Ad blocking: Adoption discourses and advertising anti-consumption

Abstract

This study investigates the discourse regarding the use of ad blockers. Three themes emerged regarding this technology based on in-depth interviews with consumers who had activated ad blockers: 1) utonomy and control over advertising influence; 2) Internet interactions: asymmetry, paradoxes, and the quest for equity; and 3) Efficiency and convenience. Based on the results, this paper discusses anti-consumption positioning as the study of the “reasons against” consumption. The paper proposes complementary approaches to anti-consumption research, less based on intentional and consumer-conscious aspects and power as an entity disputed by actors and less

Keywords

• Ad blocker
• anti-consumption
• consumer resistance
• power
• online advertising