The twist to the camera campaign, which is catching millions worldwide, is for the first time it "pops-under." ... Advertising agency eMitch says companies in Australia are beginning to use the new, intrusive ads because they are generating a bigger reaction.
"A frequency cap so people only see it once is important to minimise the piss-off factor. I get irritated if I see it over and over again," said eMitch's Mr Darren Patterson.
—Kirsty Needham, "Pop-up ads going down badly with Net users," Sydney Morning Herald, July 21, 2001
The verb
to piss off means to annoy, irritate, or anger, and it entered the language in the late 1960s. This was once considered a vulgarism, but these days it's not uncommon to hear it on TV and to see it in print. For example, today's phrase has crashed such august publications as
Fortune magazine and
The Independent newspaper.
