So Amazon announced this week that it’s going to be selling a version of the Kindle with advertisements built-in. Surprised? Didn’t think so. It’s been a trend for many years now to turn anything and everything into a platform for shameless promotion, begging a more-than-deserved question – “Is there anything in the world we can’t slap an ad on?”

Well, not to diss my industry or anything (By all means, thanks for the livelihood!), but in my opinion, advertisers haven’t done a very good job of transferring this theme from the physical world to the Web. The digital space is getting a little too small. For something that we can code out of nothing, I see no reason for the Internet to be so cluttered with repetitive, cramped PPC campaigns. The average banner ad just doesn’t do the trick anymore. More often than not, it will be skimmed over on the way to something far more interesting.

Of course, I’m not denying the effectiveness and utility of a well-designed, well-placed banner. I’m simply encouraging advertisers to think more creatively. That is why I’ve chosen a couple of examples of extra-interesting digital advertisements to get those gears turning. If you’re looking at doing some online advertising, keep these in mind when telling your agencies what you want. And if you’re responsible for that stupid banner that arbitrarily expands and contracts in the middle of a paragraph, please take notes!

This ad for Pringles is just delightful. It fits into any page extremely well by avoiding auto-play music, flashing colors and Comic Sans, and has minimal mouse-over animation. Still, you’ll find few banners more entertaining and memorable than this one. As users click, they begin a conversation with the ad that may even outlast the user’s patience. Many brands would be hard-pressed to have a one-sided conversation that lasts as long as this one.

No, you’re not crazy. Yes, this one is definitely in Swedish. This banner is part of a campaign for Stockholms Stadsmission, a Swedish homelessness charity. Not having much money for placement, the organization offered up a variety of sizes of these “homeless” banners for anyone to host on their sites and blogs. The headline says “This Banner is Homeless” and is accompanied by a timer which counts the length of time it has been “cared for” by that particular site. In the bottom left, the copy reads “Click here if you too want to give warmth to a homeless Stockholmer,” as clicks lead to a donation page. The banners slowly change to warmer colors based on the time they are “taken care of” and the number of clicks they receive. Not only do these ads carry visual appeal and interactivity, but they also carry a non-traditional placement concept that is easily understood by users, cost-effective and may even improve the user’s opinion of the site hosting it.

Now, see? That wasn’t so hard! I’ll admit – it was a pretty exhausting search trying to find banner ads that didn’t bore me to sleep, so I encourage you to share your favs with me! Just please, for sanity sake, don’t show me that expanding banner!