You’d think the same folks who tore Gourmet down to the ground in order to embrace new media would be a bit more savvy. If you cook, you’ve probably tried (and loved) the Conde Nast Epicurious iPhone app. The app has been essential in the kitchen and I’ve made many great recipes over the past few months. Recently, however, they added an interstitial ad to their app that essentially breaks it beyond all hope.
When you search for a recipe, a screen pops up with an X and a “Try Now” button. Press the “Try Now” button and you head over to the app store (on an iPhone) to a page describing how magical the Gourmet iPad app is. That’s right, you can’t download it on the iPhone. Press the X? Guess what happens. That’s right. It goes back to the App Store.
Call me a Channel 4 Problem Solver but I’m here to shame Conde Nast’s programmers into fixing this error. The app went from four stars to one with countless complaints describing the problem and there is, as of this writing, no update. I’m never one to refuse a massive worldwide media conglomerate a free add view, but this ad is a more a bug than anything else and it’s really ruining my efforts at cooking a bacon onion tart.
UPDATE – It’s fixed.
Hi John,
I’d like to introduce myself… I’m Chris Gonzalez, a Director of Product Management at Conde Nast Digital and the original PM who oversaw the creation of the Epicurious app.
We have been painfully aware of the issue you posted about yesterday and have been actively working to resolve it for some time. Honestly, this was one of those perfect storm bugs that just wouldn’t die. But we have finally nailed it–the ad blocking use of the app has been successfully removed as of this morning. If you are still seeing it, please a) check that you have a network connection and b) relaunch the app. On second load the ad should no longer be served.
We take this matter very seriously and do not take our dedicated user base for granted by any means. We are working to message our users in a variety of ways to notify them that the issue has been fixed.
Christopher Gonzalez
Condé Nast is a large media company that owns many popular magazines and companies. Publications include Wired, The New Yorker, and, formerly, social news site Reddit.
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