ADS on my new VT50 ? REALLY??? WTF??

A little searching here or reading the owners manual would have saved you a lot of grief - just change the Viera Connect Banner setting to OFF.

try this:

Press the Menu button, scroll down to setup then down to "First time setup" and hit that to repeat the initial setup. This time when it asks if you want "home" or "store" select Home. If that doesn't get rid of it try Menu-setup-advanced setup-"viera connect banner" and select "off".

Expecting you to read the manual?

Why read the manual when you can get on the Internet and make a fool of yourself!

I'm not sure about the Panasonics but some sets no longer come with a printed manual, just a "setup guide" which will have basic hookup instructions, the usual warning against prolonged still images, and information on wall mounting. The actual manual is on the set itself accessed via a dedicated remote button (says "e-manual" on my Sony) or by entering the setup menu.

When I went to Panny support to check the manual before posting my first answer to the OP's question the format of the manual looked like an "e-manual", not a reproduction of an actual printed manual.

It's entirely possible that the OP, who'd only turned on his set for the first time an hour or so before posting, wasn't even aware of this "e-manual" so I cut him some slack.

My settings are identical as above and I still
get popups at boot up and when I change the volume. Is there a way to stop all the advertising,? Welcome to having the internet on you TV!!!

So you have the Viera Connect Banner setting set to OFF and you're still getting banners?

And you're sure you have the TV is HOME mode and not Store mode?

If yes to both, then you shouldn't get any ads or banners or anything, other than the Viera logo for a second when you first turn the TV on.

Are you using any external sources or just using the TV's internal tuner?

Steve S is correct - the VT50 does not come with a real manual. The printed manual is just a "quick setup guide", and paging through all of the screens in the e-help is tedious, especially when you don't know what you're looking for.. But even if you did, you might not make the connection between "Viera Connect Banner" and the ad, as the e-help doesn't mention the ad and doesn't even describe the banner and say where or when it appears. I'm the kind of person who goes through ALL the menus on a new device and happened to notice this setting and guessed (correctly) what it did.

That said, going through the e-help is very useful as it gives added details on some of the more cryptic settings (such as the power save settings and the two numbered 3D settings).