Cannot close some ads when playing STS

No X button, no timeout. If I click the arrow key, it takes me to the play store, if I close the play store, it opens it again. I have to visit the play store multiple times before I can resume my game. This only happens when I do the STS and watch ads from the knife board. I'm about to use a mobile app ad-blocker to prevent this (tested it already and it works and turns of google tracking in the game as well), but first wanted to see if there is a solution that is not this drastic and will allow me to still gain bonuses.

Is this a bad ad, or is this designed as intended. If the latter, I will stop viewing ads in the game entirely.