I’m using Firefox’s new “tabbed browsing” feature, which enables me to have multiple start pages every time I launch the browser. Each page loads, and can be accessed by a tab at the top.
One of my start pages has been—until 5 minutes ago—apple.com. I’ve had apple.com as one of my start pages so I can access Apple information and, I admit, because I feel affinity for the brand. But I recently started hearing voices every time I fired up Firefox, and I quickly discovered it was because Apple’s start page now automatically plays their “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” TV ads.
This is pretty irritating, so I’ve removed apple.com from my array of start pages. The lesson: It’s never a good idea to become so proud of your advertising that you think people will enjoy seeing it when they don’t have to. It’s like when people make their guests watch boring home videos.