for any meal.

I’ve also noticed it if you want to scrub or fast forward through an episode of something being forced to sit through multiple ad breaks just to get to the end of an episode. How at all is this user friendly?³ The sad part is people have just accepted these things as reality instead of getting vocally upset. Corporations are slowly boiling us alive with ads. I’m still not over the fact that Microsoft put ads in the Start Menu of Windows⁴. I think we can blame this on the Kindle placing ads on the sleep screen⁵.

Anyhow, I’ll now go back into my old man cave, and continue consuming my stories. I’m getting a bit hungry, I wonder if there was some snack that would pair well with binge watching.

1. I’ve noticed specifically on Peacock and Paramount+ but I’m sure there are other examples. ↩︎
2. I’ve been binge watching Twin Peaks lately and enjoying it. I had never seen it before. ↩︎
3. Spoiler: It’s not. ↩︎
4. Also before anyone responds with well that’s just how it is. No, it’s not. Apple does not forces ads down your throat nor Linux. Android does to a degree from my experience. ↩︎
5. I will never buy a Kindle ever again, and neither should you. They suck compared to most other competitors. ↩︎