To deal with stuff like this, I right click near the video area, go to Inspect, then just delete the portion of HTML that contains the unwanted element.
Really helps with pesky foreground pop up stuff.
a) Fast Company's website has design has gotten worse over the years
b) Reader View is the bomb and I use it all the time now. Thanks Mozilla!
And I agree, it's a terrible impression. I don't know who keeps thinking user hostile stuff like this is acceptable.
Someone has decided to optimise directly on present ad dollars, rather than user satisfaction which might correlate to future ad dollars. This might be a rational decision. Or it might be a short-termist error, or a case of optimising what is easiest to measure rather than what matters.