Today I wanna lash out to Dell Computers marketing group for unethical web ad that they have posted on one of my “occasional” favorite sites, Low Yat.net.

Web advertising has been transforming from normal banner to text ads. Consumers have also been criticizing the pop-up (or -under) ads around websites, and this time around, there are many ads that sit at the bottom of a website. That’s still fine.

What’s annoying is when you hover your mouse pointed to the [+] position on the right of Dell’s ad in Low Yat.net, which the text Close This would pop up, you would think that by clicking it, the ad would disappear. However, clicking it would indeed close the ad, but it would also create a new window directed to Dell’s website. Very “good”!

As a web designer for many years who preaches good User Experience (UX), this is certainly annoying. If I wanna close the ad, can you marketing people of Mr. Dell’s company please let it close, instead of grabbing the last chance to promote your products?

I emailed Dell Customer Service regarding this in June, but only got a reply that was meaningless:

Dear Victor,

We hold ourselves to a high standard and apologize for falling short in addressing your needs.

We thank you for your comments and input and will strive to improve our service in the future.

Business ethics, where art thou?

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