Back in 2002 I advocated a new kind of a banner ad that was cheaper to make, got better results, and didn’t annoy people enough to create a market for banner blocking software. The idea was to go from small banners, strobing at 20Hz, to bigger but static images. After all, the approach seemed to work pretty well in magazines and newspapers.

Well, I’m happy to report that the future has arrived — DoubleClick is selling space for 160x800 pixel “Giant Scyscrapers” that, as a plain old JPEGs, work really, really well. Here’s a real Neiman Marcus ad for Marc Jacobs, as displayed at nytimes.com. I can’t wait to see other advertisers join the bandwagon.