Bob Garfield tears IAB a new one at Mediapost

Good lord, Garfield can still make me laugh out loud. Over at Mediapost he just tore up the IAB in "Fairy Dust, mocking the very thing I was ranting about yesterday, when everyone blames each other for the ad blocking.

Garfield layers on the sarcasm when he invents more acronyms for the IAB, all of which fail to do anything but shift the blame and pass the buck.

With ad blocking now costing publishers an estimated $100 fucktillion per year, the replacement for DEAL is both bold and elegant.


Pretend that half of our members aren’t causing the crisis for the other half of our members.


Rage against the user victims who pay dearly in wasted time, data costs and soul-killing annoyance for the “free” content the ads so magnanimously support.


Accuse those users of immoral conduct for avoiding the ads they never contracted to receive to begin with.


Tell members that the advertising model simply has to translate to the digital world, because, well, it just has to.


Treat ad-blocking providers as terrorists, ensuring that no accommodation can ever be reached that can discourage worst ad practices but give safe harbor to good actors.


Layer even more code on your content to detect and block the blockers. When the blockers respond to detect and circumvent your detection script, rinse and repeat.


Educate consumers that avoiding advertising ultimately will deprive them of the very content they desire. Continue to do this until you are literally blue in the face.

This is PRATTLE, and we have no doubt it paves the way for a bright future, in spite of the utterly conflicting interests of our membership.

PRATTLE! I'm in tears here, literally. Bob is my hero. Fucktillion is totally a real number.