Ads Acting as Assistance

[RickSinger36]

It’s a shame. It’s a stereotype you hear about a lot, the scams aimed at seniors and their trust. I was hoping AARP would not be one of them. Now, I understand advertising is important. It’s a necessary evil that is designed for the source and the end user. I am new to the AARP website. So imagine my disappointment when I was following the steps on how to help with my present home loan, only to ultimately discover several steps in that I was being marketed to by a company. My bad for not noticing the tiny little lettering at the top of the page at some point that said advertisement.

AARP, can’t we be a little bit more careful with this, on a website that we are hoping to trust in our golden years? Perhaps some of these ads can be filtered in a way where they’re definitely more obvious as marketing and not self-help. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. I’m sure

[AARPConsumerCare]

@RickSinger36 Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. I'm terribly sorry this happened. AARP vets advertisers found on http://AARP.org?cmp=SNO-LITHIUM---&socialid=15244653102, and we take feedback and complaints seriously and will investigate the advertisement on our website. Please send us a private message, so we can get some more information to escalate this complaint for you. You may need to enable your private messages, here is an article with steps to do that: https://aarp.info/47hWcl7. We look forward to speaking with you.  - Janelle M.

[GAKKIEZ]

  I agree with you!  I absolutely hate all the advertising done on AARP website and in their publications.  I've rarely noticed any benefit from any of them. It just seems the AARP membership is an easy target for them.  I've even compared supposed 'savings' on AARP travel site versus directly dealing with airlines or car rental and get better savings dealing directly.  We still have to actively pursue the better option.

[WebWiseWoman]

Hi, Rick! Great points all but most of us use AdBlockerPlus here; free and pretty much low maintenance, since we brought up your points over a decade ago and nothing changed.