I feel like calling this an ad is a stretch, I get it ads suck. I hate ads, too. This is just the merch of the channel you clicked on, though. It's fine, I don't have it in me to care about a few images below a part of the user experience I never look at.
let's say you go to a movie theatre, they sell food in the concessions on the way in. is that an ad? or are they just selling shit and also you're gonna go watch a movie. maybe you want popcorn. maybe you want a mug.
if they were to play an ad roll for all the merch before the video, sure, that's an ad. but that's not happening, op just went to a users youtube page and saw that there is a section for the users merch.
I'll restate what I said because you didn't quite go for it I didn't say they put up advertising the food, I said they sell food.
let's say you go to a movie theatre, they sell food in the concessions on the way in. is that an ad? or are they just selling shit and also you're gonna go watch a movie. maybe you want popcorn. maybe you want a mug.
So the sign above the food telling you that there is popcorn here is an ad for you? If you see anything that indicates you can buy something that's an ad for you? Wild. That's not the case for the rest of us but okay.
No, if I see and advert advertising something then it's an ad. If OP had gone to the guys merch store the listing would not be ads, but they are being advertised below the video.
It's about intent, a sign at the food stall isn't an ad because you are already there intending to buy something, but if they advertised the popcorn in the theatre itself then its an ad since you aren't at the theatre with intent to buy food.
So when OP clicked the video he wanst intending to buy from the merch store so it's an advert because its trying to convince him to go to the merch store and spend money.
When you go to the cinema, you are intending to watch a movie. Before you go into the cinema you see them selling popcorn, you want popcorn, you buy the popcorn. You go into the cinema, then an actual ad plays on the cinema screen before the movie.
This is the distinction. What you think of as an ad, no one else does. That's all. You think something is an ad. The rest of us totally disagree. You think anyone listing things for sale outside of a dedicated and importantly separate space is an ad. The rest of us totally disagree.
I understand you now, but your idea of an ad is absolutely not the same as everyone else's.
so you are accepting of the entire screen being a merch plug if it's a video segment, of if it's in the description which either does indeed take up screen real estate, or you are only accepting because you don't look at descriptions.
but you aren't accepting of merch in a small section that used to be basically nothing?
i just don't follow your logic, it just sounds like you saw something new and immediately reacted without thinking it through.
if this was an actual ad, people would be with you on this. but it just isn't. it's some merch that the youtuber sells. fuck them for trying to make a living right? they can only make a living if they actively hide any way that they could make a living.