Storytelling Ads May Be Journalism’s New Peril

Storytelling Ads May Be Journalism’s New Peril

journo-geekery:

David Carr:

…Twenty years ago, most people got access to the Web through Internet service providers like Prodigy and CompuServe, which had a version of advertising but not the banners we have come to know and hate. In October 1994, HotWired, the digital version of Wired magazine, decided to create ads for the issue and AT&T opted in. The ad invited people to click through — and they did, at the astounding rate of 44 percent versus the 0.1 percent rate that is now common. Users were then transported to a list of museums around the world to show that the Web could take you places.

At the time it was unique, but as time went on the approach became ubiquitous and cheesy.

“We were proud of that ad,” said [one of the original banner ad designers,] Mr. McCambley. “But everything starts out good until we end up making it bad.”