• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 27, 2010

Benjamin, the opening keynoter at OMMA Global New York, just reminded attendees that the banner ad will turn 16 next month.

To show how far we've come, Benjamin showed a graphic of the original banner ad – and ad for AT&T Hotwired – which carried the copy, "Have you ever clicked your mouse here? You will?"

So how far has the banner ad come? Not far, if you ask me, but to creative types like Benjamin, apparently they've come a long way since it started figuring out how to cram as much as he good into a GIF file back in the mid-1990s.

"That was the peak of my creativity," Benjamin said in self-deprecating fashion.