LG users complain about unwanted ads on TVs and gaming monitors

Korean electronics giant LG is taking heat for disturbing settings on its TVs and computer monitors — and the backlash may be starting.

It all started on July 17, when an LG gaming monitor customer saw a pop-up ad for McAfee antivirus software on his screen. A user took to X to vent his frustration.

“PSA: DO NOT BUY the LG monitor, it automatically downloaded an app that gave me pop-ups of its apps and McAfee,” wrote a customer identified as wexos.

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YouTube channel Gamers Nexus looked into the report, and found that LG UltraGear monitors installed a program called LG Monitor App Install after users connected them to Windows PCs.

As our colleagues at PCMag reported, “The program advises customers to install other applications, and displays a pop-up ad for McAfee’s Scam Detector software.” (Disclosure: PCMag and Mashable are owned by the same parent company, Ziff Davis.)

The situation quickly escalated from there. Microsoft EVP of Windows and Devices, Pavan Davuluri, directly responded to wexos’ complaint. He later announced that Microsoft had intervened, and that LG had agreed to disable the pop-up ads.

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LG provided this statement to Windows Latest: “LG Electronics reiterates that McAfee is not installed by default and is never installed without the user’s express consent.”

But that was not, as it turned out, the only case of annoying ads on LG screens. Tom Warren at The Verge also took on the X and criticized LG for serving ads on its home TV screen. He didn’t speak.

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There may be many such complaints to come. In March at the advertiser event IAB NewFronts, LG’s Ad Solutions division boasted that its home screen is the ideal place to run video ads from the moment users turn on their TVs.

As Adweek reported at the time, “LG is unveiling a new, seamless home screen experience, integrating immersive, full-frame video directly into the LG TV interface, putting products at the prime of audience engagement.”

LG is not the only brand that offers ads on internet-connected products. Amazon’s Echo Show devices are notorious for showing ads that won’t be turned off, and Samsung has faced criticism recently for serving Apple TV Show ads. Pluribus on smart refrigerator doors, everywhere.

But pop-up ads, universally frowned upon online, seem to be sparking a kind of outrage. LG’s turnaround and response speed is remarkable. Whether it’s enough to stop brands like LG from serving up intrusive ads in the “prime time of audience engagement” remains to be seen.

Mashable has reached out to LG with questions about its advertising strategy, and we’ll update this story if we get more information.