Who sat down and made the executive decision that advertising must look crappy and out-of-place? I understand that the point of advertising is to attract attention and therefore should be an anomaly that the viewer is drawn to, but come on… enough is enough. People are starting to become desensitized to big flashy ads that are borderline unethical.

So how does one maintain ad-space and a good design? The online radio site Pandora managed to solve this problem. Instead of sticking the ad in a banner and calling it good, Pandora takes it to the next level by incorporating the ad design into the background. Not only does this draw more attention to the ad (by using the entire background it creates more visual interest) it also doesn’t sacrifice the design for an ad – it adds to it. Furthermore (and probably most importantly) the ad is usually a memorable one. A good example of this was when I was debating this topic with a co-worker (who is a general hater of flash sites) and he named a previous ad without even thinking about it. I say good work, Pandora. Not only do I love your music, but you made me a believer in ad-space.