Some of the pop-ups you are seeing are the wrong ones, it's a known bug.
The pop-up should show a definition(s) update.
As far as outright advertising I have no problems with that. avast uses word-of-mouth
to spread the word. Since avast has employees they have a pay-roll to meet/make.
And the only way avast, or any other company for that matter, to show a profit is by
selling their products. They do that by advertising. I use the free version and if I have to look at an advertisement
every now and then so be it. I don't know about you but I am bombarded by ads in newspapers,
magazines, billboards and even in the stores I do my shopping.
To control pop-up duration...GUI>Settings>Appearance>scroll down to "pop-ups">set time limits (note 0= forever the lowest is 2 seconds)
Or use the "silent/gaming" mode which means any and all pop-ups are disabled.
GUI>Settings>General>scroll down to and tick the proper box.
This may or may not fix your issue, most of the time it does, for others it's still a bug.