With 79% of Brits rarely or never clicking online ads, brands are wasting huge sums of money on ineffective advertising. So how can companies entice consumers to voluntarily eyeball their content? Canvas8 sat down with 15 British men and women to find out what they think about online ads.

Advert-blocking browser plugins are growing at a rate of nearly 70% year-on-year. The most popular, AdBlocker, reached 150 million users in June 2014. And if people really are more likely to climb Mount Everest than click a banner ad, what is next for online advertising?

More people are using ad blocking software when browsing the internet, causing a real issue for sites that generate revenue from advertising. In response, Condé Nast’s men's mag GQ has begun asking readers to either turn their adblock off or pay to access its articles.

Advertising is the lifeblood of the internet. It's the web's fundamental economic model, with ad revenue underpinning about 90% of everything people see online. But as ad blocking programmes become mainstream on both desktop and mobile, could it herald the end of a free internet?