There’s Another Jump Scare Ad Going Around
Remember Unfriended? The horror movie that came out a couple years ago that had ads all over Youtube featuring unskippable jump scares?
Well, it’s back with a vengeance - or actually, a sequel:
“Unfriended: Dark Web”
And as you can imagine, the ads are just as bad and anxiety-inducing as before. I’ve come across two separate ads already (one of which was in the middle of a video and happened while I was on fullscreen) so here’s what you need to watch out for:
TRAILER #1 begins with a logo for a chatroom and within the first few seconds you’ll see a guy’s face pop up on a skype-like screen.
Don’t worry - THIS IS NOT THE JUMP SCARE, it’s just a normal-looking chat screen. During this time you’ll want to exit full screen if you’re in it, and then scroll down until all that’s visible is the “Skip Ad” Countdown and about an inch of the bottom half of the video. Then wait and press Skip when you’re able.
This ad DOES NOT have a pre-skip jumpscare, so you’re okay to wait. (Unless your screen shows a “video will play after ad” note instead of a skip function, in which you’ll want to scroll until you can barely see the video and hit mute.)
TRAILER #2 is the one you need to be wary of.
It begins with about 3 seconds of a black screen and faint, eerie music. If you’re in fullscreen and you see this - COVER THE SCREEN, EXIT, AND SCROLL DOWN QUICKLY. I’ll be honest, I did not see what the image that showed up was (because I followed the aforementioned procedure), but judging by the accompanying sounds and the dialogue that followed:
“Dude, that looked way too real.”
“I think it was real.”
…I’m pretty sure it’s fair to assume that it’s not something you want to be caught off-guard by.
Again, scroll so that you can only see the bottom of the screen and wait for the Skip button to load. Then skip immediately.
There might be other ads going around, but these are the only ones I’ve come across so far.
If you want to play it safe: Every time slot for an ad on a youtube video is marked by a small yellow square on the time bar (not sure if that’s the official name, but that’s what I’m calling it.) At the beginning of every video and any time you see one of those yellow squares coming up, exit fullscreen and scroll down before it plays. You can also usually see what’s being advertised in the box above the recommendations section.
If you see other ads going around that you feel people should be wary of - or if you have any specific warnings to issue regarding the two I mentioned - please feel free to ad them to this post!
STAY CALM, BE SAFE, AND BROWSE WISELY, GUYS!!
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