CNN ads before tragic news - appropriate?

CNN ads before tragic news – appropriate?

I get it. Death and violence sells and online news sites have to make money like everyone else. But seriously, Cnn.com and other online news sites, could you be a little more compassionate with the commercials we must sit through before getting to the news?

As we wait anxiously for the video to load to tell us the news of deaths and injuries in Boston and Texas, we’re inundated with happy ads. Is that appropriate?  Can’t you add small banner ads to the videos instead? Yes, you have to make money, but I have to tell you, I view the advertisers you show me before the videos of tragedies differently. They’re forever connected with the event and it’s toll on human life.

Do your advertisers know that they’re actually being harmed by being shown before the bloody bodies of victims? That their humorous commercials that they spent millions on to produce and publish are being shown before a woman tells an interviewer that her home has been leveled and she’s lost everything she owns?  That her dog died and through her tears we find out she narrowly missed being injured? Or that her husband, a first responder, is fighting the fire and she can’t get in touch with him?

Cnn.com isn’t the only guilty party, but they’re the one I go to first for national news so they’re the one I’ve experienced most. No longer do I love the “More” commercial from AT&T. The sweet children talking nonsense used to be my favorite. Now it’s melded in my brain with the fertilizer plant explosion and the announcement of fatalities, the continuation of searches, and the possibility of additional explosions. Now every time I see those sweet faces I’ll be reminded how this explosion is like the Murray building explosion, buildings destroyed, and people hurt and killed. I won’t be able to smile or laugh with those adorable children anymore…they’ll remind me that innocent people died.

I’m pretty sure that’s not what AT&T intended and I don’t blame them, I blame CNN.

Am I the only one bothered by the commercials before tragic news? Is it just the funny ones or any ad? Is there a better way to make ad revenue from tragedies?