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In anticipation of The Mashies, Mashable is running a weekly series celebrating some advertising "firsts." Watch for new installments in the series every week. As opposed to other advertising "firsts" like the first TV ad or the first print execution, bringing banner ads into the world seems like a dubious accolade.
Joe McCambley, the guy often credited with inventing the ad unit in October 1994, is somewhat conflicted about it. He recently wrote a Harvard Business Review op-ed arguing that after a promising debut, banners were a spent force by 1998: "We were back to delivering what TV spots, radio spots, and print ads had delivered for years: sales messages," he wrote. "The rest, as they say, is history."...
Here's an informative look at the world's first banner ad.