Meanwhile, on the World Wide Web, we seem almost apologetic about displaying advertising at all. Those of us who earn our livings making ad-supported websites had better get over this bias right quick if we want to keep on paying our mortages. The most common online ad tactic is to make a page, then throw an ad banner across its top as an obvious afterthought. Magazines and newspapers don't do this.
Ads are an integral part of their offerings.
Magazine and newspaper ads are usually differentiated clearly from editorial copy, but they are still a natural part of the reading experience. Even if we decide to ignore a print ad, a well-made one will leave a small bit of information in our minds that can influence future buying decisions, an effect that will be enhanced if we see ads for the same company or product over and over, always surrounded by editorial copy, in publications to which we regularly turn for news and other information. Since we have not been given even a small taste of the site's content before we are hit with a sales pitch, we naturally regard banner ads as overly intrustive. But readers found this tactic so irritating that they refused to buy newspapers that used it and turned to ones that didn't. This not only annoys the viewers but also destroys an advertiser's chance to get more than a single, brief attempt at gaining their attention.