• by Masha Geller , January 31, 2002

Everyone seems to be talking about "creepy crawly ad formats" the Wall Street Journal reported on earlier today. The discussion started with an ad Weather.com ran for Discovery's Animal Planet, featuring an animated lizard that emerges from a weather map and runs across the page. Why? It's supposed to promote the channel's "Pet Psychic" program.

First off, why Weather.com allowed this thing to run around its homepage is truly beyond me, but I strongly dislike lizards, snakes and other crawly things in person or on the screen, so you could say I'm biased. In all seriousness, though, I do have to admit that the ad got my attention.

That's where the danger is. A while ago, I said the same thing about a pop-up ad - "it got my attention." Today, I close them before they have a chance to load and I don't think anyone will argue with the fact that pop-ups and all their pesky relatives are the biggest source of online ad clutter, which is diminishing the effectiveness of all online ads dramatically. Sure, they get our attention, but several studies have shown that pop-ups can actually turn customers against brands.

As far as animated ads go, I'm afraid we're standing on the top of a similar slope. Think about it: a few months ago, a Ford Explorer paved the way to animation on Yahoo's homepage. Shortly after, pizza and lemons were flying around that very same page. Robots have been running around Adweek.com for months and a now a psychic lizard on a weather site? Why? Just because it can be done? Technology for technology's sake?

Don't get me wrong: I'm all for trying new things. I loved the Ford ad many months ago, I think the robot is almost cute and I think the recent British Airways' campaign on NYTimes.com was brilliant. Please remember, however, that many web publishers are desperate for ad dollars and therefore less picky about which ads they'll accept. And that's an open invitation to irresponsible advertising if we're not careful.