The Ad Industry Has a Friction Problem (And Everyone Is Right)

There’s real friction between advertisers and audiences. Advertisers need to run ads. Audiences are sick of being interrupted.

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The truth is: both sides are right.

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Advertising funds the entire content ecosystem. Brands need to advertise to grow. Advertisers need brands to spend money. Publishers need advertising revenue to stay in business. Streaming platforms need ads to support lower subscription tiers.

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There is no content ecosystem without advertising. Ads make everything “free,” subsidized, or discounted.

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But the current model of advertising is built on an outdated assumption: if you interrupt someone loudly enough, you’ll get their attention. That used to work in the era of linear television. You weren’t choosing what to watch, so you couldn’t choose to avoid the ads either.

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Streaming changed everything.  On-demand changed everything even more.

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Audiences now have control — and they use it. Viewers skip ads when they can. They pay for ad-free tiers if they can afford it. They tune out or multitask when ads appear. People don’t just dislike ads — they actively avoid them. Viewers today see nearly 50% fewer ads than they did a decade ago because they skip, avoid, or buy their way out of ads (MediaCat UK, 2024).

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And it’s not only an annoyance problem. Poor ad experiences don’t just fail to drive results, they harm brand perception, decrease favorability, and lower purchase intent. According to Kantar Brand Lift studies, interruptive ads can drive negative lifts in favorability and purchase intent, while integrated formats (like contextual or in-scene ads) drove + 25 ppt Ad Awareness and + 16 ppt Brand Awareness (Kantar, 2023).

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If a brand interrupts you at the wrong moment, you’re not neutral,  you’re irritated. A bad ad doesn’t just cost money. It costs goodwill.

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So we’re stuck in a loop. Advertisers need to run ads to meet campaign goals. Platforms need to show ads to meet revenue goals. Creators and publishers need ads to monetize content. Meanwhile, audiences are opting out. Everyone is doing exactly what makes sense for them — and the system still doesn’t work.

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The problem isn’t advertising. It’s irritation.

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We don’t need fewer ads. We need better ones.

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Audiences don’t hate brands. They hate the feeling of being interrupted. They hate being forced to stop what they were enjoying so someone can sell them something.

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When ads are relevant, contextual, or connected to what people are already watching, people like them. We see this every year with the Super Bowl. 43% of viewers say they watch the Super Bowl primarily for the commercials, not the game (Morning Consult, 2024). Because the ads don’t interrupt the show, they become part of it.

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The future of advertising is integration, not intrusion.

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There is a middle ground between annoying interruptions and removing ads completely. When ads integrate into content, not around it, everyone wins. Viewers keep control of their experience. Brands build positive associations. Publishers and platforms still monetize. 70% of streaming viewers say they prefer contextual or integrated ads over traditional interruptive ad breaks (Magnite, 2024).

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The question isn’t: How do we get people to tolerate more ads?

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The real question is: How do we make ads worth tolerating, or even enjoying?

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Everyone is right. And that means the system needs to change.

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Advertisers aren’t wrong for needing reach. Audiences aren’t wrong for wanting control. The mistake is assuming those goals are mutually exclusive.

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They’re not.

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The future of advertising isn’t about forcing attention. It’s about earning it.

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Learn more here