it's truly uhh something when i open the website of some Venerable Publication (derogatory) without an ad blocker, and it's so apparent that a great deal of thought and effort went into designing the website to maintain that Venerable Vibe, and then as i scroll down to read the article there is literally an ad between every paragraph. and some of those ads are aspiring to look "classy" but a plurality of them are just bottom-of-the-barrel clickbait bad.

and it's like. isn't it very obvious that this has a negative impact on the publication's credibility? how much money are they spending on licensing some very sophisticated serif font that is the bedrock of their Brand Identity while interspersing the text with who the hell knows or cares. i have ad personalization turned off, so this should not be a case of me personally being served dogshit ads. although it would be Very Funny to tell on myself in this way.

i'm saying nothing new here at all. i have just decided to lean into being confounded by this state of affairs tonight.