“Do you want this Ad to Go Away?”

Most banner ads annoy me, especially those with frenetic animation, but I have a particular dislike for those that mimic Windows alert popups. The cuteness factor wears off immediately after seeing the first one, leaving only the sleaziness — after all, aren’t these ads just trying to momentarily fool newbie or inattentive surfers into thinking they’re real popups?

Although it’s not all that convincing an imitation, the one that actually made me laugh and spurred this entry is the wonderfully self-referential banner:

[update, 2000-12-30]
I stumbled across Click Here, You Idiot[deadlink] (Jeffrey Veen, 11 Jan 2000, Webmonkey[deadlink]).