Q: when I play Words with Friends on my iPad and a "commercial" comes on the screen goes blank and I have to turn the ipad off and on to restore the word with friends game

Hello there, Suebk.

The following Knowledge Base article provides a lot of great information about mutli-tasking and steps for troubleshooting issues with Apps as well:

iOS: Understanding multitasking

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4211

Particularly:

Additional Information

If an app doesn't respond to your input, or doesn't perform as expected, do the following, testing after each step:

1. Check for app updates.
2. Force the app to close.
3. Restart your device.
4. Update your iOS device.

Learn more about troubleshooting apps.

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.

Cheers,

Pedro.