Distressing adverts!

[Nepeta]

I was listening to my music last night when an advert came on vividly describing a woman's experience being raped. As someone who has been sexually assaulted and suffers post traumatic stress as a result, I no longer feel that I can safely use Spotify for fear of it triggering flashbacks to my bad experience. I emailed support, but the automated response suggested that I make a post on the community page.

Given that 24.1% of young people have experienced sexual assaults in the UK, it's not exactly a small minority that you can put at risk. I had a look at the number of likes on facebook and if the stats were exact then 638786 people who use Spotify would be reminded of one of the worst experiences of their lives.

[Nepeta]

Disappointed to find that there's still no response to this from a member of staff. I haven't been able to use spotify at all since it happened.

[Rorey · Accepted solution]

I'm truly and deeply sorry about any distress the adverts have caused.  Apologies for the delay on getting to this forum post.  Somebody should be reaching out to you via email immediately.  

[XmintieX]

Thats terrible I have been raped too and that would make me very upset.

I wish there was some way we could ban adverts we don't like or tell them what we would be interested in. I'm a super scardy cat and hate the paranormal activity advert. Couldn't sleep for a couple days.

I hope you can get back to using spotify soon

Love

Mintie

[Conundrum]

I've got the same problem (PTSD) albeit from a different experience entirely and to hear yelling and gunshots triggers me. All I got when I e-mailed Spotify was some b.s. form message. Then when I saw you had the same problem, the only solution was someone from Spotify apologizing and saying someone was going to contact you through e-mail. What's the real solution? Do I have to stop listening to spotify? Do I have to get a paid membership to avoid the few ads that trigger me? The last thing I want to hear on a "bad day" is gunshots and yelling in some Spotify sponsored Playstation commercial, while listening to coffee table jazz in order to relax. Please help. 

[DWDaisy]

I agree. I have some triggers also and I heard an ad describing something in vivid detail that made me feel sick to my stomach when I heard it. I wanted to flag the ad because it was extremely distressing, but I didn't see any option to do so. It was just sort of dropped in front of me without any warning.

[Lucifurious]

I'm sorry that this happened to you. I Have a solution for you, though I See this was posted several years ago.

Go to this directory in your computer.
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file. On Mac open finder and type /private/etc/hosts)

Open hosts with notepad, and put this in. This will remove all incoming advertisements from spotify.

0.0.0.0 adclick.g.doublecklick.net

0.0.0.0 adeventtracker.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 ads-fa.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 analytics.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 audio2.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 b.scorecardresearch.com

0.0.0.0 bounceexchange.com

0.0.0.0 bs.serving-sys.com

0.0.0.0 content.bitsontherun.com

0.0.0.0 core.insightexpressai.com

0.0.0.0 crashdump.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 d2gi7ultltnc2u.cloudfront.net

0.0.0.0 d3rt1990lpmkn.cloudfront.net

0.0.0.0 desktop.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 doubleclick.net

0.0.0.0 ds.serving-sys.com

0.0.0.0 googleadservices.com

0.0.0.0 googleads.g.doubleclick.net

0.0.0.0 gtssl2-ocsp.geotrust.com

0.0.0.0 js.moatads.com

0.0.0.0 log.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 media-match.com

0.0.0.0 omaze.com

0.0.0.0 open.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 pagead46.l.doubleclick.net

0.0.0.0 pagead2.googlesyndication.com

0.0.0.0 partner.googleadservices.com

0.0.0.0 pubads.g.doubleclick.net

0.0.0.0 redirector.gvt1.com

0.0.0.0 s0.2mdn.net

0.0.0.0 securepubads.g.doubleclick.net

0.0.0.0 spclient.wg.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 tpc.googlesyndication.com

0.0.0.0 v.jwpcdn.com

0.0.0.0 video-ad-stats.googlesyndication.com

0.0.0.0 weblb-wg.gslb.spotify.com

0.0.0.0 www.googleadservices.com

0.0.0.0 www.googletagservices.com

0.0.0.0 www.omaze.com