Now it looks as if the campaign is having some unintended consequences: Adblock Plus, the maker of a popular browser plugin meant to suppress ads, thanked participating publishers on Twitter Tuesday for the unexpected publicity:

The request from German publishers to turn off #adblock led to +129% @AdblockPlus installs & +167% donations. Thanks! http://t.co/3Q1ubN6IDg—
Adblock Plus (@AdblockPlus) May 14, 2013

The makers of Adblock Plus also took to their blog Monday to respond to the publishers’ campaign, claiming that the company was “part of the solution, not the problem.” In a German-language blog entry, it went on to say:

“We are fully aware that good journalism is being financed through advertising (…) The problem are annoying ads that ignore the interests of users.”

The Adblock Plus makers started their own initiative for acceptable online advertising in 2011, which crowdsources the review of non-intrusive ad-formats, with the goal of making its software display some of these ads.

Adblock Plus claims to have close to 10 million active users in Germany alone. Spiegel.de said on Monday that around 25 percent of its users utilize adblock software, and that it would’t be able to sustain its operations and pay its staff of 140 editors if this trend continued.

It’s uncertain however whether the campaign will really reach the targeted audience. Adblock Plus said on Monday that it has already begun to block the banners that ask people to turn of their ad-blocking software.