Flashing ad
Flashing Animated Ads · experience 10 of 23
An animated ad that blinks, changing the background color, text or colors very quickly. This distracts a lot from someone trying to read.
Understand it in 1 minute
This is the animated ad that flashes: the background, text or colors change very fast, in a blinking effect, like a warning light. The Coalition for Better Ads says these ads irritate people a lot and become a strong distraction while they try to read the page content. Imagine trying to read a book with a flickering lamp right next to the page: your eye keeps going to the light.
What defines this rule is the flashing. The Coalition describes the case as ads that animate and "flash" with rapid changes of background, text or colors. The official page gives no number of flashes or exact time. It only talks about rapid change. So the right question is: is the ad flashing?
Animation, on its own, is not prohibited. The Coalition says clearly that animations that do not "flash" did not fall below the standard. So an ad that moves, that changes image slowly or that has a gentle movement, without a flashing effect, is outside this rule. What falls below the standard is the rapid change of background, text or colors that makes the ad flash. A still ad, with no animation at all, is also outside this case.
Allowed
- A banner with animation that does not flash.
- An ad that changes image slowly, without flashing.
- Text that slides smoothly inside the ad, without flashing.
- A static ad, with no animation.
Not allowed
- An ad background that changes color rapidly, flashing.
- A "WIN NOW" text that flashes rapidly.
- Ad colors that change fast, in a blink, while the person reads.
- A blinking effect across the whole ad.
In practice
Imagine a news site open on a phone, with a game ad whose background switches rapidly between two strong colors, flashing. The person tries to read the article next to it, but their eye keeps going to the ad. This is the case described by the Coalition. If the same ad had a smooth animation, without flashing, it would not fall below the standard.
Why it's annoying
Backgrounds and colors changing quickly distract and irritate, and make it hard to read what's next to them.
How to fix
- In Ad Manager or AdSense, block the categories and creatives with aggressive animation.
- Prefer static creatives or ones with short, smooth animation.
- Report the creative when it appears.
In ConsentMode
The engine blocks ad creatives during the scan. Check with the page open.
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