Howard Stern Just Sent Ad Blocking Mainstream.

Where were you when it happened? And what will you do next?

By Ian Schafer

On Tuesday, August 25th, at around 9am ET, Howard Stern discovered ad blocking. The next 4 minutes over a million other people probably did as well.

UPDATE: This is the App Store trending searches on the morning of Wednesday, August 26th. There is definitely a Stern effect:

The industry’s fascination with/fear of ad blocking has been going on for a while and is well-documented.

But brands continue to pay ad agencies to make those ads, and media agencies to by the space that those ads run in, only to get blocked by the people they are meant for.

Let me be clear. We still need to make ads, because millions of people will still see them.

But we also need to be preparing for a future where seeing them is an option. And as Richard Blakely suggested on Twitter, we’ll all probably be installing ad blocking extensions on our parents’ browsers this Thanksgiving.

As more consumers learn to (and are able to) pay for ad-free versions of their favorite content, they are beginning to prefer media choices that give them that option. “Premium” versions of ad-supported media are becoming the norm.

So why would people want to see ads (hint: they don’t)? And what does that spell for the future of ad-supported media?

If you’re a brand, you should be dedicating efforts to figuring out how to get your message in front of consumers without running “ad units”. This could be in the form of “content”, “utility”, or anything else that provides some sort of value. But you should be allocating resources to figuring this out now so you can have a competitive advantage.

If you’re a creative agency, you need to figure out what you’re going to be making or doing in a world where consumers are ad avoidant. Core advertising services are destined to change, and innovation should be happening as much on the business and operations end as it is on the creative and technology side of the business.

If you’re a media agency, you should be figuring out what side of history you want to be on, and whether you want to evolve beyond the current state of affairs, or go down with the ship.

It remains to be seen what happens to the ad business as an effect of ad blocking. Is it the ad industry’s Napster? Is it our VHS?

I don’t think we’ll be able to convince people that ads are what makes the world go ‘round, in the same way we couldn’t convince people that piracy is bad. What we need to do is find a better way.

Sure, I could just be an alarmist. But nobody was ever unprepared by preparing for the worst.

Heck, if Howard Stern can convince people to buy Squatty Pottys, he can convince them to install ad blocking extensions.

Are ads even the future of advertising? Let’s figure out what the future actually is while we still have some runway.

In the meantime, let’s make advertising that actually provides value to people while we still can.