Another example of what I think is an inappropriate banner ad showing up on fairly seroius news articles.

^{Image courtesy SMH.com.au}

Just doing my regular morning scour of the web, and came across this article in SMH. The article is about a faulty Sony product that nearly burnt a house down… but that’s not what caught my eye. What did was this :

^{(Screenshot courtesy of SMH.com.au.)}

Notice anything *slightly* odd about this?

An article about a Sony Laptop going bad, SPONSORED by Sony!?! WTF?

Certainly the idea of street art isn’t new, and there are numerous places on the web where you can find great evidence of similar quality – but I hadn’t found anything as subtle as this before.

If you look closely at the picture below, the female model appears to have a tattoo on her left shoulder… and she does. It’s just that the tattoo is actually one of those cheap stick-on ones you find at the bottom of your chip packet, or in the shopping center hanging in the chocolate aisle. The thing I liked about this is that for most people, it wouldn’t afford a second glance. And regardless of whether the person who put it there meant it, it has become (in my opinion) a great example of subtle and subversive street art.

Something Ive been meaning to do for a while now is reflect on a billboard space right outside my lounge room window. The billboard takes up just about as much space visually as a banner ad at the top of my browser window, with a similar aspect ratio as well… the only difference is that its a long way away. And the thing im interested in is how my perception of this billboard has changed in recent months. It’s like im looking at a huge static GIF… or that my window IS actually a “window”, and not the real kind… has the world become a giant simulacra and I didnt notice?

Anyway, in this day and age of ugly, unthoughtful banner ads, its quite refreshing to see one that doesn’t animate!! (Ed – some banners aren’t all that bad… at least not the ones I make!! Hehehe).