First Ever Banner Ad Revisited
Check out the world’s first banner, which appeared on Hotwired.com in 1994. It’s an ad for AT&T, the American version of Eircom (I think), and it’s god-awful.
There’s no rhyme, rhythm or purpose to this banner. For a start, the AT&T logo isn’t mentioned anywhere, there’s way too much colour, and it’s all done on a black background. Also, the prescient “You Will” is quite ironic nowadays, in the sense that nobody clicks on banners.
But back in the day, this would have been clicked on a lot, probably because nobody had seen anything like it. Today of course, we’ve got Flash, video and interactive banner advertising. And banner ads are now seen as an integral branding tool in the marketing mix.
May 31st, 2006 at 12:42 pm
God, what an awful banner!
July 14th, 2006 at 11:36 am
yes, it is awful for us NOW, but consider that this banner is 12 years old..! back then .. wow
cheers
July 16th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
The “You Will” tag line was the heart of a big AT&T ad campaign at the time. A viewer in 1994 would probably have known what it meant. Some of the ads were sad/creepy, like where a mother was trying to settle her baby via video. Other parts, like EZPass, have already come true.
July 16th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
This was part of a relatively prescient marketing campaign by AT&T. TV/print/online spots (all featuring the tagline “You Will”) showcased visions of future technologies that have actually become widespread today. These include IPTV, video-on-demand, RFID, and here, the rise of Internet advertising.
July 16th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
wow…Interesting…..
Adds this one to the museums! We have a rich history of the internet in the makings…
–Jon Z | http://jzencovich.blogspot.com/
July 16th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Very cool find! Thanks. What a horrible looking banner, but like you said, being the first, I bet it was quite effective!
July 16th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
haha actually, i kinda like it!
its awfully ridiculous.. but hell.. it wonderful in its own way.
July 16th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Why is it so faded and blurry? is the gif aging? hehe. They should’ve used less color and brought that down to only a few k.
July 16th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Why couldnt the design better?
July 16th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
the funny thing is even though it’s 12 years old, adblock still regards the banner as a threat
go go adblock!
July 16th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Thats an awesome banner… it made me click!
July 16th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Well they didn’t have any software to make the damn banner pretty
July 16th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
It isn’t awful at all! made me click on it! lol
July 16th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
It’s tied into the campaign at the time “YOU WILL.” (delivered by Tom Selleck, it was friendly, not like the Yoda reply when Luke Skywaler says, he’s ot not afraid of the dark side
Basically, it was a series of “Jetsons” like presentations of what the future might like - how technology will uber convenient … and basically say, you think you can’t do this? “You Will (eventually) and brought to you by AT&T”
But AT&T is turning out to be like the Pam Am shuttle of 2001: A Space Odyessey - not very much involved making the future but busy tapping our phone lines or just selling local POTS … and fighting net neutrailty.
So, while it won’t win any design, it was pretty daring that they would build off of their TV campaign & branding without their logo and letting you make the connect.
So, non-Americans might miss all that aspect but all and all, not really all that bad - not brilliant but an interesting start to interactive if it was indeed the very first.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Much nicer than the Flash and animated-GIF crap these days.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
What a perfectly awful looking waste of web space.
Back in 1994, I would have probably clicked it, but back then, it would have been normal, we were all “web ads virgins” back then
July 16th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
I clicked.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
DUDEEE.
BEST.
BANNER.
EVER.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
AT&T is not an Americanized version of Eircom. AT&T was the original telegraph/telephone company, and was founded by the creator of the telephone.
But yes, the add really sucks.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:26 pm
…*shame*..I couldn’t help it..
July 16th, 2006 at 9:26 pm
I guess it is awful. But the first of every advertisement scheme alwasy appears awful years later. Check out the first commercials broadcasted on tv.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:29 pm
The banner was right.
I did click there.
And to think,
it has been waiting
12 years for me to do that.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
The fact that it’s telling me that I WILL click there, draws me to want to click it. But yes, hideous indeed!
July 16th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Wow! Banner-making as come a long way since then.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Hmm I wonder what is was they were advertising at the time - 56k dialup
July 16th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
Advertising and censorship both suck. ; )>
July 16th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
[…] It was of today that I saw this keen article about the first ever World Wide Web banner ad. Now my friends, I must admit, in 1994 when that ad appeared, I was still but a user of gopher. The World Wide Web I had not yet experienced on a wide scale! So the actuality of this claim I cannot be a verifier of. But we can treat it as true and make some analysis! […]
July 16th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
It sure is an aweful banner.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
How do you know this was the first ad banner?
July 16th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
I’d click it now just for being different.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
I would have fallen for it.
July 16th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Now I have to use Adblock in Firefox to get rid of yet another ad…
July 16th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
well, in this day and time, that is horrible, but im sure if millions of people have never seen that before, or anything like it, that it would of been clicked many many of times,
good job on the innovation at&t youve ruined the lives of millions of computer users across the world
July 16th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
This is about the hundredth time I’ve seen someone post this banner, but it’s the first time the poster didn’t realize it was part of a famous advertising campaign for AT&T [Dave: That’s because us Irish people are not always exposed to these ads!]. The television ads were narrated by Tom Selleck. They would show some marvelous futuristic technology being used by regular people and the voice over would say, for example, “Have you ever sent a fax from the beach? Someday, YOU WILL. And the company that will bring it to you is AT&T.”
Incidentally, some of the technologies they demonstrated were WiFi, RFID and web cameras.
July 16th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
I just clicked on it. They were right.
July 16th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
“integral branding tool” for people who don’t use adblock + filterset.g updater
July 16th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
The “You Will” refers to an ad campaign that AT&T ran at the time. IT was just about everywhere, so the lack of any AT&T branding probably wasn’t a problem sicne everyone would have recognized it.
July 16th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
What banner ad? For once I actually wanted to see a banner ad, but adblock seems to be filtering it.
July 17th, 2006 at 2:26 am
“you will” was an old ad campaign by AT&T back in the day. Read: http://commercial-archive.com/114815.php
July 17th, 2006 at 3:31 am
Just think, though, A million years from now it will still be in mint condition.
July 17th, 2006 at 6:37 am
nothing happens when i click it tho?
July 17th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
[…] Via: clientwell Comparte el artículo:Estos íconos enlazan con webs de marcadores sociales que permiten a los lectores compartir y descubrir nuevas webs. […]
July 17th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
[…] First Ever Banner Ad Revisited from 1994 0 comments […]
August 22nd, 2006 at 6:37 pm
very good ….
September 11th, 2006 at 8:28 am
[…] Yukarıda gördüğünüz banner internet tarihinin ilk bannerı olma özelliğine sahip. 1994 yılında yayınlanmış. Daha fazla bilgi edinmek istiyorsanız buraya tıklayabilirsiniz. […]
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:41 pm
A Long Time Ago…
Guy1: Wow dude! What’s that?
Guy2: I.. I dunno! It’s on this website..
Guy1: What do you think happens if you click on it?
Guy2: I dunno..! I dunno….! What should I do?
Guy1: Click on it!
Guy2: Okay!….
Yesterday…
Guy2: Oh GD it, it’s another one of those GD banner ads!
Guy1: Stupid-arse banner ads!
October 19th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
WTF!
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:24 pm
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